How Accountants Can Run Seminars To Win Clients - Interview With Steve Pipe

Hi there, Steve. Thank you so much for joining me. And I'm certainly looking forward to this because one thing I do know is that you have got to be the number one expert when it comes to running seminars for accountants. And I also know that seminars are a really powerful way of demonstrating that an accountant's the credible expert and winning new clients. So, Steve, my first question for you is why should accountants be thinking about running seminars?

Well, thanks very much for the introduction, mark. I run 20 or more seminars every single year with firms of accountants for their clients and prospects, which is probably more than anybody else does. And I specifically run those to help those firms of accountants get more of their existing clients, buy more of their services and win new clients. Seminars work extraordinarily well for that. I think there are two reasons in principle why firms might want to run seminars, one of which is to build their reputation, and the other one is to actually sell stuff. Now, it's very nice to run seminars to build your reputation, but that's quite a costly thing to do. I think you've got to have real clarity in your mind as to what it is you want to achieve by running a seminar. And my suggestion would be run seminars with the specific purpose of generating sales leads. In other words, turning your existing clients into people that are interested in buying something else from you. So your existing clients are sales leads for cross selling and turn your prospects into much hotter sales leads. Ideally people that at the end of the seminar want to sit down with you, start paying you money, start working with you in different ways. So I'm a big fan of running seminars for those very specific reasons. And for those reasons, they can work in that context. They can work extraordinarily well.

I agree entirely. That makes perfect sense. Now, I know that from accountants that I've spoken to in the past that the starting point seems to be, oh, we'll run a budget update seminar. And yeah, they're very nice to do. But is that the best sort of seminar to run or do you think there's better topics and themes we should.

Be covering that's so far from the best seminar to run, Mark. I mean, on budget day or shortly afterwards, everybody's been inundated with budget commentary, which in truth is much better quality budget commentary than any individual firm of accountants going to do? It's boring. It's me too. It's incredibly predictable. Doesn't set you apart in any way, shape or form. So no, I think absolutely, budget commentary seminars are really not the thing to do. By all means you can run seminars around tax planning for sure, but hot on the heels of a budget is not the time to do that. It's a more considered analysis of really key opportunities to reduce people's tax bills, really key opportunities to improve their profitability, to make their businesses more valuable, key opportunities to enhance their personal wealth, or in some other way improve their lot. And I think that's, that's what seminars need to be focused on is high impact content. The kind of content that will really grab clients, prospective clients, by the scruff of the neck and say to them, I really didn't know that. That stuff's really interesting. These guys are really switched on. I need to talk to them, I need to start working with them, I need to work with them in further ways. If you can run seminars like that, then yes, you do boost your reputation. But you can also immediately off the back of that seminar, turn it into extra fees and extra clients, extra work. So ABM members get about 50 or 60 ready to use seminars which range in everything from how to be a better leader, how to generate more sales leads, how to price more profitably, and everything else in between. How to structure your business so that your work life balance is much better, how to deliver sensational service. None of those are dull, none of those are budget update kind of seminars, but all of those deliver real value. Actually though, the seminar structure that I've seen deliver the most value, that's the most useful to the practice, the most impactful upon the audience are seminars that are built around a case study. The 20 or 30 times a year that I stand up in front of the clients and prospects of firms of accountants. What I do in those seminars is tell a story because storytelling is what all of the marketeers are telling us these days. We should be doing more of a case study story. In my case, a little business that's a roofing contractor turning over £100,000 at the beginning of the story. And little by little, I show how by working with a great accountant, focusing on their tax bills, profitability, cash flow, personal wealth, all the stuff that a great accountant should be focusing on. How that little business owner gets an extra £2.2 million. And the delegates see every chapter in that story. They see the brought forward and the carried forward total in the bank account. And because of that, we're able to cover an enormous amount of ground, enormous number of tax planning ideas, profit improvement ideas, cash flow management ideas, and so on, the vast majority of which the audience have never seen before, conveyed in a simple format in A non technical format through the case study structure, which brings it alive, which makes it real, which gets the audience really, really excited. So those are the kinds of seminars which work best.

So we've got hopefully a room full of people. And you've said a couple of times, Steve, about the most important reason for running the event is not just about building a brand, but actually getting business. So winning new clients, getting new fees. How do we go about doing that when we're at the event?

Well, I think the whole remember at all times that the purpose of the event is not just to create a nice warm feeling, not just to showcase the firm and build its reputation. Those things are good, but they don't feed the kids, they don't pay the mortgage, they don't pay the payroll. You've got to be a little bit more direct and less circumspect than that. And accountants are not terribly good at that. But it is nevertheless crucial. I think what I would strongly, strongly suggest is that as part of the presentation, you build around the presentation, you showcase stuff which gets them excited, but you end with a very specific, compelling offer. Something which is a next step offer. Why don't we get together to look at the issues raised. There's a 45 minute meeting and you'll leave that meeting with a detailed action plan of what to do and a full understanding of the issues as they apply to your business or something.

Brilliant. Just so many great tips there, Steve. What I'd love to. You've mentioned in passing a couple of recent success stories. What I'd like to drill down now is just a few more success stories. Just give us some specifics. And I think you said, Steve, that you might pull something up on the screen at this point in time. So should we do that and then talk us through one or two of the great success stories?

