Editor's Note: This is another installment in a new Insightful Accountant series by Karen Dellaripa and Rich Strait of Beyond Your Books. Each month, Karen and Rich will show you how to go from solo practitioner to building a practice and document how their year is progressing.
Last month we talked about some marketing and networking strategies we used to get the word out and find new clients. We intentionally left out a critical group to engage, perhaps your best source of new business, your existing clients.
In our case, moving from a solo practice to becoming a Firm of the Future, also meant rebranding. Our new company name, Beyond Your Books, reflected not just a growing practice, but also our core philosophy and an expanded line of consultative services.
Although we were founded 12 years prior, in many ways we were a whole new business. Our existing clients may not have recognized us.
Rich: Many of our legacy clients had been with Karen since she went solo in 2003. They had hired her, Karen Dellaripa, not an unknown company named Beyond Your Books. Some of these clients were substantial, but had been getting invoiced with old, outdated hourly rates.
We needed to consider how to maintain these loyal clients, move them to our new fixed pricing model and, in some cases, bring their fees in line with work that had grown over the years. We also had new opportunities to offer them upgraded or new services.
After assessing the potential opportunities with our legacy clients, we realized we could grow our existing business if we just focused on carefully upselling to them as we announced the name change.We took advantage of the New Year (2016) to come out.
Karen: When I was working on my own, email marketing was just another the myriad of things that I never seemed to have time for. Now that there were two of us, we could dust off that email marketing app that I had already been paying for, and put it to good use.
Our New Year’s announcement – “Thank You! A New Year! A New Name!” – attempted to bridge the delicate gap of reassuring our cherished prior clients that they were just as an important, while making sure they knew that we could do even better.
We made it about them, a letter of gratitude. I wanted them to know they were part of my inspiration. That even though I was evolving into a company, they were just as important to me. I wanted to reassure them that I’d still be there.
Rich: We didn’t overtly up-sell or make any drastic changes to existing accounts. Instead, we sent the email, and then reached out one-on-one to our clients. We discussed how we could enhance their services and move them to a fixed price plan. There were a few whom we assessed were undervalued, mostly because they had grown since first becoming a client.
For them we provided reports of our assessment of their growth, and how it affected the scope of work we were performing. We were especially concerned about our highest revenue clients. But once we showed them the reports, they accepted a revised fee structure without hesitation. The reporting was a key factor, along with the loyalty of a long reliable relationship.
Karen: The results were heartening. First, no one left. Whew! We received emails congratulating us. Some asked right away about the new services we offered. Some expanded their services, a trend that continues to this day.
Most importantly, we improved client satisfaction and our revenue base, without adding any new clients. So, if you’re thinking about how to grow your practice, start with the loyal clients you already have, you, too, might be surprised.
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Founded in April 2003, Beyond Your Books is an accounting consulting firm for small and mid-size profit and non-profit organizations. Karen Dellaripa and Rich Strait work mainly with professional service companies such as legal, financial, engineering, real estate and executive search firms, as well as those who specialize in light manufacturing, retail and franchises.
Beyond Your Books focuses on providing its clients with accurate, real time meaningful financial information to assist them in making important
Rich Strait
business decisions that will positively impact their business and help them grow. Done using a nearly paperless process, it offers standardized workflow processes and an ongoing commitment to technology and staff development.
For more information on Karen, click here. For Rich, click here.