TaxCoach Briefs:    September 18, 2008

Volume 3, Number 37

TaxCoach Briefs archives.

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MARKETING MINUTE (EAL)
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THE FORMULA FOR "SUCCESsful" IDEAS

I read a lot of business books. I'm a big believer in "one good idea," so I'm happy if I actually get one good useable idea from a book. But every so often, I come across a book that just spills ideas. And that was the case with Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by brothers Chip Heath (a professor at Stanford University) and Dan Heath (founder of an adult-education company).

The Heaths examine how to make ideas stick. And their answers hold lessons for those of us marketing new or newly-positioned services like tax planning. In fact, they've actually created a formula for launching an idea with "SUCCESs": a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story. Let's look at each of these in turn:

The authors cite John F. Kennedy's 1961 call to "put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade" as a classic "sticky" idea:

"Simple? Yes. Unexpected? Yes. Concrete? Amazingly so. Credible? The goal seemed like science fiction, but the source was credible. Emotional? Yes. Story? In miniature."

And it sure sounds better than becoming "the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically developed aerospace initiatives"!

So how can we apply the formula to growing your business through tax planning?

  1. Distill the service down to its simplest core: "We help you stop wasting money on taxes you don't have to pay."
  2. Give them something unexpected: "We do it in plain English, without intimidating spreadsheets or IRS gobbledygook."
  3. Make it concrete: "We tell you what to do, how to do it, and when to do it."
  4. Establish your credibility: "It's all court-tested and IRS-approved. We'll even show you where the law says you can do it!"
  5. Give them emotional reasons to want the benefits you offer: "You can use your savings for your retirement, your kids' college education, or even that dream vacation you've always wanted."
  6. Tell stories of clients you've successfully helped. "The last doctor I worked with had organized his practice wrong and wasted $10,000 in employment tax that he didn't have to pay. I showed him how to reorganize his practice and stop wasting that money. He used the savings to install a home theatre in his basement!"

Polish your "SUCCESs" story, and see if it doesn't boost your success!

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NEW TOOL (KAV)
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CLIENT DATA BULK LOADER

Well, we gave you a sneak peak last week, and now, here's the genuine article!

Over the years, we've had occasional inquiries from members about a data import utility. Folks want to take client information from their tax prep software and load it directly into TaxCoach. Makes sense on the surface -- except that from the beginning, the tax planning software in TaxCoach has focused on educating the client with plain-English concepts and strategies, based on situation and life-event questions. So there are not a lot of hard numbers and data that directly translate from tax returns.

As time has gone on, however, TaxCoach has evolved ever more into a complete business development and client loyalty tool. The enhanced Client Alerts, the Tax Outlook Letters, and Summary Reports for tax season, just to name a few features, have made TaxCoach all the more effective for a broad client base -- even clients for whom you haven't done a full detail analysis and setup in the system.

So we decided it was time to build a data bridge. (To nowhere? - Ed)

(No, to somewhere.) But in addition to the functional reasons I mentioned above, I'd always resisted it for technical reasons too. Having spent a career in systems implementation and data migration, I could see it being a monster. The edits, the validations... error trapping, mechanics, documentation -- ooohhh, the agony. Well I'm pleased to report that, now that we've gotten it constructed... I was right!

Nonetheless, we're proud to unveil here, for the very first time, a client import utility for TaxCoach!

Because so much of what TaxCoach needs is not on any tax return, this utility funnels only the most basic demographic info about clients. To make full use of the tailoring and qualification that TaxCoach contains, you'll still need to make a pass of the detail screens for each client, once loaded, and answer questions like "owe > $10,000 in unsecured debt?". But the import feature will take care of much of the "heavy lifting" -- and leave you and your staff with the higher-end analysis work, instead of the typing.

The input format is a comma-separated file (.CSV), so that the export from any tax prep package can be arranged in MS Excel to feed it. You access the utility from a new link labeled "Import Clients...", in the Client Tools section of the Home Page (in the green). If you follow that link, the first thing you'll see on the Upload screen is a button for the Instructions. It's a short document that will tell you all about how it works.

Now you'll be able to take advantage of all the client loyalty capabilities of TaxCoach, even for clients you haven't done planning work for yet. Ed and I think you'll find this a very useful utility. Feel free to call or email us if you have questions on using it (but only after you've read the instructions!).

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MEMBER EVENT (EAL)
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"POWER USER" ROUNDTABLES

For the last several weeks, Keith and I have discussed the series of six "PowerUser" Roundtables across the country this October. You've also seen the complete description that accompanied your most recent TaxCoach Lineup. The first Roundtables in Mission Viejo, CA on October 8 and San Jose, CA on October 10 are now less than three weeks away. So make sure to book your seat at the table!

PowerUser Roundtables are full-day meetings in small-group settings dedicated to exploring TaxCoach's unique combination of tax-planning and business development tools. No outside speakers. No outside sales pitches. Just Keith and I, walking you step-by-step through using TaxCoach from start to finish:

We've finalized venues for each of the meetings, and picked locations within driving distance of as many of you as we can:

We've been pleased with the response we received since we first announced the roundtables. But seats really are limited -- Keith and I are serious about limiting them to the people who fit around the table. (The Chicago Roundtable on October 17 is filling up especially fast.) So if you're serious about giving your clients proactive tax planning, don't wait: click here for complete details!

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MEMBER Q & A (KAV)
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Q: If I currently operate my business as an LLC taxed as a partnership...will the report recommend based on my situation if I am better off changing that entitiy to a c-corp or being taxed as a an s- corp. I see that it gives the different strategies but not a recommendation based on that specific situation.

I often get this question and it is one of the most difficult to answer without running specific scenarios. Can you help me with this or understand how to use the software to answer this question for my clients?

A: Thanks for your questions on TaxCoach, and welcome aboard!

If you currently operate a business taxed as a partnership, the system will include the module discussing partnership, and will add the modules on S-corporations and C-corporations where circumstances warrant it. You're right that determining which entity to choose is difficult — that's why the modules are titled "Strategies for 'S' Corporations" and "Strategies for 'C' Corporations," rather than "Establish an S-corp" or "Establish a C-corp."

We determined when we created TaxCoach not to require the amount of data input that would be required to make that determination. That's both because of the very large number of variables, and because of the presentation. We don't want your clients to perceive that the value comes from the report itself — we want them to perceive the value as coming from your delivery of the report. The report itself is a tangible deliverable emphasizing your commitment to proactive planning. But the real goal is to strengthen your relationship with the client, not simply to give them a whiz-bang report that does all the work automatically.

That said, TaxCoach does have a tool which can help with the decision. In the TaxCoach Forms & Templates section, under Implementation Guides, you'll find a guide entitled "Business Entity Comparison Grid." We put this together to boil down the entity options to the most major and common considerations. It's also a Word doc so you can customize it with your own contact data for presenting to your clients.

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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,

Ed Lyon
Keith VandeStadt
www.taxcoachsoftware.com
(513) 321-2820

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