246 Networking With Consultants To Find Better Clients

Absolutely wild story about an accounting firm adding an absurd amount of work, all thanks to one consultant. An interesting kind of story to remind us that maybe even within our existing network, but certainly within maybe the network that's just outside our reach today that we could grow into, are a whole bunch of different types of people that are putting loads of effort and effort into attracting the exact same type of client that you want. And if you can just build a few of these connections, then it's no longer just about the efforts that you're making to find clients. It's about what you're doing, but also what the other person's doing. Like you almost have all these people working tirelessly to build their own client basis, but that ultimately comes back to benefit you as well. Networking with consultants is a good example of how we can lean into this. I'm going to share a wild story with you and then run through how we can do this. And come on in, let's find some sweet new clients. If you've been around a long, long time, you might have heard this story. Chris Whittich, pretty active on Twitter. I think he does some stuff on LinkedIn. Coming into the pandemic at peak Covid relief stuff, PPP, ERC and all that, he somehow got connected with this consultant that was works with salons, like hair salons. And this consultant was running like recurring sort of group coaching events with their clients during COVID Relief. It's like everybody was trying to get helpful info out in whatever format they could. But if memory serves, this consultant had like an ongoing sort of monthly session he would run that a bunch of these salons would come and join in on. And some way or another, Chris got connected with this consultant came in and I don't know if it was initially erc, but the big talking point ended up being erc. Cause salons were well positioned to benefit from erc. But there was some, some tricky stuff there around like if they're employees versus if they're contractors. And I want to say he had like one or two salon clients before this. Here's how the next 12 months went, largely just all starting from this one connection with the consultant. First 12 months, 1.5 million in new revenue. 50 to 60 new ongoing salon clients in 12 months time. 12 months time. Now good chunk of that was, was ERC. Strip out all the money, strip out all the revenue. Let's just look at 50 to 60 new ongoing clients that are not just any old clients, but niche in a very specific space clients. And since then Chris has talked a lot about, you know, how you, when you go niche, you never go back, basically. And that was all enabled ultimately by a single connection with a consultant. And it makes you think, kind of like I shared in the intro, there's so much, when we talk about social media, there's a whole like attraction side to finding people and that's something that I think is worth doing and it's kind of a long term investment. You building your own audience is a, a massive unlock that will aid you like forever. And just kind of being visible online enables opportunities and is something that we just generally ought to be investing in. But that's also not the only way that you find people because of how many other people are out there doing the exact same thing. Partnerships, finding ways to be valuable to them. Talked about this a bit last week. More generally, when it comes to like building your online network and how that using DMs and social media and that sort of thing to get connected with more people can be really powerful. But I want to look specifically at consultants because in some ways they're similar to what we do. But in most cases, accountants aren't going as far as holding themselves out as consultants. And arguably for a consultant to even be able to do their job well, they oftentimes need that client to have good accounting and or tax support. For example, if they're going through their financial statements with them, the consultant's probably going to be pretty opinionated on how that comes together or at least needs good information. Right. And so this isn't even. You don't even have to come at this from the standpoint that it needs to be this reciprocal arrangement where you're referring to each other. We literally just need to make this person's job easier. And I think there's a bunch of ways that we can do this. I'm actually first going to bounce this off of chatgpt because I'm super impressed with the new model. Now I'm using my, My Phone mobile app for this. We're going to be talking with it. This is not the new speech support that's said to be rolling out in the next few weeks, but just to kind of brainstorm a bit all the different types of things that consultants do that we could potentially help with. Because our first reservation here is probably what value do I have to offer to a consultant? It's kind of brainstorm around that. Hi, ChatGPT.

Hi there. How's it going?

Oh, it's going all right. Just recording a pod.

That sounds cool. What's your podcast about?

It's about running small accounting firms. Super interesting.

I know that actually sounds pretty interesting. There's probably a lot to discuss about managing a small business and the unique challenges in the accounting field. What topic are you covering in this episode?

Funny you should ask. We're talking about how to use consultants like business consultants. How we can network with them to try to find new clients, be helpful to those consultants so that they then refer people to us.

