Virtual Bookkeepers can spend a lot of time trying to build up their client list. Unfortunately, it’s hard to grow a business when you are underpricing your services and working overtime, just trying to earn a living. A better approach for building a successful bookkeeping business is to selectively take on clients who value what you do, and pay what your services are really worth. How do you get those kind of clients? Well, if you want high-quality clients, you need to know how to effectively communicate your value as a bookkeeper. Watch my video linked below or keep reading to find out how to do just that.
Click on the link below to watch: How to effectively communicate your value as a bookkeeper – Part 2
If you want to attract high-quality clients willing to pay premium fees, you have to be confident in your value, and that confidence needs to come through in your communication. In Part 1 of this 2-part series, I shared how I struggled with that in the first few years of growing my own bookkeeping business. If you haven’t already checked out Part 1, click here.
What clients really want
Let’s talk about how you can know what clients really want. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is communicating what we think makes us valuable without really listening to what matters to the client. Like I discussed in Part 1 of this series, clients don’t value what you do. They don’t value the fact that you might be a certified bookkeeper or accountant, a CPA, or an EA.
How you can effectively listen to them to learn what they really want? For starters, what they really want is often emotional. What they really value is how you can help them with their problems. But even deeper than that, they value how you can eliminate negative emotions or help them to gain positive emotions.
What I have learned is that when clients have problems, those problems lead to emotions. Think of your own business. You probably have a lot of challenges that you’re dealing with, and there’s a lot of emotion surrounding those specific issues. It’s the same for your client. They may be dealing with problems on the financial side of their business, like bookkeeping problems, QuickBooks Online problems, taxes, financial workflows, industry-specific issues, and even operational problems.
Listening for your client’s biggest problems
The biggest takeaway here is that clients value how they feel when they work with you. The most valuable thing you can do is learn how to listen to what your clients are really saying when they tell you about their problems. Listen carefully and understand that those problems lead to negative emotions. When you can help your clients solve those issues, the negative emotions should go away.
You’ll want to focus on the problems that your ideal client can’t fix on their own. For example, at my company, VM Wasek, my clients’ biggest bookkeeping and accounting problems generally have to do with Shopify accounting, because that’s my niche. I specialize in Shopify sellers, and my ideal clients and prospects are confused by Shopify accounting – the integrations, managing their inventory, dealing with sales taxes, and dealing with the bookkeeping. These are all handled differently for e-commerce than brick-and-mortar businesses, and are even more complex for Shopify accounting. Usually, their tax accountant or previous bookkeeper lacks QuickBooks Online and Shopify knowledge or experience, and the client is reaching out to an expert because they want to feel in control.
What are some of the problems that your ideal client may be dealing with when it comes to QuickBooks Online? They may already be telling you, you just need to listen. They may be telling you they need help with their chart of accounts. They want to use QuickBooks Online more effectively. They want to connect QuickBooks Online to an app, or maybe they already connected to an app and now they have some problems. They may be telling you that their books are messed up, they have undeposited funds, duplicated income, they have uncategorized income, uncategorized expenses, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe those problems are making them feel overwhelmed, out of control, or helpless when it comes to making business decisions.
Speaking value into your clients’ problems
Ultimately, your client values how they feel when you solve the problems that they can’t fix on their own. That’s where your value comes from. It’s all about removing those negative emotions. We can help clients remove their negative emotions by helping them solve their problems.
For example, let’s say that you’re talking to a restaurant owner, and they’re telling you all the issues they’re having integrating their point-of-sale system. You can hear that there’s a lot of emotion and a lot of frustration tied up in that. You can say, “Yes, that is an issue that a lot of restaurant owners have, and I can definitely help you with that. Here’s what I recommend.” This gives them confidence because they feel heard and understood and they now feel that you can provide the help they need to solve their problems and resolve those emotions.
Closing
Just remember these three key takeaways: you first listen to the problem, then echo back what you heard, and finally recommend the solution that can get them out of those negative emotions. That’s how to effectively communicate your value as a bookkeeper.
If this content is helping you make sure that you subscribe to my YouTube channel: 5 Minute Bookkeeping for more tips for Virtual Bookkeepers. And if there’s any other content that you’d like to see in the future, please let me know in the comments. I love empowering bookkeepers and accountants to confidently grow as professionals and business owners.