TaxCoach Briefs:    August 7, 2008

Volume 3, Number 32

• Marketing Minute: Lessons from Fine Dining
• New Tool: "Dog Days" Letter
• Member Q & A: TaxCoach Content in Marketing

***** Attention All-Stars *****: Our next teleseminar will be Tuesday, August 12, at 4PM EDT. Our topic will be fall marketing plans, with a special emphasis on selling in a down economy. We'll spend most of the call masterminding, so this is another one not to miss!

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MARKETING MINUTE (EAL)
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LESSONS FROM FINE DINING

Those of you who live in the New York City area, and many of you who travel there, will recognize La Grenouille as one of the city's finest restaurants. Founded by Charles Masson back in 1962, it has outlasted generations of challengers in a brutally competitive and unforgiving market. This month's Vanity Fair magazine includes an intimate portrait of the restaurant that includes a surprisingly relevant lesson for us looking to build tax-planning practices.

Masson's wife Giselle, whose nickname "ma petite grenouille" gave the restaurant it's name, found the space -- a burned-out former stable on West 52nd Street -- while her husband was working as the chef on the ocean liner Independence. She signed the lease, for $4,000/month (back when $4,000/month really meant something!) before he even saw it.

They opened the restaurant on December 19 -- a time when many of New Yorkers leave town and many of the rest prefer the comforts of home to a new restaurant.

Oh, and they opened in the middle of a newspaper strike! No advertising. No well-placed "mentions" in the society pages. No reviews!

Masson knew he would have to spread the word. And he knew he needed the right crowd to keep himself afloat. So here, according to Vanity Fair, is what he did:

In those days, Elizabeth Arden was the last stop for the top rung of the social elite in their preparation to be seen. behind its famous red door sat the creme de la creme of New York high society. Masson had a stroke of inspiration. His sister-in-law Monique was married to Dante Corsinin, a hairdresser at Arden, where for some reason he was known as Bruno. According to Lyonel Nelson, a hairdresser who worked with him there, "Monsieur Masson suggested to Bruno that he invite four of his colleagues to dinner at La Grenouille, and I was fortunate to be one of them. We were seated in the center of the room with our choice of anything on the menu.

"At the end of the meal, Charles thanked us for coming. He asked only on favor: for us to relate to our clients at Arden's our experience and suggest that they try La Grenouille. As a result," Nelson remembers proudly, "we hairdressers were all fired up to carry the message. In a few weeks La Grenouille was taking reservations only."

Does Masson's challenge sound familiar?

• Opening his doors at the "wrong" time?
• No way to launch a big advertising blitz?
• A big monthly nut to cover?

If you think now is the wrong time to market tax planning -- you don't have a big budget to market yourself -- but you still have monthly bills to pay, then adapt Masson's strategy for yourself.

Pick a group of "influentials" -- clients, prospective clients, or business colleagues with ties of their own to the clients you want to court -- and show them your stuff!

Want to work with real estate agents? Contact the loan officers they rely on. Want business owners? Try insurance agents. If you're in BNI or a similar group, pick the members with the most clients or customers of their own. And don't be afraid to look beyond obvious sources. Have you used a printer for direct mail? How many business owners does he work with?

If you haven't used the "30 Days to 30 Clients" system included in your TaxCoach membership -- because you didn't have time when you first joined, or it looked like "too much work" -- now is a great time to do it.

You may not be looking for the "creme de la creme." (Of course, there's no reason not to -- they can certainly afford to pay you in a down economy. When they don't, it's because they're "eccentric," not "cheap.") But Masson's strategy of leveraging personal relationships can be just as effective for you as for him. Try it now, and you'll spend more time this fall enjoying five-star meals yourself!

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NEW TOOL (EAL)
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"DOG DAYS" LETTER

Last week, I gave you five reasons to focus attention on marketing now, in the "dog days" of summer. Briefly, these are:

1. Your competitors aren't marketing.
2. You catch clients who are unhappy with their current relationship now, when they're still unhappy with April 15 results.
3. You can lock in new clients now, before your competitors gear up to get them next year.
4. You emphasize your commitment to year-round planning and proactive service.
5. You can still create a sense of urgency to act now.

I thought I did a pretty good job laying out my case -- until All-Stars member James Oliver pointed out that I hadn't offered any tools for "dog days" marketing.

Keith and I are always looking for new content and tools to add to the system -- and we'd rather take your suggestions because we know they'll be appreciated. So we've created a "dog days" mailer that introduces the value of tax planning, asks your reader some questions that their current accountant is not answering, and directs them to call you to solve their tax problem.

You'll find the "Dog Days" letter in the TaxCoach Playbook, under "Sample Letters."

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MEMBER Q & A (KAV)
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Q: Keith, Ed — Am I allowed to pillage your "Spot Light on Strategy" section? I would like to use it for part of my audit protection kit...and in my marketing and future seminars. Is that okay?

A: Certainly. As long as you are a subscriber to TaxCoach, you have license to use, adapt & publish TaxCoach content in your marketing. Of course we'd always appreciate a citation, such as "tax strategist Ed Lyon says," on direct quotes and especially content seen by other professionals — but not required.

Thanks for checking with us!

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We're happy to answer your questions on TaxCoach content, features, or marketing. While we give first priority to our All-Star and Hall of Fame members, we work to answer all questions. For best response, email support@taxcoachsoftware.com. If we can't answer immediately, or we think the answer will be useful to all of our members, we'll publish it (anonymously) here in the 'Member Q & A' section of TaxCoach Briefs.

Regards,

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