That's a great topic. Building strong relationships with consultants can be really beneficial. Do you have any specific strategies you're planning to share on how to make those connections and maintain them?

So that's what I wanted to ask you about. What are some the types of things that consultants do on an ongoing basis that I could somehow add value to? Because I don't just want to ask a favor of this consultant. I want to say, hey, I see that you do this thing. Can I come in and help you do this thing to just kind of get that relationship off the ground. So what are some examples of the types of things consultants may do that I could help with?

Consultants often engage in a variety of activities where your expertise could add value. Here are a few. 1. Financial analysis and Planning Many consultants offer strategic planning services which require detailed financial analysis. You could offer to provide in depth financial reviews or forecasts that support their strategic recommendations. 2. Business audits consultants may conduct operational audits to identify inefficiencies. You could help by performing financial audits to manage pinpoint areas for cost savings or financial improvement. That's budgeting and financial reporting. Consultants might assist clients with budgeting and financial reporting. You could help set up or streamline these processes, ensuring accurate and timely reports. 4. Tax planning if consultants are working on long term strategic plans, not going to.

Lie, these all kind of suck. I was thinking more like if they're going to run a webinar like I could come and help on a webinar. If they do like group coaching, maybe I could come in and speak on a specific topic. Give me more stuff like that that consultants do that I could come in and be hands on and help with.

Got it. Here are some more hands on collaborative ideas. 1. Webinars and workshops Offer to co host webinars or workshops with the consultant providing expertise on specific accounting topics that would benefit their audience.

Okay, but that was my idea.

Guest Speaking Volunteer to be a guest speaker during their group coaching sessions or seminars offering insights on accounting best practices or recent changes in tax laws. 3. Help create content like articles, blog posts or white papers on financial topics that the consultant can share with their clients. 4. Client Q& A Participate in live Q and A sessions or office hours hosted by the consultant, where clients can ask accounting related questions.

5.

Assist in organizing and hosting networking events for the consultant's clients, providing value through your expertise and fostering connections. 6. Offer to conduct free or discounted discounted financial health checkups for the consultant's clients as part of a broader service package. 7. Joint marketing initiatives Collaborate on marketing campaigns such as joint newsletters or social media posts where you provide financial tips and the consultant shares strategic advice. 8. Panel discussions join panels on relevant topics during conferences or online events organized by the consultant. Do these ideas align better with.

