TaxCoach Briefs:    October 30, 2008

Volume 3, Number 43

• Marketing Minute: The Power of the Brand
• Member Event: Roundtable Wrapup
• New Tools: Coming Wednesday

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MARKETING MINUTE (EAL)
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MEMBER SUCCESS STORY

Tuesday, Keith and I flew from Cincinnati down to Tampa for the last of our six PowerUser Roundtables. We're tired and jet-lagged, so we'll keep this issue of the Briefs especially brief. But we still have some stories to share with you.

We looked forward to finishing "the tour" with a flourish, and taking advantage of everything we learned in the first five meetings to make the last one especially valuable.

But we also looked forward to a special treat. One of our All-Stars members, Pam Burns, was hosting a grand opening the night before, for her new office up in Gainesville, a couple of hours north. And it was definitely worth the extra car time to make it!

Pam's office is a real change from the typically masculine paneled spaces we associate with accountants. Her new "crib" is a bright, comforting former wellness center in a planned community called Haile Village just outside Gainesville. She had no problem holding the 150 guests that stopped by at one point in the evening. Great food, with enough to eat that Keith and I canceled our plans to hit a traditional "real pit" barbecue joint back near the hotel in Tampa. Party favors for everyone, including customized "1040" chocolate bars that invited hungry guests to "bite back at taxes."

The most impressive part, though, is that Pam didn't know a single one of those people just a year ago. She sold a practice outside Miami and opened her Gainesville practice last October 1 with zero local clients -- and in her first season, completed 266 returns. Pretty lucrative returns, too -- 86 of them were corporations or partnerships, and just 6 of them showed income under $100,000.

Pam doesn't call herself an "accountant." She's branded herself as a "Proactive Tax Strategist®" and even trademarked the term. The term appears everywhere, from her business cards, to an office window, to a fountain on her wall, even to the chocolate cake she served at the opening.

We helped Pam put together her business plan and customize her marketing materials. But she succeeded because she worked at it -- and kept at it. She's used direct mail and a lot of networking to attract most of her clients, along with "free publicity." The Gainesville Chamber of Commerce was on hand to help with the ceremonial ribbon cutting (and we were all proud of the great job Keith did holding the ribbon). She even had a local TV crew at the event gathering client testimonials.

Pam doesn't just read the Briefs and think "great ideas." She implements them. She's not afraid to invest in marketing -- and to try new approaches, make repetitive "touches," and adjust mid-course to capitalize on what's working and tune out what's not. She has unrelentingly built a brand for herself among an affluent clientele as the professional to see for proactive tax services. In a year. Keith and I didn't make this up -- we spoke to several of the guests over the evening who volunteered that Pam already has a reputation in those circles as the person who'll keep the tax bill down.

Like it says on the window/cards/fountain/cake, she's the "Proactive Tax Strategist®."

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MEMBER EVENT (EAL)
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ROUNDTABLE WRAPUP

Keith and I have completed the last of our six PowerUser Roundtables, and while we're pretty well exhausted with all the travel and "things left undone" back at the office, we're also encouraged and energized about the whole series.

The Roundtables were each successful, and each in different ways. We won't ever do six in a single month again. (With Ed being the consummate glass-half-full guy, sometimes you just can't convince him about logistical limitations! -- Keith) But we will offer them again beginning after April 15, 2009, and continuing through the rest of the year.

Several themes appeared over the course of the meetings. For starters, private clubs rule. We hosted three of the events at private business clubs (including the Metropolitan Club on the 67th floor of Chicago's Sears Tower), one at an elegant suburban country club, one at an opulent Beaux-Arts hall in Baltimore which was originally the Maryland Masonic Lodge headquarters, and just one at a conventional hotel. (Picture, if you will, a Sheraton at the Newark, NJ airport. That's exactly what it was like.) The private clubs were far more welcoming, and far more impressive settings for these sorts of high-level discussions.

Mastermind discussions rule. Numerous attendees told us they learned as much or more from each other as they did from Keith and I. And that's exactly how we wanted it.

Small-group settings rule. The wide-ranging consensus was that the format was much more productive and enjoyable than a lecture hall. We're even considering replacing our annual boot camp with additional roundtables next year as a result - we'll keep you posted.

Finally, TaxCoach members rule. We met over 80 of you along the way, and we couldn't be more pleased to have built a business working with such a group of bright and innovative professionals.

We realize not everyone who wanted to attend a Roundtable was able to make it. So we're considering adding one last session, probably in Chicago, probably the first or second Friday in December. If you're interested, just reply to this email. If there's enough interest, we'll add it to the schedule and look forward to adding a special discussion of post-election planning and opportunities.

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NEW TOOL (COMING WEDNESDAY) (KAV)
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ELECTION PACKAGE

You may have heard there's an election on. You also may have heard Ed talking about capitalizing on your clients' and prospects' anxiety over proposed tax hikes. This is an historic occasion to demonstrate your unique value versus the competition in helping clients plan for the new tax landscape. So watch your email for next week's Briefs and a special broadcast. As soon as it's official, we'll have a seminar kit, client alert, and a host of other tools ready for you to show your clients what the election really is likely to mean to them from a tax perspective -- and what you can do to ease their pain.

In the meantime, be sure to vote!

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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,

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