Truth be told, you don’t have to be an award winning copywriter to create effective marketing materials for your CPA practice. I found out a number of years back that even the “pros” use templates to create ads and sales letters that get results.

Before I share my template, it is important to first understand some of the objections that may be going on in the mind of the prospect whenever they see your advertising. You will want to make sure the marketing piece you create overcomes these objections.

These objections could include:

• You don’t understand my problem.
• How do I know you are qualified?
• I don’t believe you.
• I don’t need it right now.
• It won’t work for me.
• What happens if I don’t like it?
• I can’t afford it.

Here is my 12-point template to follow to create effective material pieces:

1) Get attention

If the headline doesn’t catch the prospect’s attention, the rest of the letter will not be read. Here’s an example of a good headline: “Some Small Business Owners Pay A Lot More Tax Than Others; Will You Pay Too Much In 2009?”

2) Identify the problem

After you have gotten the reader’s attention, you need to gain their interest by spelling out their problem. The reader should say to themselves “yeah, that’s exactly how I feel” when he or she reads your sales letter. This technique in the marketing world is called “problem – agitate.”

3) Provide the solution

In this section, you will introduce yourself and your services. You position yourself as the solution to their problem.

4) Present your credentials

This is the time and opportunity to toot your own horn. A few things you may consider to put here are the length of time you have been in this area of expertise, as well as important awards or recognition.

For myself, I talk about my credentials, including the fact that I am author of a book and a list of magazines I have appeared in.

5) Show the benefits

Help your prospects understand what they will gain from your services.

6) Give social proof

Provide testimonials from real clients as evidence that your claims are true.

7) Make your offer

Have a specific offer-more specific than your general services.

8) Give a guarantee

Guarantees help overcome the objection “What if it doesn’t work?”

9) Inject scarcity

Make sure the reader understands this offer isn’t going to be available forever. This helps to encourage them to take action now.

10) Call to action

Tell prospects clearly and specifically what to do in order to take you up on your offer.

11) Give a warning

What will the prospects miss out on if they don’t take action now?

12) Close with a reminder

Sure, twelve steps are a little more work than slapping down your name, address, and phone number in an image ad. But if you are serious about growing your CPA practice, it is important to implement effective CPA marketing techniques.

From hereon, whenever you want to create effective CPA firm marketing materials, follow the 12-point template that I have just shared with you.

If you’re a CPA who’s working on improving your marketing, and you’ve already made the time for marketing, positioned yourself as the expert, and packaged your services…and you have a steady stream of leads flowing in–the next step is “meeting with the prospect” and “selling” them on your service, right?

The good news is that closing the sale is actually very simple, when you know how to do it, without feeling pushy and without the prospective client feeling like you’re pushing them to sign on the dotted line.

I’ve been experimenting with the soft close over the last 7 years now on many hundreds of different prospects, and I’ve made every mistake in the book, most of which cost me potential clients. But along the way, I kept getting better and better at it, and started crafting a process that I now consider pretty reliable.

Here’s the process I have in place when a business prospect calls my office wanting to meet with me:

1) When the prospect calls, the admin person in the front office collects all their information on a preliminary interview sheet, including their contact information, how they heard about my firm, questions about their existing CPA relationship and the reason they want to meet with me.

2) Then the meeting is scheduled with me after 5-7 business days.

3) A packet of information is mailed to them before they meet with me. They receive the packet from me that contains several things: a sheet on the team members, special report or my book, testimonials, past newsletters…it’s a thick “shock and awe” packet of information. We also include a “confidential application” in the packet that they must complete.

4) The prospect comes to my office to meet with me. Keep in mind that no one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy. With that in mind, I ask the prospect how they heard of my firm. I ask to take a look at their completed application so I can get a better overview of their revenues, their goals, books they have read, etc.

I probe into their needs, what has lacked in their existing relationship with their CPA and why they are looking for a change in their CPAs, what are their major challenges, what are their long and short term growth plans?

All the while I am making notes. I take a brief look at their business and personal tax returns.

I am listening ninety percent of the time and only interjecting to encourage the prospect to dig deeper into their issues. This is important; most CPAs go astray here, because they are not asking good questions and they are not attentively listening.

By engaging the prospect with good probing questions, you have differentiated yourself from the rest of the practitioners in your area. I use my notes to recap the list of things they need help on.

5) I briefly talk about what differentiates my firm from the rest and the service packages we offer and then I go into fees.

And differentiating my firm and me is important because when I come to the portion of my meeting when I talk about my fees, I don’t want the prospect to say “but this other CPA quoted me this.” I have changed the playing field such that the services they will receive are perceived to be very different than what my competitors would offer.

6) I get the appropriate signatures and payment and my firm has now got a new business client.

7) After the client is signed up, I will briefly meet with my Senior Manager to hand off to her the client paperwork. She takes it from there. She will call the client two days later to officially welcome them to our CPA practice and schedule their orientation meeting two weeks later. In the meantime, the admin person will send them a fruit basket and a “welcome aboard” card. I am looking at this as a lifetime relationship and a strong referral source so I am prepared to invest in it from the get-go.

