TaxCoach Briefs:    October 8, 2009

Volume 4, Number 42

• Marketing Minute: Tutela Quis Mea Culpa
• Member Resource: Member Call-In With Ed, Keith, and Dominique
• Did You Know: Client Bulk Import
• Member Q & A: Why Didn't You Tell Me This Before?

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MARKETING MINUTE (EAL)
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TUTELA QUIS MEA CULPA

Last week, we introduced a new motto of sorts for TaxCoach members. Tutela Quis Dignitas, or "charge what you're worth."

Well, neither Keith nor I are Latin scholars. And Keith felt just uneasy enough over our translation that he did a little digging. He sought out some dead poets to see if we really had it right. And after seeing what he found, I had to agree that we had jumped the gun.

So, today we're introducing the new motto. Call it Motto 2.0. And Lucror Vestri Dignitas it now is! We both like lucror better than tutela for the immediate connotation of all the filthy lucre you can save your clients.

Last week, we challenged you to ask yourself five questions to see if you're handicapping your efforts to charge what you're worth. Quickly, they are:

• Do you take your value for granted?
• Do you quantify your value for yourself and for your client?
• Do you have effective systems for demonstrating your value to your clients?
• Do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?
• Are you working with the right clients?

This week, I want to follow up with three strategies for affirmatively charging more. Pay attention, because mastering these strategies is the "secret" to building the sort of low-volume, high-fee practice that so many of you tell us you dream of operating.

1. Change who you sell to.

The first key to charging what you're worth is finding clients who are able and willing to pay what you're worth. Generally that means moving upscale, focusing on affluent business owners, professionals, and investors with more complicated tax problems.

We see many of you succeeding with low-fee, high-volume practices centered on early-season returns. There's nothing wrong with that sort of business. But there's little opportunity to charge more for cookie-cutter "commodity" returns. The only way to grow that business is through volume, leveraging a growing staff and managing the headaches that come with that growth. Today's economy makes those clients even more price-sensitive, and chases more of them to the "accountant in a box" programs.

2. Change what you sell.

We've talked before about how important it is to distinguish yourself from your competition. If your client thinks they can get the same value from you, the CPA across the street, the EA around the corner, and the H&R Block across town, then you're all apples. And your fees become part of the apples-to-apples comparisons those clients can make.

But offer those clients a new and unique value -- one they can only get from you -- and now you're not an apple. Now you're an orange. Now you can charge whatever you want for your service without fearing apples-to-apples comparisons.

Look at Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, you have to admire how skillfully he's branded himself. He's not even really human anymore -- he's an actor playing a role. Are his condos (or his golf courses or his vodka or his bottled water) really any better than the competition? Of course not. But he's the only "Trump" on the market, and he charges accordingly.

3. Change how you sell it.

Tax professionals typically offer prospects a "free consultation" before quoting fees or closing engagements. A little chit-chat, some bonding and rapport, some suggestions for saving a few bucks here and there, and hopefully a star is born -- or at least a new client.

If that's how your client has picked every accountant before you, how can you expect them to see you any differently?

We recommend you offer a free "analysis" rather than consultation. "Analysis" implies that the client leaves with some sort of tangible value. And it leaves you more control than with the typical "consultation" where the prospect picks your brain for an hour than takes your ideas back to their old accountant.

Changing how you sell your services means emphasizing more than just your services. It means emphasizing the value and results you deliver -- the questions you answer and the problems you solve.

Lucror Vestri Dignitas! Charge what you're worth! But more than just that, make sure you give your clients the value to justify what you charge. And make it value they can get only from you. If you combine that motto with that strategy, and put yourself exclusively in front of people who are both able and willing to write you a big check, you'll start to collect what you're worth. "Lucre," indeed!

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MEMBER RESOURCE (KAV)
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MEMBER CALL-IN WITH ED AND KEITH

Ed and I were pleased to have Dominique Molina — long-time TaxCoach Hall of Fame member and Director of the Certified Tax Coach Director program — join us for yesterday's call. She was in Cincinnati to work with us on preparations for the first CTC Academy in San Diego later this month, and agreed to join in as a panelist. We already had another record number of attendees, and once they heard she was on, a big chunk of the questions went to her! We'll have to do this more often!