I don't know. Those are okay, some. A lot of those were pretty mid people who are like pushing content, doing webinars, stuff like that. They are running a machine and they got to keep that machine going. And like we've talked about in other contexts, like going on a podcast, you can be a great source of of content because that thing's still got to go out every single week. If you can, if you can offer something of value that they can share with their, their audience, that's gold. Especially consultants who generally are going to assign a very high value to the type of work that you do. So they're going to be, I have to think, very likely to be happy to pull you in to help their members because you're going to give them information that these folks would otherwise have to go out and pay for to get on their own. Right? This episode is sponsored in part by Client Hub. Here's the thing, here's what's different about Client Hub. Interesting kind of different methodology to building a practice management system is they have built a like a client portal that they say your clients will actually want to use. It's sort of a almost like a side by side workspace where you have your tasks and your client also has their own tasks where you're getting into like largely the same space. There's a whole like firm only side of it that they can't see obviously, but when they log in you can see all the stuff that they can see and their portal setup is actually looks pretty much the same way as how you manage your work. And I remember man, this was maybe three years ago now where we were running our cast practice in ClickUp and we had just a killer system for managing tasks and getting everything done. And we got to the point where like this would be so much easier if I could literally Just send an invite to this client where they could see this same space that we're working out of and they just tackle the stuff that we're assigning to them. But like the only way to do it was with like these guest accounts and there was problems with views being shared and them seeing something that maybe they weren't supposed to see. That's kind of been Client Hub's approach from the beginning is like what would a shared space look like where you could come in, do all the stuff that you need to do, have all the tools you need to manage the firm, even cool like AI stuff like Generative Email they're doing now while also being something that like your client would actually appreciate and actually use because it's an easy place for them to see what you need from them, like all rolled up into one space. Reality is, most our clients these days like they are using task management systems also. And unfortunately a byproduct of us supporting them is usually stuff they just got to do for us. So if you're looking for a more collaborative way to get that stuff done, check out Client Hub recently also did a five minute sponsored demo day video on YouTube for Client Hub. So if you want to see me like running through how it works, just pretty silly things in that video, check that one out too. To learn more, I'll put a link to ClientHub down in the show. Notes this episode is sponsored in part by Cloud accountant staffing Tax firms Check out this resume, a real resume from a real person that was accompanied by an intro video from this applicant. Two associate's degrees, one in accounting technology, the other in accountancy. Started doing tax work in 2019. Became a tax associate with a US firm in 2021. Was promoted to a senior tax associate in 22 and a tax manager and team lead in 2023. Work with assert with Intuit Pro Connect Tax Pro Series CCH Access Tax Dome Intuit Practice Management Goodness sakes. Tally for QBO 0 prepping corporate and personal returns 10659 90s 1041 goodness sakes. Specialized in equity equity compensation Year end tax planning. This is a real live resume from a talented tax pro in the Philippines. The cloud accountant staffing placed with a US tax firm. If you listen to much of my stuff, you know I was building a ton of my team in the Philippines. Super talented people over there totally changed our approach to getting work done. Nice thing about working with them, you can just give them a call, have a conversation, tell them what your needs are. They've got recruiters on the ground, the Philippines that'll go out and find folks that are qualified for what you need. You get resumes, you get video intros, you can hop on calls and interview these folks without dropping any money. You only got to pay cloud accountant staffing when you agree to hire somebody. So literally you only are going to pay a dime. If you got somebody that you fall in love with, it's going to be great for you. Worst case, you're going to learn a whole bunch about the process of hiring folks offshore. So what do you have to lose, honestly? Check out the link in the show notes to learn more. The I can't remember what what Chad GPT called it the coaching session but or Q and A. So like a Q and A? An ama A that could be a. Honestly, that could be a great place to start. Even on a cold dm, if you're going to propose something that you could do for them, say like, hey, we're looking to become the kind of the go to firm for beekeepers. We've got 25 beekeeping clients we work with right now, very familiar with the space. Is there any way I can provide value to you or your group? For example, coming in and doing, you know, an AMA about the new tax law, about accounting systems, about how to read a financial statement, that sort of thing. If that person reads the DM and doesn't think that you're a bot, I mean there is, there is an above 50% chance that they're like totally like come on in. Or we'll at least hop on a call with you to like try to suss out is this a weirdo or can I actually trust putting this person in front of my clients? We're gonna look at how to find these people next. But if they're doing ongoing writing like on a blog, lots of ways you could help with something like that. I'm a big fan of newsletter takeovers. If somebody's got a newsletter with, with a good sized following, offer to come in and write it for a week or at least write part of it. If they trust that there's going to be value in what you're providing, you're really doing them a solid by them not having to develop the meat of the content. If that's a weekly newsletter and obviously it's great for you, particularly if you have a clear call to action for how to get these people. That's one thing to be thinking about. If you sit down and do a Q and A in front of, you know, 25 beekeepers, the lower the bar for that CTA, the more likely that session will be worthwhile for you and actually the easier it is for the consultant to refer to you as well. So, for example, if you have your own newsletter, that's a really easy thing for people to join and continue hearing from you every single week. But if the only call to action is to become a client, that's a much higher bar to ask somebody to commit to if they liked some of the things that they heard. So give them as low, low of a bar as possible for that call to action so it de risks them coming and doing more work with you. So how do we go out and find these people? You might already have them in your network, but if you don't, I can tell you they are not hard to find because a good percentage of them are finding folks just through social media and through being visible. So they are running podcasts, they are posting stuff consistently every single day online. And this is one of those things where it's like, I'm thinking about this specific space. Are there really, I mean, is this, is there really much industry in this little tiny space? Frankly, beekeeping is a great example. You type in beekeeping consultant on Google and you get so many results, so, so many results, it's incredible. Then maybe you're able to go a little deeper. Maybe they'll invite you in to, you know, speak with, with their clients, that sort of thing. AI assistants, honestly are really helpful here too for finding folks that could be a fit for you because they will, because they will go out to the web and use web results to like, augment the response. In fact, let's drill a little deeper here and see whether chat GPT can do this for us. So I'm looking for some consultants specifically who run webinars on an ongoing basis because I'm pretty sure I could come in and like be interviewed or be on one of their webinars. And this could be a way that I add value for that consultancy. So go out and see if you can find me a few consultants who do run these webinars for beekeepers on a recurring basis.

