TaxCoach Briefs:    January 15, 2009

Volume 4, Number 4

• Marketing Minute: Rod Blagojevich's Real Crime
• TaxCoach for All Seasons: Tee Up Off-Season Planning
• Updated Tool: Audio Guides
• Updated Tool: What's New?

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MARKETING MINUTE (EAL)
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ROD BLAGOJEVICH'S REAL CRIME

Are you tired of hearing about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich? His obsession with the hairbrush he nicknamed the "football"? His delusion that he would be named Senator John Kerry's Vice-president? Rumors that he got his start as a bookie, loan shark, or mob enforcer?

Good. Neither are we! Today's economic news is so bad that we need a national punch line. Bernie Madoff is just too depressing, and Blagojevich takes us back to kinder, gentler era -- of honest graft.

Blagojevich is certainly a fighter. He's coming out with the strength of Napoleon's army. (Too bad the Illinois Senate is coming back with the fury of the Russian winter.)

And yes, Blagojevich will get his wish to go down in history. But his real crime -- at least as far as marketing tax planning is concerned -- is giving "pay to play" a bad name.

"Pay to play" has no place in government. But "pay to play" -- or more precisely "pay for value" -- is the core of business. You're in business to make money. Your clients should understand that you're in business to make money. And that's a great lesson to emphasize now as we begin "the season" in a down economy.

I don't do a lot of client returns myself. But I've already gotten a couple of requests to cut my fee for 2009. And these are clients who have really profited from my planning! I know that many of you are getting similar requests, and if we're already seeing it now, we can only expect more to come.

So what's the best way to defend your fees? Show your client what they're worth! Show them as precisely as possible just how much they should appreciate you. (You're the "numbers" guru. How else will they know how much you save them if you don't show them?)

• Did you set up a client's S-corp before the economy tanked? Show them just how much self-employment tax you save them.

• Did you set up a medical expense reimbursement plan before your client's daughter saw the orthodontist? Make sure you point out how much less her new smile will cost.

• Did you help a client choose between buying or leasing their new car? Make sure they remember it, every time they turn the key!

In some cases, you may feel you really do have to cut your fee. Maybe the client really just can't pay. Maybe the relationship itself is more valuable than the fee because the client "compensates" you with referrals, testimonials, or access to important prospects. What then?

Well, take it! Sometimes taking a lower fee is the right business decision. (I know, I'm surprised to hear myself say it too.)

But -- when that happens, you can do it without swallowing your pride or compromising your credibility. Let your client know what your service is really worth, then give them a reason to accept the lower fee. You can still maintain the value of your service in your client's mind even if you don't realize it in your own wallet. (And if part of the client's value comes from referrals, reminding them of the value you deliver creates an excellent opportunity to ask for more!)

Rod Blagojevich should have taken a lesson from New York, where Governor David Patterson (who owes his position to his father) has to decide between Caroline Kennedy (who owes her position to her father) or Andrew Cuomo (who owes his position to his father) to replace outgoing Senator Hillary Clinton (who owes her position to her husband!) Who ever complained about a little nepotism?

"Pay to play" sends governors to prison. (Illinois may actually see two ex-governors behind bars at the same time. Even Louisiana has never done that!) But "pay for value" -- meaning charging clients what you're worth and demonstrating that value so that clients pay with the least amount of grumbling -- is the key to establishing business integrity that you'll never have to compromise.

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TAXCOACH FOR ALL SEASONS (EAL)
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TEE UP OFF-SEASON PLANNING

With tax-prep season fast approaching, you may think there's no time in your calendar to market planning. But in reality, now is an ideal time to set up planning engagements as you deliver their 1040s -- otherwise known as "confronting the cost of failing to plan."

Many of our TaxCoach members use this time of year to "tee up" tax-planning engagements. We've found the best way to accomplish this is to prepare a Summary Report to attach to the client's 1040, point out some of the opportunities for you to discuss, then schedule follow ups for after April 15.

This year, that process is even easier. That's because we've added a new client import utility that lets you upload client data in bulk!

Because so much of what TaxCoach needs doesn't appear 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," leaving you and your staff with the higher-end analysis work, instead of the data-entry.

Now is a great time of year for this task, while you're still organizing client data to process returns. Consider making it a goal to finish by Groundhog Day. (Punxsatawney Phil got laid off, so this year Ben Bernanke is coming out of the hole. If he sees his shadow, we'll know we're in for six more months of recession.)

The input format is a comma-separated file (.CSV). That means you can export the data from your tax-prep package into MS Excel, then feed it into TaxCoach. You'll access the utility from a new link labeled "Import Clients...", in the Client Tools section of the Home Page (in the green). Follow that link and you'll find the utility itself, along with concise instructions for quickly populating the system.

So here's the plan:

1. Load the basic demographic data now.

2. Identify those clients who can profit from tax planning. We suggest you start with those filing Schedule B, Schedule C, and Schedule E.

3. As you process those returns, go back into the system and complete the detail analysis for the clients. This will be so much faster now that you've loaded their demographic data via the client import.

4. Prepare the Summary Report for the client. (Be sure to toggle "off" the page numbers so the client doesn't see the Summary as part of a larger plan.)

5. Let the client know you've found some issues worth discussing and arrange to schedule appointments after the season.

You can charge separate planning fees for those engagements. Or you can use them as springboards for referrals. Either way, you'll leverage your clients' natural focus on taxes today to build new business tomorrow.

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UPDATED TOOL (KAV)
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AUDIO GUIDES

Shortly after we launched TaxCoach, Ed and I added the Audio Guides section. The goal here was to pre-emptively answer FAQs about TaxCoach -- both how to use it, and how to sell it. Well, we got as far as recording me droning on about features and mechanics, and one introductory session from Ed on marketing. We'd always intended to go back and bulk this out with much of the wisdom that Ed regularly covers in the new-member consultations, but, well, you know how things get pushed to the back burner.

Fast-forward to last fall. After a series of excellent Roundtable meetings with members across the country, we knew it was urgent to finally get that core philosphical discussion -- marketing proactive tax planning service, and leveraging it to build a business -- down on wax. We knew we needed to include it with the revised Marketing Guide in the Welcome Kit we planned for new members. (Current members, you should have received a copy as well, in December).

Since this discussion, at its source, is the same one we'd intended to create all along for the Audio Guides, we've gone ahead and added tracks from the Welcome Kit CD to the Audio Guides section within TaxCoach. This makes it available to you for reference, whenever you need it.

Duplicating this material may sound like overkill. But the knowledge in this discussion is so central to TaxCoach's mission, and comes up so often in consultation after consultation, that Ed and I feel we can't emphasize enough its importance to your success with TaxCoach. And we need to make it available to you in any way we can.

You get to Audio Guides from the left (blue) side of the Home Page, once you sign in to TaxCoach. New members, if you haven't had your consultation with Ed yet, I'd strongly encourage you to listen to these tracks or the Welcome Kit CD first before scheduling the consult, so that you can make the most out of your time on the call.

WHAT'S NEW?

"What's New?" is what's new.

Huh?

The left (blue) side of the Home Page in TaxCoach has a link to our "What's New?" board. We post news here on changes to the features and content in TaxCoach. That way if you miss the announcements in the Briefs, you'll always have an easy reference to the latest updates.

So what's new about "What's New?" is that we've now set the button to turn red whenever there's an update that's less than a week old. Same as with the Client Alerts. So when you "see red" (that is, when you sign in to TaxCoach, not on the highway), take a look -- and find out what snoo we're talking about.

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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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