Clear Books Must reads | December2014

Strategies for winning new clients

With accounting firms increasingly retreating from

the high street and moving to the cloud...

pro-active accounting companies are becoming

more creative in their approaches to winning new

clients. Previously, accounting firms tended to pick

up new business from referrals by other service

providers such as law firms, and through the

personal networks of partners. However, due to

the anytime anywhere nature of cloud accounting

software, firms are now winning clients from a

range of different strategies.

Clear Books Must reads | December2014

Michael Beaver has been operating as

a sole practitioner firm for six months.

His approach in winning new clients is

indicative of the way a new generation of

accountants are picking up new business.

This is in part influenced by his “cloud first”

strategy. Clear Books has made it relatively easy for

Michael to attract start up companies.

Beaver says, “I’ve found that Clear Books is an

easy sell to clients, particularly start ups who don’t

already have software, or clients migrating from an

Excel based record keeping solution.”

Beaver also lists the “access anywhere” and “instant

sharing” features of Clear Books as being two

features that his clients love.

He has also been able to benefit from the

frustrations of older companies who are fed up

with desktop based solutions and who are looking

for a cloud solution.

Beaver has found that his company’s website

has also been a fruitful source of providing new

business leads, and views it as being an online

calling card for the business.

Beaver says, “When people hear about me they can

see that I am a legitimate business, see what kind

of services I offer and what kind of personality my

firm has.”

Whilst the firm is based in West London, the

company website has resulted in Beaver receiving

inbound queries from potential clients both

nationally and internationally. Google Analytics

software allows him to keep tabs on visitors to the

website, and also provides him with details about

their location.

He says, “I monitor traffic and where it is coming

from with Google Analytics, which is very helpful

I get several leads from my website every month

from unexpected parts of the country, and abroad.”

By contrast Beaver has found pay-per-click to be

an unsuccessful strategy to incorporate. From

his experience he has found it to be expensive

and frequently resulted in queries from service

providers trying to sell to his firm.

The firm has also been able to benefit from being

listed in online directories. One of these is

Find-UK-Accountant.com, a Clear Books affiliated

website which lists UK accounting practices, and

also allows businesses seeking accounting services

to post their quote requests. Beaver says that

he receives “several leads a month” through the

service.

Michael BeaverThe Sole Practitioner

Clear Books Must reads | December2014

The firm has been around for 10 years, and aims to

deliver a hybrid model whereby the service offering is

a mix of traditional high street accountants and online

accountants.

The firm actively promotes the “convenience”

factor, which the cloud facilitates within their

marketing strategy. Tony Dhanjal, the firm’s

managing partner, lists these factors as being

relevant to their target clients who he describes

as being “very busy [people] who want to avoid

visiting their accountant every quarter to hand

in their receipts, bank statements, and other

paperwork.”

Aidhan Accountancy actively encourage their

members of staff to become involved in winning

new clients for the business.

One metric which Aidhan Accountancy uses

when reviewing marketing efforts is Return On

Investment (ROI). If a marketing element is not

returning the results, which the firm wants, then it

is modified.

Dhanjal says, “We measure the ROI’s for each

channel of marketing we undertake. If we are not

achieving our target ROI’s on a particular channel

we will tweak it. If it is still not working then we

cease using it.”

Historically referrals from other service providers

such as law firms have been a fruitful source of

new business for accountancy firms. Whilst Aidhan

Accountancy picks up a “significant” amount of new

business via this method, it tends to come from

contacts that are not service providers. The reason

for this is that a number of relationships between

accountancy firms and other services providers are

long standing.

“Referrals through other service providers has

proven to be a difficult area given many already

have established affiliations in place with other

accountants,” says Dhanjal.

Aidhan AccountancySpecialising in Consultants, Contractors,

Freelancers and the Self-Employed

Dhanjal says

“We empower our accountants to go out and win

new business and link this to their remuneration.

This promotes responsibility and allows them to grow

both their skill set and financially.”

The firm applies an analytical approach to their

marketing strategy, by regularly assessing different

elements. Dhanjal says, “We scientifically record

and track our marketing numbers. This includes

which elements are working and which are not.”

Clear Books Must reads | December2014

The firm specialises in serving a client base of

small and growing businesses. A large proportion

of these are online businesses, which have a

particular focus on affiliate marketing.

The company is fortunate, in that most new clients

are referred through word of mouth. This means

the firm does not have to use paid for advertising.

Keith Silman, owner of HRBS, says, “I am in the

fortunate position where new clients approach me

via my website or personal recommendation.”

New clients are attracted to the firm due to the

fact they are tailored to online businesses, and the

attraction of being able to collaborate remotely

through cloud software tools such as Clear Books,

Skype, Dropbox and Google Docs.

In the first few years of trading the firm picked up

a number of new clients through Silman posting

on in online forums. He says, “This was a very time

consuming but was a worthwhile investment as

it also built up a reputation as a specialist in the

affiliate marketing niche and generating client

referrals.”

The firm’s online strategy has now changed to

focusing more on social media. HRBS has a Twitter

and a LinkedIn page. Whilst Silman is unsure of

whether new clients have specifically engaged with

the firm through their social media use, he believes

that creating a digital footprint on the internet has

helped get the firm’s name out there.

In addition, the firm’s digital footprint is aided by

a number of guides written and maintained on

HRBS’s website. These include sections on starting

up your own business, online accounting systems

and VAT issues for affiliate marketing companies.

A number of these are tailored specifically to the

firm’s target market of online affiliate marketing

companies. The most popular guides include VAT

treatment on Google’s AdWords and how the flat

rate VAT scheme works.

Another pioneering marketing effort from HRBS

Online is the firm’s own app, which is available for

free on Apple’s iOS store and Google’s Android Play

marketplace. The app was created by a third party

company but features content created by HRBS.

The firm uses it to provide both new and existing

clients with a number of resources and calculators.

HRBS OnlineExperts In Serving Online Businesses

HRBS is an accountancy firm, established

in 2006, based in South Yorkshire, serving

a client base all over the country.