Here are a few consultants and organizations that run webinars specifically for beekeepers, which could be great opportunities for you to collaborate and add value. 1. Michigan State University's Apic Culture Extension regularly hosts webinars and Q and A sessions for beekeepers. These webinars cover a wide range of topics relevant to beekeeping and are often open for participation and questions from the audience. 2. Moray Beekeepers association offers a series of webinars on advanced beekeeping topics. They have a variety of speakers and presentations which could benefit from your accounting expertise in managing beekeeping finances. 3. Ulster Beekeepers association runs regular webinars covering diverse topics such as hive management, swarm control, and the impact of pesticides on bees. This could be an excellent platform for you to offer insights on the financial aspects of beekeeping businesses. 4. Los Angeles County Beekeepers association has a robust lineup of webinars and educational sessions. They focus on various aspects of beekeeping, and participating in one of their sessions could provide a valuable networking opportunity. 5. North Carolina State Extension offers frequent webinars.

Okay, we're getting into the local stuff now. Two of those were actual consulting groups. The others were like more associations. Associations are good too, but maybe not quite as specific of drivers of referrals for you. Definitely association's great for getting in front of people, being perceived as an expert. Like, excellent social proof if you can go and do a, you know, a talk for an association. But I think consultants are, are going to be more likely to be more immediate drivers for your business if they can, if they can send folks to you. A big advantage that you have if you hold yourself out as a good accountant for X, is that because 99% of accounting firms are general and for anyone, it makes it much easier to get those folks to switch because if they have a general accountant and every time they come to them, they have to kind of understand, they have to explain how their business works and kind of educate that accountant along the way. As soon as they find an accountant who is for that very specific thing, they'll be like, oh, like, finally somebody that understands what I do. And they'll be much more likely to switch because they're going from general to too specific. And whether that's justified or not, like, whether that actually means you're any better at the work, you know, than the general person. Unfortunately, like, doesn't really matter. It's the perception of the buyer that will think that, okay, this person gets me in a way that the other person doesn't, so I'm going to come bring my business to you. I can kind of, kind of come along with that, right? I can, I can help them out in what they're doing. And as they pick up people, I also pick up people. If you think about accounting conferences, the folks that speak there are generally going to be a mix of, of software vendors, of industry thought leaders, sometimes of just practitioners, but almost everyone at conferences. And this is kind of a bummer aspect of conferences, almost everyone at conferences has like something to sell you. You may get keynote speakers where they just pay the keynote speaker to come out and do the thing and then that's what they do is they just speak. But most of the folks at conferences have like some sort of consulting group or community or product that they sell. They're looking for eyeballs to get back to that thing that, that people can buy from them. And our skill set, what we do frankly, is a great way for those people to get eyeballs. This episode is sponsored in part by Live Flow. I think this is my favorite tagline for live flow where QuickBooks Online ends live Flow Beacons. A Life Flow gives you the ability to sync a, a whole bunch of data and reports and all that out to Google Sheets or Excel. Because there's a lot of data captive in QuickBooks Online that you may want to give people access to or you maybe don't want in the QuickBooks file. But even if you just need to get that data out and cut it up different ways, they've got a LIFO's, got a Consolidations product that lets you roll up all sorts of company files with different, different chart of accounts. And something I'm kind of hot on right now that has absolutely nothing to do with Life Flow but I'm going to include in the ad read anyways is getting away from the traditional month end cycle delivery, getting away from financial statement delivery as being the thing we build deadlines around like because that ends up being the crunch for your accounting firm, right? Getting the financial statements out by the 10th? Well, what if instead we had something that was not the financial statements? But maybe I don't know what the client actually needed to see because they don't really understand the financials. What if you had a more real time dashboard that was the stuff that was actually actionable for them that they wanted to see that could be populated on a weekly basis or real time. Or you could use Live Flow to like pump into a spreadsheet that they use. If they've got this info near real time, then it takes the pressure off. Hey, one of those financials going to be ready, right? Right. Which ends up being the bottleneck for your entire accounting firm. Because