Good closing techniques are very important as the final step in converting a prospect into a client. The good news is that closing the sale is actually very simple when you follow the process I have identified in this article.

Do you have the mind of a millionaire… or even a BILLIONAIRE?

This free article will outline the same internet marketing mindset techniques that Richard Branson and Bill Gates use to pull in more money in one day than most people do in a YEAR…

But what exactly is the difference between the mind of an internet marketing millionaire and other members of society?

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1) Surround Yourself In Positivity

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One of the most damaging things you could ever possibly do is to be negative in life. Yes, i’m talking about those people who destroy every hope or dream you’ll ever have, by saying “it’ll never work out”, or “you have some crazy ideas, dont be so silly”.

This mindset is practically success suicide, as you’re constantly under self-defeat. How will you succeed in being rich beyond your wildest dreams if you never tried? There’s thousands, if not millions of people out there who have nowhere near the opportunities that you have if you’re reading this e-mail, who’d KILL to be able to escape their mundane everyday life.

So not only should you surround yourself in other people who have this positive mindset, but practice positivity yourself. Instead of cursing at a bad situation, see the GOOD in things. This helps develop an analytic mind, as these bad situations often offer a better insight into the future.

Also, how can you apply this to Internet Marketing?

Let’s say your website goes offline during a launch, possibly due to the amount of traffic it gets at a certain period of time. Of course you’d be annoyed because of the loss of customers and sales, but if you keep being annoyed forever then things will never get fixed.

Instead, use this experience in a positive way, and make sure your web hosting server can hold the required amount of traffic you’ll need (or had when it went offline). Even if it means e-mailing the hosting company and asking for the server’s traffic limits, or maybe even switching hosting companies altogether!

This is just one of MANY examples you’ll come across in your Internet Marketing journey. But remember to apply this positivity and see each experience as a positive one – or a lesson in life and Internet Marketing.

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2) Determination

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Sir Richard Branson failed in business five times before becoming successful. Where would he be now if he gave up? Not where he is today, that’s for sure.

Determination, in my opinion, is the most CRUCIAL trait to have in Internet Marketing. Everybody wants super-fast results overnight, and that’s why most products which promote this concept generate short-term income due to the customers wanting the same thing.

Yes, you do hear about how teenage kids make their thousands of dollars in a few days, but most of the time, that is not strategic planning or internet marketing skills… It’s luck. Being in the right place at the right time, and knowing the right people. And that still applies to everyone today. If you stay determined for long enough, that right time will come to YOU, and then it will be YOUR chance to shine.

However, if you drop out and give up before this time has a chance to come to you, then don’t complain that you didn’t get anyware, bitterly blaiming anything and everything around you.

A common idea which has been explained by MANY successful Internet  Marketers is that as long as you make progress each day, no matter HOW SMALL, you’re climbing the ladder to success.

So ask yourself… What have you done today to climb that ladder?

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3) Passion

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When you were young and you wanted somebody to join you in the latest craze, or your latest hobby… What did you do?

Most likely, you showed PASSION about the subject which reflected onto the other people and they got inquisitive. This then led to them joining you in the latest craze and/or hobby (I know this definately happened with Pokemon cards at the time!).

Do you see how this can be applied to Internet Marketing?

If you show rock hard confidence and determination to your product and BELIEVE it is the best thing to ever walk the internet, then this passion shows through and actively INVOLVES the reader. This then helps them to trust you, meaning sales become easier.

Also, this is not only applicable to Internet Marketing. When you show enough passion for something, you instantly become the LEADER in the field, meaning that you will gain the respect of your friends/colleague. This helps success come easier due to the fact that people believe in you and instantly become motivated due to your high passion for success.

This can also be applied to recruiting affiliates for your product/service, as they aren’t going to promote a product or service that you’re not even excited about, as this makes them believe that you haven’t put any effort into making it the best around. So if you dont bother, then why should they?

Ok, so the last killer Internet Marketing mindset trait is…

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4) Taking Action

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Here lies the most common reason for failure in Internet Marketing – the ability to take action.

If you’ve been researching more information like this or using the tools inside the Internet Marketing Profit Machine members area, you’ll no doubt have access to a TON of information to help you succeed and finally make the income you deserve.

However, here is the difference…

Those who blankly stare at the information and re-read it every day… And those who actually start implementing these proven techniques.

Guess who makes the most money? You got it. The one who takes the action!

Why?

Experience is the greatest education, and also teaches some things which could never be wrote down or recorded. Plus, you don’t get sales from keeping an idea in your head.

So why not take action yourself and start making your own online income?

Get full access to the Internet Marketing Profit Machine private members area today and start implementing these methods and tools RIGHT NOW.

For more information, go here:
=> http://InternetMarketingProfitMachine.com

See You There,
James Francis.