Good Firms Become Invisible When They Sound Like Everyone Else

Welcome to the Growthminded Accountant podcast where our experts will share best practices on running your firm in the digital age. This podcast is brought to you by Counting Works Pro. Let's get started. Welcome back to another episode of the Growthminded Accountant Podcast. My name is Lee Reams.

I am the founder and CEO of County Works. Today, our episode title is good firms become invisible when they sound like everyone else. So, we've been kind of bouncing around this subject or topic here for quite a while. Rebekah, if you could jump in and say hello. Rebekah is our chief visibility officer here at CountingWorks.

Yeah. Hey everybody. This is a this is an important one. I think even if you've been here, there'll be some good takeaways here that we haven't gotten to before. Yeah.

And each week we keep talking about this in different ways. obviously have the cookie cutter is dead campaign going. Um, and I'm just trying to like reiterate over and over again, but I think the shifts that are happening and what happened with Google's IO conference, the developers conference in May, that was last month. Today is Wednesday, June 17th. um a lot is moving very quickly and the shifts that are happening in the profession from from marketing uh client experience obviously what's happening in AI automation uh advisory opportunities and even firm growth uh really are kind of changing the profession and today we're going to kick off a bigger conversation about what we call the future ready firm and we're starting with a problem that is hiding we think in plain sight it's the easiest thing a firm can do right now to adapt to being a more modern firm in a more modern experience for your clients.

So, uh, a lot of good firms are starting to become invisible because they sound exactly like everyone else. So, Rebekah, I want to start with, uh, something we've both seen over and over again. Uh, you know, you visit 10 accounting firm websites. I could tell you you could visit a hundred of them and different firms, you know, even perhaps different cities, uh, obviously different partners, different personalities, but somehow someway the websites of all these firms look and sound almost identical. I don't know what it is in our profession that creates that, but it's some version of, hey, we provide tax prep uh, preparation.

Uh, we provide bookkeeping. We are your trusted adviser. I mean, if we could add up how many times we've seen these uh these copies or headlines, um you know, go no, nothing here is technically wrong. That's uh that's the issue. It's not wrong.

It's just not memorable. Um it doesn't explain why this firm. Okay. So, before we jump into today's topic, I think there's a bigger trend happening here. AI is making content easier to create.

People are calling it AI slop now. you know, uh, AI is making websites easier. AI is making marketing and execution easier perhaps. I don't know if it's still human. I don't know if it's still personalized with that expertise, but that's what the perception is, right?

But AI is also making firms look more and more alike. Okay? And then if you go back to the old way of doing websites, at least in our space, and we're not just talking about websites, we're going to talk about your entire footprint here. Um but you're also seeing all these templated websites and they're exact same website over and over again. So the tools stop being the differentiator.

Okay. So 20 years ago let's say expertise was a differentiator. You know uh knowledge was not available to everybody like it is today. So today expertise is expected right? If I could ask Chad GBT Gemini a question and think that the answer is pretty accurate I'm going to start questioning the people around me.

Right? So tomorrow clarity may become the differentiator. So when everyone has access to information and AI tools, people choose the advisor they understand and trust the most and that's what we're going to talk about today. So AI is making what we'll call the execution layer cheaper. Uh but differentiation is becoming more valuable.

Uh that is going to be the great takeaway from today's podcast because when everyone can generate content um AI slump right automate communication and build a website prospects need another way to decide and that's what this conversation is about. So uh I'm going to start as you know I break these down into segments and segment one is why sameness is such a big problem. So Rebekah, when you look at a tax and accounting firm website or their marketing kind of their brand positioning, why do you think so many firms end up sounding exactly the same? Right? So it's tough in this space because a lot of firms start with their services and a lot of them offer the same services or very similar services.

Tax preparation, tax planning, bookkeeping, payroll. These are all categories that we see over and over and over again. basically ad nauseium. So on top of that, a lot of firms are going to use kind of templates like you mentioned or industry standard language. Um, nobody's trying to sound generic.

They're trying to sound professional. They're trying to sound like experts because they probably are. The problem here is that they're describing what they do, not what makes them different. Every tax and accounting firm typically does tax preparation, bookkeeping, those sorts of things. But why that particular firm is different is what really matters.

So using terms like trusted, personalized, tailored, experienced, they're all so common these days and they're they've kind of lost their meaning. Um, if people see tailored tax preparation, that sounds like a hundred other firms today because one, it's a term AI loves to use. And two, it's something that almost every firm can say because it's true. They are all offering some form of personalized tax prep. But in real life, they're not that generic.

There's usually a difference. There's usually a hook. That hook or that difference is just not translating to web copy in a lot of cases. Yeah. And what I want to get across here is and you know compared to going to the grocery store and buying some generic brand versus a different brand that you might trust and how what is that brand done that has a premium price.

So the generics are all let's say 20 30% less. The the preferred brand is getting a some sort of delta over that generic cost. But you know why Rebekah does psychologically people want to you know go certain people but people again it depends what you're selling and where you're positioning yourself. So I don't want to get this off into premium. This isn't about premium branding messaging.