LifeLow will sync just about any QuickBooks report you want out to your spreadsheets. You can cut that stuff up to do any sort of reporting that you want. Either pulling that data out like when you choose manually or continuing to sync it out real time on an ongoing basis. Could be just the thing to get the crunch off that month end Close all right. Learn more about LifeLow via the link in the show Notes this episode is brought to you in part by TeamUp, helping you recruit top Filipino accountants without any ongoing monthly fees. The difference between Team up and all the other offshoring options is that Team up helps you hire staff directly. No middleman. You work directly with your new hire in the Philippines. Hire the person, not the company. Guys, gals, gang. Here's just a few reasons to hire directly. You have access to higher level talent. Makes sense. You have complete control over team culture and training. They keep 100% of what you pay them and it's a lot more affordable for you so you can retain your team for the long term. Team up can source accountants with experience working at US or Australian firms familiar with tools like Zero, QBO and DeX. Also recruit specialist roles, team leaders, tax specialists, administrative assistants Thought experiment what if you had an executive assistant for the first time this tax season just just throwing it out there. What would they do? Start at that email video I did on the main channel recently. Get help with that stanky ol inbox. I digress. Team up recruits these talented folks for a flat one time fee of 4,000 US American dollars. That's it. 4K one time. Somebody at Robert Half just did a spit take. Robert Half reference. We ever gonna get Robert Half to sponsor this podcast? Not anymore. And they can connect you with an an affordable employer of record if you need help with payroll and compliance once you hire that person. Big fan of hiring in the Philippines. You know I did a bunch of that. Check out the link in the description to learn more about Team Up. Now two other thoughts here that actually came up in an earlier conversation with ChatGPT that I didn't really have on my radar. First, ask your clients If I got 25 beekeeping clients. Ask them have you ever had a good experience with like a coach or a consultant that was specific to beekeepers? Like what is your experience with that? But then second, also just like look in their accounting ledger, like in their professional fees. Have they paid a coach in the past? Have they bought digital products for this sort of thing? Like who do they look to? Who do they listen to? An interesting thing that can happen if you can kind of get in deep in a little network like that. And you know, a group of folks that go to the same consultant is definitely an example of a little sort of community or network is oftentimes when one or two of these folks come over and they have a positive experience with you, it can actually lead to like mass adoption. It gets into the grapevine and all these very connected people are like, oh my gosh, if, if John and Tina just had a great, great experience with them, I don't want to miss the boat on this. Like, I'm going to go too. And the tighter that community is and the smaller that community is, the more likely it is to get that mass adoption. But we struggle with going that specific, like speaking to that small of a room. Like there's this force that's pushing us out to be like, no, you got to talk to more people and you got to zoom out, zoom out. When in my experience, the coolest opportunities come from the opposite, from zooming way in and finding the little tiny room that you can be super, super valuable in. And with a little bit of social proof in there, if folks are having a good experience, like you may find that you get all of those people or a whole ton of those people. And while you know that I'm, I'm all for the kind of the longer term investment of building your own audience and attracting folks through social media and all that, the other side, you've got attraction on the one hand and then you've got like prospecting. I think of UConn Cornelius, you know, the guy from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and he like throws his pick and then he tastes it to see if there's any gold on it. Prospecting is like, who can I go out and just message right now and who's. Who am I already connected with? Who's maybe one connection away? Who's maybe two connections away? While we're doing that long term building, there's very short term prospecting that we can do that is just like, can you make a bit of time for yourself to go give a little bit of your time away, go do a Q and A with this group, something like that. Not looking for like anything explicit in return, just trusting in the fact that when you know your stuff and you're for a specific group of people, all you gotta do is be visible and be helpful. And the worst, the rest will kind of take care of itself. Particularly these days as every like an increasing number of people are on social media and everyone's kind of shouting from the mountaintops at the same time trying to get attention. Well, those folks have a huge demand for, for new content. And if they have a tax pro or an accounting pro or a bookkeeper that they love and they're like, oh man, anytime I got a question on this Sort of thing. Can I