Here are some excerpts from the log of the questions raised by callers:

• Last week you talked about how to charge for quick questions, what was the discussion quickly
• Is there going to be a Roth Conversion update for next years rule change?
• For Dominique, will Certified Tax Coach program release video training for those that cant travel to CA?
• What is the best way to move upmarket in the personal tax return market? How do we reach those upscale markets? mail, advertising?
• Would the CTC Academy be helpful to a new taxcoach member who is reinventing his business starting from scratch.
• Does the Bush rebate that started in 2007 and extended into 2008 because someone did not file their taxes until after October 15,2008 extend to the end this year.
• Can someone have Roth Conversions in 2009 and be retired?
• Does Dominique's firm also do CPA financial statements? I stopped doing those which simplified my practice and may help showing we specialize as a tax coach
• If you were to increase your minimum fee by 20%-30%, how would you notify your clients? Would you notify all or just those that were below the minimum last year? Would you also increase the charges on other returns by the same percentage?
• Hi guys- thanks for taking my question. Can a professional (e.g. Attorney, Physician) who establishes a S-corp still take part of his earnings as salary and part as distributions? In other words is there any special requirement for professionals to take all their earnings from a S corp as salary?
• If you an officer of an S-Corp can the officer pay estimated taxes quarterly or must they be by salary/wages....or should they do both?
• When does a CPA need formal authorization from a client to use their tax information for tax coaching.
• Can the consent to use information for planning be included with a tax return engagement letter?
• NY is conducting tons of sales tax audit and is trying to hold the accountant reponsable if they feel the accountant did not perfrom due diligence. We prepare some sales tax returns from bank statments assuming they deposit all receipts, we dont know in actaulity if they are depositing all receipts. How would you protect yourself, without conducting an audit, we are just doing write up work.

If you're looking for pointers on tax strategies or profiting from TaxCoach too, join us for the next call, on October 14, at 1pm Eastern. Enter a question or just listen in on the repartee. Check the "Contact Us" button within TaxCoach for registration instructions.

Please note that while our elite members (All-Stars, Press Club, and Hall of Fame) can still schedule time directly with Ed as part of their coaching programs, we simply cannot answer marketing and tax-strategy questions via email or unscheduled calls. We'll have call-ins as many Wednesdays as we can, and we'll talk to you then.

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DID YOU KNOW . . . (KAV)
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CLIENT BULK IMPORT

. . . that TaxCoach lets you import client information? The Client Import utility funnels basic demographic info about clients into TaxCoach and creates client records for them. To make full use of the tailoring and qualification that TaxCoach does for you, you'll still need to make a pass of the detail screens for each client, 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 required format is a comma-separated file (.CSV), which means that the export from any tax prep package can be arranged in MS Excel to feed it. You access the utility from a link labeled "Import Clients...", in the Client Tools section (green) on the Home Page, once you sign in to TaxCoach. That link includes a short set of Instructions that tell you all about how it works.

As TaxCoach has evolved into a complete business development and client loyalty tool, features like the enhanced Client Alerts, the Tax Outlook Letters, and Summary Reports for tax season, have made TaxCoach all the more effective for a broad client base. With the Import utility, you'll be able to take advantage of all those capabilities, even for clients you haven't done planning work for yet.

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MEMBER Q & A (KAV)
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Q: I'm sure you get this question a lot. But if I offer tax plans to my existing client base, won't they be upset or wonder why I haven't done this all along? I guess I'm worried they would say, I paid too much in taxes in the past — where were you?

A: Yes, with TaxCoach being such a unique system, we do get this question a lot. We typically advise members to tell existing clients "In the past we have focused on compliance. But especially now, with the new administration, we know taxes are going up, and we're looking at new research and planning tools to help find tax savings and fight the increases. We would rather bring you this new information now than not at all!"

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We're happy to answer your questions on TaxCoach content or features. (Save marketing and tax strategy questions for Member Call-Ins.) 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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