TaxCoach Briefs:    October 16, 2008

Volume 3, Number 41

TaxCoach Briefs archives.

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MARKETING MINUTE (EAL)
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YOUR "SADDLEBACK SAM"

Last Tuesday, Keith and I flew into John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, for our first PowerUser Roundtable in Mission Viejo. We checked in to our hotel, then headed out for Mexican dinner with a long-time TaxCoach member and Hall of Famer.

Just after we pulled out the hotel driveway, we drove through the intersection of "Saddleback Parkway" and "Purpose Drive." We drove through it a couple more times during our stay, and wondered at the odd street name. The light bulb finally went on over my head when I realized we were passing the famed Saddleback Church, led by pastor Rick Warren, author of the bestselling "Purpose-Driven Life."

Coincidentally, I had planned to write about that very church here in the Briefs at some point. Specifically, I wanted to share a discussion about the church that I found in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which we discussed here back on September 18.

As you'll recall, that book outlines a formula for making ideas stick: Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories. The book discusses how Saddleback and Warren use concrete information about their target parishioner to grow their congregation. That strategy, of course, has lessons for building your tax business as well.

From the book:

The Saddleback Church is a very successful church in a suburb of Irvine, California, that has grown to more than 50,000 members. Over the years, the church's leaders have created a detailed picture of the kind of person they're trying to reach. They call him "Saddleback Sam." Here's how Rick Warren, the minister of Saddleback Church, describes him:

"Saddleback Sam is the typical unchurched man who lives in our area. His age is late thirties or early forties. He has a college degree and may have an advanced degree . . . . He is married to Saddleback Samantha, and they have two kids, Steve and Sally.

Surveys show that Sam likes his job, he likes where he lives, and he thinks he's enjoying life more now than he was five years ago. He's self-satisfied, even smug, about his station in life.He's either a professional, a manager, or a successful entrepreneur.

. . . Another important characteristic of Sam is that he's skeptical of what he calls "organized" religion. He's likely to say, 'I believe in Jesus. I just don't like organized religion.'"

The profile goes into much greater depth: Sam and Samantha's tastes in pop culture, their preferences about social events, and so on.

What does "Saddleback Sam" accomplish for church leaders? Sam forces them to view their decisions through a different lens. Say someone proposes a telemarketing campaign to local community members. It sounds as if it has great potential to reach new people. But the leaders know from their research that Sam hates telemarketers, so the idea is scratched.

How many of you have ideal clients you prefer to work with? Probably all of you. Are they business owners, professional, or managers? Democrats or Republicans? Where do they live? Where do they shop? Who do they root for? (Do they prefer Ginger or Mary Ann?)

(You do have a target market or markets, right?)

But how many of you have a "Saddleback Sam"? How many of you have taken the time to define exactly who you want to target in your marketing and your practice?

Defining your ideal client is crucial to maximizing your marketing results. Dan Kennedy says the most important success factor in any advertising is "message to market match." Specifically, how closely does your message align with your target market's hopes and dreams? How effectively do your copy, your offer, and your call to action match how your market thinks and speaks?

You can draw insights into your target market from the unlikeliest sources. I've found that when I speak at seminars, my product sales vary according to what color shirt I wear. Pink for real estate agents (because many high-power agents are women, and my wife says they respect men with the confidence to wear pink), and blue for car repair shop owners (because they're men, and many of them wear blue themselves at their shops.)

It pays to know as much as you possibly can about your prospects. The more you learn about your prospects, the more you'll eventually earn from them.

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MEMBER EVENT (EAL)
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"POWER USER" ROUNDTABLES

On Friday, Keith and I hosted the second of six PowerUser roundtables, this time in the 17th-floor library of the Silicon Valley Capital Club in San Jose, California. The urban setting was a real contrast from the golf course where we met earlier that week. But the reviews were just as glowing.

At the end of the day, we asked everyone what they would say to a colleague who asked if they should attend PowerUsers. Here are some of the responses:

"I would remind them that every Olympic medalist had a coach to help them reach their potential. We as tax professionals also need a coach. TaxCoach provides the best program I've found."
Hal Rosen, CPA, Salt Lake City, UT

"Even if you are a seasoned TaxCoach user, this seminar will definitely add to your marketing toolbox. Paid for itself in the 1st hour. I look forward to next year's PowerUser conference!"
Mark Allen, EA, Cameron Park, CA

And here's an email we received from a member who attended the first session earlier that week.

"I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation and I learned a lot from both of you. The round-table format was great and I learned a lot from the group, but watching you both role-play the tax planning interview was the most helpful part of the day for me. I couldn't quite wrap my brain around how I was going to sell the plan and my expertise without giving away the farm. Watching you both go through it live, step-by-step, cleared it all up.

I almost didn't attend because the materials and resources you provide as part of the subscription lay out everything pretty well. I changed my mind at the last minute because I knew I'd learn something worth more than the cost and, if nothing else, I'd walk out with additional motivation. I wasn't disappointed in either case.

I'm rethinking all of my processes from top to bottom to take best advantage of everything TaxCoach has to offer and I look forward to working with you more closely in the future."
James E. Hall, CPA, Ontario, CA

I'm writing these words in downtown Chicago, where Keith and I just finished a pair of enormous ribeyes from Joe's Stone Crab on Rush Street. We're here for tomorrow's session at the Metropolitan Club, which is completely full. But if you're looking for insights and strategies that can transform your practice, there are still three roundtables available:

Click here for a detailed agenda and register now!

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MEMBER Q & A (EAL)
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Q: You analysis in the latest TaxCoach Lineup had me thinking that you might have an idea for a car sign. I would think a slogan like "Do You Pay Too Much Tax?" along with a big telephone number and company logo would be the way to go, since too much information wouldn't work for people seeing it on the road. Your thoughts?

A: Thanks for your question on car advertising. Here are my thoughts:

  1. The headline is the most important piece – especially for a sign on a car, where there’s so little time for the ad to do the job. The key is to have a true benefit-oriented headline, rather than just a “slogan.” “Do You Pay Too Much Tax?” or “Beat the IRS. Legally!” is more effective than slogans like “We Make Taxes Less Taxing.”

  2. I would put a web address rather than a phone number. A good web address is easier to remember than a phone number, especially if it’s a benefit-oriented web address -- for example, www.chicagotaxplanner.com. (And, as we discussed earlier this month here in the Briefs, it’s a dot-com world, not a dot-net, dot-biz, or dot-anything else world.)

    Sending a viewer to a web site also lets them learn more about you without having to make the commitment of picking up the phone to call.

  3. A company logo is nice to have, but don’t waste too much space on it. You’re better off using that space to provoke the viewer’s curiosity and give them a reason to find your web site than to impress them with your graphic designer’s clever skill.

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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 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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