pull you in? Can we do an interview about like this new thing that just hit the news and how it impacts my clients? Like, they're gonna be all over that. You know, my last firm, I think we were blocked on this because we thought that anytime you had a relationship like this, it had to be this like two way referral street. Like they would give you clients if you would give clients to them. Because this was the relationship we had with like general attorneys and financial advisors and stuff like that in town. I would argue that this isn't the case once you get a little bit more specific. I don't know that I have to refer people back to this consultant to still be helpful to this consultant. Like if I'm going on their podcast or helping them with a blog post or speaking to their clients, that's super, super valuable. Like, I don't like. You certainly could refer folks to this consultant, but I don't see that as a condition for them to refer people to you. We're just trying to get into the room where the folks are already assembled that we want to get on our client list. You don't have to be super impressive. Like, that's one of the best parts of being an accountant, is if you land it, you know, any better than just being a bumbling accountant. Like they're gonna be, they're gonna be dazzled, they're gonna be so impressed because they don't expect that much from accountants. So if you have that expertise and you're for a specific person, like that is all it takes. You just gotta get in that room and have those conversations and the rest kind of works out for itself. But most of us aren't getting into those rooms yet. I know for me, the problem was like networking. I don't like networking. I don't like asking people for things. I will say it's gotten a lot easier for me, like, particularly through the lens of just trying to be helpful to people who are serving similar customers to myself. And when I stopped trying to game the whole thing and figured out what like the 200 IQ version that would like trick them into referring a client to me or something like that. When I stripped all that away and didn't try to make it, hey, I'll give you something if you give me something, and instead just focused on being helpful, it got way easier for me. Like it was. I wasn't getting in my own way, like being afraid to make an ask or something like that. Cause I'm not making an ask, like I'm just, I'm offering to be helpful, trusting that when you do that, that stuff comes back around. And it absolutely does. If you come in like concerned with an affiliate or a rev show or something like that, you're 90% more likely to not get anywhere as opposed to just coming in and being like, how can I help with this or that I would challenge you. I'm just so into DMs, like I'm so into the notion that there's just all of these opportunities, unbelievable opportunities that are a little three sentence email or three sentence direct message away. And it's not about what you're going to get out of this. It's about making the next connection. It's about being helpful to that person that's already connected with the folks that you want to serve. I would super encourage you write a DM a week. Write a DM, I don't know a day. I try to write two or three, usually pretty cold DMs every single day through doing that. Some of those go places, a lot of them don't go anywhere. But in the process of doing that, you're able to make connections. And you wouldn't believe how many times you will be like, oh gosh, there's the perfect person for this or the perfect product product for this or something like that. And you go back nine months later to a person that you had a conversation with, now you're already connected with them, that next conversation is twice as easy and you can make a meaningful connection for somebody. And these people I'm dming, I'm not like hopping on zoom with or anything like that. That's like big onerous really taking me much time. I'm just being friendly, not being a weirdo, just trying to be helpful and make a new friend that kind of does what you do, right? Like that's actually pretty fun. These consultants, these folks that sit there and talk all day with the same type of people that you talk with all day, you probably have a lot in common with this person. Like they may not be a bad hang, but rather than having to build every single thing that we do from scratch, let's find a way to work with these folks who have already built these audiences and just be helpful to each other and that's gonna serve everyone's best interest. You got any stories of ways that you have worked with consultants or ideas for how you could add value to them? That'd be great to see in the comments. There are very few problems in this world that the right people in the right network can't solve, solve, and doesn't matter how far along the journey you are building out. That network is a. Is, I can say, is a massive, massive hack for getting in front of new crowds of people for solving problems when you're stuck on something, for being able to connect person A to person B. And then everybody just loves you because you're like kind of that connector. It's also very rewarding too, like in a non ROI sort of way. Like, that's kind of just being a good human. That's it for today. Thanks for coming and hanging. Go out there and, go out there and make a new connection today.