Your firm may offer bookkeeping, accounting, and/or tax services, but so does every other firm in town. What makes you better than the competition?

Likely, you have a set of core differentiators that DO make you different from other firms, but often that’s hard to communicate in an initial discovery call or meeting with a prospect.

So, how do you get them to take the next step and chose you over the next firm? One way is by having an irresistible offer. Many firms make the mistake of overlooking the value of their offer. 

When you create an irresistible offer, you give potential clients a reason to choose your firm over your competitors. But, how do you create this type of offer?

Accounting and Marketing: How to Create an Irresistible Offer

To create an irresistible offer, your clients need to feel that they’re getting something exceptionally valuable at little risk to them. Here are some critical questions to consider when building your offer.

What are Your Client’s Pain Points?

Clients come to you because they have a problem that needs to be solved. You may already know what these problems are (pain points are an important part of creating a niche marketing strategy), but to create an irresistible offer, you have to step back and put yourself in their shoes. 

What pain points do your clients have, and how can you solve them? Maybe they want to reduce their tax burden or their time spent on bookkeeping is stopping them from growing their business. Maybe their books are a complete mess and they have no idea how their business is actually doing or what their net move should be. 

Understanding your clients and their pain points is the first step to creating an irresistible offer. Now that you know their pains, you can offer a solution and create a sense of urgency that compels them to take the next step. 

How Can You Make Your Offer Better Than the Competition?

You know your clients’ pain points, and you have a solution. But there’s a good chance that other firms also have these solutions. Why should clients choose your firm over the competition? What makes your offer so special?

To answer these questions, you need to check out your competitors and see what they’re offering. Ask yourself:

• What do they offer that you don’t? 
• How can you improve on their offerings?
• How can you make your clients’ lives easier while solving their problems?

If your offer is more convenient, is more affordable, or offers more value, clients will have a reason to choose your firm. (Personally, I don’t recommend trying to become the most affordable, as that’s often a race to the bottom; however, that topic can be saved for another article!)

Of course, there are other ways to make your offer irresistible to clients, and this is where their pain points come into play. Here’s an example:

Maybe your prospect is looking for a new CPA for tax preparation, but they’re time-strapped and want a convenient, streamlined way to go through the process. Your firm uses an online platform that allows clients to upload documents and communicate with your staff at their convenience. You also offer a response time of 24 business hours. By highlighting this simple, streamlined process and communication style as a core part of your offering, you’re creating an offer that these clients will have a hard time refusing – especially if your competitors aren’t offering it. 

If you want clients to choose your firm over the competition, your offer has to be better than anything else out there.

How Can You Move Clients Up the Value Ladder?

It’s tempting to offer clients advisory services right off the bat. But here’s the problem – advisory services are often expensive. Clients may not be ready to start with a high-ticket package right now. They may not be comfortable enough with your firm yet, understand the value of such services, or it may not be in the budget at the moment. 

Rather than going for the high-ticket package right out of the gate, consider where you can start today to provide them with value without a high-cost commitment. For example, maybe you can offer:

• One-on-one training on how they can increase their profits 
• Monthly bookkeeping 
• Tax return review

The goal is to create an entry-point offer that’s lower cost to lower the barrier for entry. They have little to lose and much to gain, so they take the dive and give your services a try. Over time and as they gain your trust, these clients may move up the value ladder and use your advisory services (or whatever high-ticket service you offer). 

You can use these entry offers as a way to ask deeper questions. For example, start talking to your clients about where they want to go in the future, what their goals are, and what it would take to get there. Once you understand their vision, you can work to tie your services into the mix. For clients who still are not ready to move up the service ladder, they can be nurtured through email marketing campaigns that educate them on the value of your higher-ticket services. 

The main purpose of this strategy is to get these clients through the door today so that you can develop a relationship and build the trust they need to feel comfortable moving up the value ladder.

How Can You Ease Doubts?

You know that your firm is trustworthy and has some of the best talent around. But new clients may not know that. Your offer may sound great to you, but potential clients will be viewing it with a skeptical eye.

Put yourself in your clients’ shoes once again, and consider any doubts or concerns they may have about your offer. Then, look for ways that you can ease those concerns.

• Can you offer a guarantee?
• How can you eliminate the perceived risk?

Some firms guarantee to find a certain amount of savings on their clients’ tax bills legally. Others offer a money-back guarantee. These types of offers make potential clients feel more comfortable taking the next step. If they’re not happy with the service or don’t see results, they have recourse. 

One firm I work with has had a 90-day money-back guarantee for the past 15 years. Not once have they had a client ask for their money back. Now, you don’t have to go to this extreme with your guarantee, but it goes to show that if you do good and help your clients, most won’t take advantage of your guarante. On the flip side, if you really had a client seriously unhappy with your services, you probably wouldn’t want their money anyway or their business, 

Easing concerns and doubts helps break down barriers that keep clients from choosing your firm. It also helps make your offer irresistible because clients feel they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Is Your Offer Worth More Than What You’re Charging?

When asking whether your offer is worth more than what you’re charging, consider more than just the monetary costs. Are you offering more value to your clients than the competition?

To answer this question, you once again need to consider your clients and their pain points. Are you going far enough to solve their problem? Is your offer so valuable that they’d be crazy not to take it? If the answer is no, then you have work to do. Consider how you can add more value in a way that’s practical and feasible for your firm.

How Can You Create a Sense of Urgency?

Your clients have problems, but they may not be in a hurry to solve them. The problem isn’t necessarily urgent, so it can wait. But if potential clients don’t act quickly, there’s a chance they may just forget about your firm or the problem altogether. 

A key part of creating an irresistible offer is to create a sense of urgency or scarcity. If they don’t act now, they may not be able to get this same offer in the future. 

Creating a sense of urgency compels potential clients to take the next step now – not in weeks or months from now.

Final Thoughts

Firms should be taking steps to differentiate themselves from the competition. One effective way to do that is to create an offer so compelling that potential clients jump at the chance to take the next step. The points above can help your firm create an irresistible offer that can start driving results today.
Need help creating a compelling offer for your clients? We can help! Contact us today to see how we can help your firm grow.