Two Times You Must Differentiate Yourself in this Industry
1. When You are Bringing in Potential Clients
2. After You Have the Clients
How to Differentiate Yourself from Every Other Bookkeeper to Bring in Potential Clients
It is all about positioning yourself, so you do not appear to be exactly like all other bookkeepers that potential clients discover. An excellent way to do this is to have a niche. When you choose a niche for your business, you are stating that you specialize in those areas. You can have clients from other niches, but clients within your niche will specifically seek you out for your expertise.
LinkedIn is a wonderful platform that potential clients use to find bookkeepers. However, most bookkeepers on LinkedIn have chosen to share their credentials within their profiles. Those credentials really don’t mean much to many potential clients.
If you really want to stand out, on LinkedIn and other platforms, it is best to identify what your niche is and who you work with. Placing those two things within your profile will help you show up in search results. All this information should be in the very beginning because not too many people scroll down to find the information they are looking for.
You can even add a background picture that highlights your industry. This extra step can help potential clients instantly know whether or not you can provide solutions to their problems.
How to Differentiate Yourself from Every Other Bookkeeper After You Have the Clients
There are so many little things you can do for your clients to differentiate yourself from other bookkeepers. One of my favourites is to send them a letter on heavy cardstock that states what they can expect when they are working with me. I always include a small gift with this letter, so the client knows they shouldn’t ever have buyer’s remorse after signing the contract.
I always do my research before sending gifts too. Many times, I will ask quick personal questions when I am talking to them. Usually a quick, “are you a coffee or tea person?” or “do you love chocolate as much as I do?”, can give you an idea of what your new clients like. If you don’t want to get into the small talk, you can always send a short questionnaire to your client that states you are trying to get to know them better.
I don’t just send gifts to new clients either. When any of my clients renew their contracts, I make sure to send a gift. I also include a note that says, “Hey, look what we’ve accomplished so far! I can’t wait to see what we can do next!”.
Another thing that will differentiate yourself from everyone else is putting a spin on your emails. Instead of typing out another boring email to be skimmed, or ignored, create a video on Loom. In the video, you will want to speak directly to your client and show them what is happening within their books and accounts. In the end, you can tell them it is now time to set up a meeting. Your clients will get so much more out of this video email than they would an email with lots of numbers and information they might not be able to visualize.
It is always the smallest things that make a big impact on your business and allows you to differentiate yourself from many other bookkeepers. So, how are you going to set yourself apart from your clients??
Do you need ideas on how to make your LinkedIn profile stand out? Follow me on LinkedIn to check out my profile and get those creative juices flowing!