Every week, do you get wonderful, exciting calls from new clients who want to use your services? You might want to talk with every one of them to get the sale. The problem is, if you do, you’re likely to go bankrupt. Let me explain.
Each of us has 24 hours in one day. Most of us have annual revenue goals. A few of us have monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly revenue goals. Hopefully, you know what your revenue goal is (If not, you should!). If you don’t, pull in that level of revenue for the week or month, then you’ve missed your plan.
Let’s say you want to generate $1 million in sales for the year. On average, you need to pull in $20K a week. That’s 4K a day.
Now what if 4 out of 5 people who contacted you about your services were ready to pay you $200 for a one-off job? You might spend an hour speaking with them and 10 minutes on their contract, with your team spending an hour on legal and accounting compliance. You or your team perform the work; then the client has another hour of questions. You just lost $1,000 on a $200 job. It’s just better not to take it.
Instead, how about if you spent those couple of hours on a $50K proposal? Even if it takes you more than a couple of hours to finally close the deal, it’s time well spent. Admittedly, there is more competition at this level, but generally speaking, spending $2K to win a $50K deal is a good deal. The problem is we don’t look at unbillable time that way. We usually just chalk it up to overhead.
Here are a couple of tips to think about when you are bringing in new clients and going after new business:
- Know exactly how much it costs on average to bring on a new client. You might still take an unprofitable engagement, assuming the value/profitability of that client increases each year you serve them. But don’t take on a client who argues with you on fees, wants to change your contract, or is far below a good project size for you.
- Spend your time wisely. Stop doing business things for free for people who have not helped you financially in some way over the years. Stop writing off your time. Stop answering client emails for free. Stop spending hours doing something for free unless it will lead to an excellent relationship or good revenue down the road for you.
- Compute your opportunity number. That’s the number by which you will suffer too much loss if you take on that client. It might be $20, $200, $2,000, $20,000, or $2 million. For example, your number might be $5,000. Any project below a revenue of $5,000 is not worth your time. Any opportunity at $5,000 or above, you should actively pursue.
- Post that number on a sticky note, or better, on your vision board. Every decision you make should factor in your opportunity number. The way you spend your time on an hourly basis should factor in your opportunity number.
- Set up a filter in your marketing funnel to direct clients below your opportunity number to low-end products, group programs, or low-end services. Do not let them gobble up your owner’s time or your overhead. It sounds mean, but if you do, you won’t make your numbers, or you will have to work long hours to do so.
- Take a look at your to-do list in light of your opportunity number. You may have a lot to cross off, and a few new tasks and prospects to add.
- To get the quantum leap, work your top opportunities. Check out who lands on your doorstep, but make more time to go after who you want.
So, what's your opportunity number?
Sandi Leyva
Author Bio: Sandi Leyva, CPA, CMA, MBA, and founder of Accountant’s Accelerator, has helped thousands of tax and accounting professionals earn more, work less, and serve their clients better through her innovative marketing, training, and coaching services. Author of 30 books and hundreds of CPE courses, Sandi has won 12 awards for her thought leadership. Visit her at accountantsaccelerator.com and acceleratorwebsites.com.