How To Figure Out Your Marketing Spend to Attract Tax Resolution Clients
A question I get asked all the time is, “Mike, how much should I spend on marketing to attract a new tax resolution client?” The rule of thumb is, if you are doing paid marketing such as direct mail Google ads or radio, 15% - 20% of gross sales should be earmarked for your marketing budget. For…
Lessons from a Million Dollar Racehorse!
If you own your own business today a lot of people depend on you. Your family, your team members, your clients, your vendors, etc. You must view yourself as the million-dollar racehorse. Think about it, if you owned a racehorse that every time he ran, he’d win a million-dollar purse, wouldn’t you…
Can You Believe What the IRS Commissioner Said?
The IRS released their 2022 list of the “Dirty Dozen” a few weeks ago, and there’s one thing that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said that upset me. He said, “No one can get a better deal for taxpayers than they can usually get for themselves by working directly with the IRS to resolve their tax…
Recession? What Recession?
In the tax resolution world bad is good and good is bad. What I mean by that is, the worse off your client’s financial situation is, the better deal they’ll get with the IRS. If he/she has a lot of money left over at the end of the month, and/or significant equity in assets, the worse deal they’ll…
How to Successfully Negotiate with the IRS
If you want to be successful in the tax resolution business, you need to be a successful negotiator. I personally represented 2,000 individuals and small businesses spanning a 16-year period and I was a vigorous advocate for my clients. What skills does a successful negotiator need? This is common…
What Prospects Want from You Before They Say “Yes”
There are two kinds of sales, transactional and relational. A transactional sale means you HAVE TO make the sale. You’re needy and desperate for the sale. In a relational sale people want to be understood before they do business with you. There is a misconception that if you can just make your…
Ten Magic Words
When I started in the tax resolution business and had my initial consultations with clients, I’d have meaningful conversations but no signed engagement letter and no deposit check. I soon realized I was leaving something very important out of my conversations during my “close”. I learned there are…
What’s Your Plan “B” if Your Client’s Offer in Compromise Case is no Longer Feasible?
It can be exciting when a prospect comes in for an initial consultation and they are the perfect candidate for an Offer in Compromise (OIC). They hire you for exactly that to prepare, submit and negotiate an OIC. Many months go by between when you take on a new client and when it’s time to submit…
Do You Make This Mistake in Your Initial Consultations?
Tax Resolution cases, due to IRS’s workload, can take up to 12 months or longer to resolve. A lot of things can change regarding the taxpayer’s financial situation during this time versus when you first saw the client. Recently I had a coaching call with one of my Platinum Mastermind Members. He…
The One Thing To Do For a Great Day!
With everything going on in the world today, it’s easy to feel down. We recently experienced two years of a global pandemic. Now inflation is skyrocketing. There is a horrific war raging in Ukraine. Even though there are many things that are out of your control, there is one thing that you can…
How to Respond to “You’re Just Too Expensive”
When it comes to closing the sale, you’ll encounter many types of objections. One of the most common is “You’re too expensive”. This is a completely different objection than, “I don’t have the money.” When a prospect raises the “you are too expensive objection’, they don't want to be taken…
When Should You Hire Your Next Employee
Let’s face it, every business owner struggles with staffing issues. The most common struggle is where to find that right person for the job. You’d be surprised to know the answer to this question. Surprisingly, the best time to hire somebody is when you can least afford it, because if you're a…
How to Settle Your Client's IRS Tax Debt
What do you actually need to know in order to settle your client’s IRS tax debt? Often, practitioners think they need to know everything there is to know about a subject before they feel comfortable resolving their client’s IRS tax debt. Perhaps you’ve been in what I call, the “paralysis of…
Cryptocurrency and the IRS
Do you know what the IRS buried in the 1.2trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that was passed into law on November 15, 2021? There’s a paragraph that states cryptocurrency exchanges are going require you to give your clients a 1099 beginning in 2023, just like brokerage houses do. If the…
How to Create Your Lead Generation Magnet in 3 Easy Steps
For those of you that don’t know, a lead generation magnet (also called a “special report”) is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact information. The No. 1 thing your lead generation magnet must do is appeal to your prospect’s emotions…