Yeah, delighted to do that, Mark. In fact, what I pulled up on the screen here is a 20 or so page word document. Every single time I run the 2 million pound seminar, I ask the firm afterwards, immediately afterwards, to send me an email summarizing the results. How many people were in the room, what the feedback was, how many people bought, and so on. So the commercial benefits. So this document contains every single one of those emails and literally the only thing I have done to change the emails, a few of the bits I have highlighted in red. Example, this one here where it says the buzz in the room was electric from the sole practitioner in Edinburgh. Just to make it easier for me to draw your attention now and anybody else's attention to what's crucially important here. So this particular example was the 2 million pound seminar. The buzz was electric. They had 46 businesses attended. 100% of their clients ticked the box to say yes Please to the 40 pound bundle. Another 15 prospects, which is 38% of the prospects in the room, also bought it. So that's 15 people at the beginning of the day were not clients who had never paid them practice any money before, who by mid afternoon had signed to say yes, please send me an invoice for £250. Let's start a fee paying arrangement, let's move forward from there. A 38% conversion rate. And he said they're all going to become clients and two more have contacted him since that time. He said, actually those 15 new clients are really just the start of what I expect to come as a payback from this because all of my marketing for 2015 and it says it here, is going to be focused on getting closer to those 40 or so businesses that were in the room and nurturing those relationships and building on that. One of the delegates in the feedback form says, why hasn't my accountant told me this stuff? That's how powerful this stuff can be. And we also, on the day during that particular seminar get them to estimate the impact that they think it will have on them. Every single delegate estimated that it would help them get at least £150,000 in extra cash. So you can see why with that kind of reaction.

Firstly, this particular seminar works extraordinarily well, but secondly, how this then lines him up for his whole year's worth of marketing. So that's Craig, a sole practitioner in Edinburgh, 18th of March. So a few days later, in fact, where they sent me the email slightly earlier, this is a three partner firm in Leeds. They had 16 businesses in the room. It's the third time they've run the same seminar. Seven of those businesses, that's a 44% conversion rate, went for the £250 bundle. Another three asked for some other help. They got three referrals and they got five people wanting to join their business club. We'll talk about the business club in a second.

So these are just the most recent ones we've done. So 23rd of February this year, six partner firm in London, first time they've ever run it. They had 28 businesses attended. 50% of those businesses bought the bundle by ticking the box. On the day, another 19 delegates wanted to talk to them about something else covered by the seminar. So that's 33 sales leads of one form or another. They also got four referrals and they expect many of those delegates, who are mostly non clients, to turn into clients, as it says there, which is fabulous. Back in October. Didn't run it in January and December for obvious reasons. Christmas gets in the way and tax return seasons back in October. This is a two parter firm, technically two partner firm, but actually realistically it's a one partner firm in Huddersfield with one partner who's essentially retired but just kept on a consulting sense. They never run a seminar before. They had 70 delegates who booked to attend via eventbrite and personal invitations. Exactly the strategy that I talked about before. They had 58 people in the room, in fact, it was so full that they had standing room only, which is extraordinary. And of the 58 people from 44 businesses, 27 of which bought the £250 bundle, that's a 61% sales lead conversion rate, £6,700 in immediately next day, invoiceable and collectible with direct debit fees. And seven of those were prospects. They weren't clients at the beginning of the day, but by the end of the day they were paying good money to the practice. They also got 42 referrals and the practitioner there, bear in mind, had never run a seminar before, said it was the single best, most effective marketing initiative they've ever undertaken. And the stories go on and on and on like that. Glasgow, 11 businesses bought the bundle on the day.

That's incredible. Some amazing stories there, Steve. Thanks for sharing those. We're pretty much out of time, but I've got one final question, which is probably actually two questions in one. And that is for the people watching this. What should I do next, Steve? And I say two questions because we've got some people perhaps who are AVN members, what should they they do next? But if they're not an AVN member, what should they do next to find out more?

Well, let's talk to the AVN members watching first. You've got access to all of the things that I've talked about here, the 60 or 70 BBFs, if you're an advanced member, you've got full access to those. And I would strongly encourage you to find out, for example, how Mark Lawson's made those work incredibly well for his practice, which is down in Plymouth, and roll those out in your practice. And secondly, the £2 million seminar which I'll run, which is exclusively for ABM members, and you can run in one of two ways. You absolutely should Run it given you've seen the results, but you can either present it yourself, there's a complete step by step system, there's a video recording of it being presented, there are all the slides, there's all the guidance notes, there's all the marketing tools, step by step instructions so that you can do all of that and replicate the results that run you through a few minutes ago. Or if you would like, you can have me come along and present that as your speaker and I'll do that on a risk free basis. If it doesn't generate results for you, you won't pay me a single pen. You can't possibly be out of pocket on that kind of basis. So if you're an AVM member, look at those tools. You've got access to them. Make the most of them, they really work. If you're not an AVM member, well, actually you can still access those things if you choose by dipping your toe in and looking at what AVN does. We will be delighted to show you how those things work. We'll be delighted to be a speaker at one of your events during your trial avian period or your early days with avn. And it's possible to work with AVN in a way which is risk free as well. So explore whatever the options are open to you because these doors are still very much open to you whether you are currently an AVN member or not.

That's awesome.

Thanks. And I guess the best thing to do is to send an email to infovn.co.uk and and we can move things forward for you.

Yeah, what I'll do is I'll put a link somewhere either below or above or somewhere around this video. You'll find a link to do exactly that. Thank you so much, Steve. There's some awesome stuff there and I've certainly learned quite a lot of stuff there. Thank you for sharing and I'm looking forward to catching up again with you soon.

Great pleasure, Mark, thank you for having me.

Cheers. Bye for now.

See ya.