156 Get Different, Get Noticed: Better Marketing for CPAs with Mike Michalowicz

09/22/21 • 23 min

Many CPAs are frustrated because they feel invisible in a crowded marketplace. They know they are better than their competitors, but when they focus on that fact, they get little in return. That's because, to customers, better is not actually better. Different is better. And those who market differently, win.

In his new marketing book, Mike Michalowicz offers a proven, no-bullsh*t method to position your business to get noticed, attract the best prospects, and convert those opportunities into sales.

Today I speak with Mike Michalowicz, author of 7 books, now including Get Different.

Highlights:

If the bulk of your business comes from customer referrals, you have limited control over your growth, putting you in a precarious position
We need a way to throttle the flow of leads: to be able to turn the spigot up when we want more clients, or turn it down when necessary, but not be at the whims of referrals.
The smart marketing money is on testing: run small experiments. No results? Fine. Good results? Invest more.
Sadly, many business owners take the random pot-shot approach, and that’s a mistake.
Being different doesn’t necessarily mean outrageous. Being different helps you stand out, cut through the noise, get noticed, and attract the right people to you.

Connect with Mike Michalowicz:

Website: https://www.gogetdifferent.com/

Purchase Get Different: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593330633/ref=as_li_ss_tl?&linkCode=ll1&tag=obsidian-20&linkId=eca96009472be51113c717d00aa6ca08&language=en_US

Episode mentions:

https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/083 Fix This Next In Your Accounting Practice

Want to find out what options you might have for working together?

More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here:

https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

In his new marketing book, Mike Michalowicz offers a proven, no-bullsh*t method to position your business to get noticed, attract the best prospects, and convert those opportunities into sales.

Today I speak with Mike Michalowicz, author of 7 books, now including Get Different.

Highlights:

If the bulk of your business comes from customer referrals, you have limited control over your growth, putting you in a precarious position
We need a way to throttle the flow of leads: to be able to turn the spigot up when we want more clients, or turn it down when necessary, but not be at the whims of referrals.
The smart marketing money is on testing: run small experiments. No results? Fine. Good results? Invest more.
Sadly, many business owners take the random pot-shot approach, and that’s a mistake.
Being different doesn’t necessarily mean outrageous. Being different helps you stand out, cut through the noise, get noticed, and attract the right people to you.

Connect with Mike Michalowicz:

Website: https://www.gogetdifferent.com/

Purchase Get Different: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593330633/ref=as_li_ss_tl?&linkCode=ll1&tag=obsidian-20&linkId=eca96009472be51113c717d00aa6ca08&language=en_US

Episode mentions:

https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/083 Fix This Next In Your Accounting Practice

Want to find out what options you might have for working together?

More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here:

https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

Previous Episode

155 BONUS - Pricing in a Nutshell, for CPAs

JOIN or WATCH REPLAY – Pricing in a Nutshell

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/pricing-in-a-nutshell

SUBSCRIBE –

SheThinksBigCoaching.com Hourly billing is like radioactive waste: invisible, and given enough time and quantity, it'll kill you. Make the shift to pricing your services and reap the benefits, like 3x'ing profitability. But you need to know which pricing tools to use, and in which situations.

If you're a CPA, these are your most important pricing tools:

Value-based
Flat/Fixed Fee
Segmented
Curves

Using these even only reasonably well will guarantee that you will be more profitable on all your engagements.

Next Episode

157 Altitudes of Involvement for CPAs with Jonathan Stark

This week we welcome back Jonathan Stark, a former software developer who is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He is the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts, the host of Ditching Hourly, and writes a daily newsletter on pricing for independent professionals.

Often CPAs don't know how to price for expertise and strategy, and they just lump the advice into the delivery. But the advice and the expertise and the planning is so much more valuable than the delivery, then the setup and implementation.

In this episode, Jonathan talks about altitudes of involvement, where listeners will get an appreciation of how to separate out the advice and the strategy from the delivery and price it accordingly.

Highlights:

— “Strategy is not a plan. A plan comes out of a strategy. Once you have a strategy to achieve the objective, now you can start planning.”

— “If you're perceived as an execution person, you are not the kind of person that people are going to go to for a blueprint. It's much easier for people to pigeonhole you as a builder and not a strategic thinker.”

— “If you are used to saying I'm a CPA, and you want to shift up an altitude, you need to stop saying that.”

— “Courage is much more important than confidence. Courage is knowing the risks, but doing it anyway, or feeling the fear and doing it anyway.”

— “The first step: find your top five clients and go out and ask them if they want to have a meeting to talk about the direction of their business and the strategy to get them there.”

Connect with Jonathan:

Website: https://jonathanstark.com/

Episode mentions:

106 Better Pricing Strategies for Accountants: Stop Billing by the Hour

https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/106

111 Better Pricing Methodologies For CPA Firms

https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/111

A More Useful Definition Of Strategy

https://jonathanstark.com/daily/20200809-0152-a-more-useful-definition-of-strategy-

Book mention:

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-Matters/dp/0307886239