This is about sameness. So, even if you're going after a what I'll call a a mid-level price uh type of engagement or even a lower level volume type engagement, you still need to change your story. But kind of explain again why does a consumer in their head want to make that decision versus just looking at everything as a commodity? Because if you're selling just services, you're just a commodity. if you're now differentiated and that brand where I'm going to pay a premium for kind of what goes through the buyer's thought process.

So story really matters here and that's what this whole podcast is about. And I think one really good example of this is Hines Ketchup. Um Hines has a story. They have like the number on their their packaging that refers to the number of varieties they had when they started. And you know this is not necessarily premium in the sense that like an Hermes or something that we talked about last week is.

It's a very standard grocery store item, but there is a trust level there because they're different. Um, there's a quote from Seth Goden that that we kind of talk about, Lee, that says, "Safe is risky." And that's very true in branding. You do want to differentiate yourself and you want to stand out for the right reasons. And a really big way to do that is through your story. So, Hines is a great example, Helman's Mayonnaise, Coca-Cola, all of these brands that have these really, really deep legacy stories that come through in their packaging and their positioning.

You can do that also in the tax and accounting industry. And I think it's a really important thing to do. It's much bigger than copywriting. It's about making your firm easy to understand and helping people to grasp what makes you different. Why you are the Coca-Cola of tax preparation in your town?

Really? Well, I the problem which you know is uh tax and accounting firms are risk averse. Yes. um I don't want to get out of my comfort level and then you know these 12 firms they say this thing I just copy that right um and maybe they're trying to sound professional or not take a risk to stand out um but then they just start blending in they don't take an actual position they don't narrower their audience at all um they're not specific at all uh and today that safety actually creates invisibility and specifically we've talked talked about this in other podcasts. Um, when we say invisibility or if you sound identical, you disappear.

In the AI age, one firm might be recommended, but the other nine, it's not like blue links anymore. Um, they do disappear from the conversation. So, kind of explain that real quick. And I think this is a bigger issue as you just said than copywriting, right? It's, you know, how do you make your firm easier to understand?

How can they understand your elevator pitch very quickly? and the the clear firms are easier, I think, to trust, easier to refer, and more importantly, for these AI tools to interpret. Why is that? That's very true. So, what you've said, Lee, is very true that if you are a generic frame, you're going to disappear.

And part of that is because the AI systems cannot interpret who you are and figure out who you're a good fit for. So, prospects are already going to assume that a tax and accounting firm can do taxes and accounting. um listing them in a service menu does not create preference. So if you have just a list of things you do, we do tax prep, we do bookkeeping, we do payroll, we do advisory, that is like a restaurant menu that says we sell hamburgers and hot dogs. It does not tell people anything.

It also doesn't tell the AI systems anything. So they don't know exactly who you are. They don't know if they should recommend you. They don't know if you're a good fit. All they know is that you do taxes and you do accounting just like everybody else.

What these systems and people need to understand is why should I choose you? So that's where the story comes in. That's why positioning matters. And I really want to drive home the point that a list of services is not positioning. Positioning is saying we serve pediatricians in the Dallas area.

That's a position. um you know, we save pediatricians thousands of dollars on taxes in Dallas. That would be good positioning. Saying we do taxes in Texas is not a position. So I think understanding that specificity matters here is also something that we need to talk about and really drive home.

So let's go back to the sameness thing. I'm going to take it a step further because AI tools start understanding um and we're we're going to talk about meta AI as well and and really understanding the user uh and the context. So when we we're taking okay the pediatrician thing, but I as a CPA I love fly fishing. I love travel. I love Disney.

I had to do it Rebekah. um the connection now can be made to by these recommendation engines and more importantly consumers. We get so caught up in the AI side. But if I am a someone who loves fly fishing as well and I come to a CPA who talks about, you know, going to Montana and the Ruby, you know, or the uh the Madison River and going fly fishing, I now have a connection. It it breaks down this conversation.

It's like an entry point. And why that is where you're not just selling a service anymore. You're not selling uh like that's not your position, but now you're making a connection. Why is that so important? Well, it matters for several reasons.

For one thing, having these kinds of pieces of information on your website adds personality for prospects, right? If someone comes to your site and they see a photo of you fly fishing or they see a photo of you at a Disney park and that's something they also enjoy, there is a good chance that they're going to elevate you in their minds over the other options because all of a sudden there's a personal connection there. Furthermore, it helps the AI systems understand when they should be recommending you. So, if I, as a huge Disney fan, for instance, and my AI system knows I'm a huge Disney fan, am looking for an accountant, and I obviously am not going to put something about Disney in my search query for a new accountant. But if the system knows that, and then connects that you are also a big Disney fan because there's that giant photo of you with a castle on your about us page, it's going to be much more likely to recommend you to me because it's going to connect those personal interests.

This is also a good time to mention that alt text is really really important on your images because that is how these AI systems start to understand more of these personal things. If you're tagging your picture properly, hey, this is, you know, a person in front of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort, that's going to help the systems connect those images then to the interests that users have. So everything is connected and your personal interests can actually help you connect with the right kinds of clients which is something that's not totally different from the Google search era but pretty different. Google never understood its users in the way that AI systems do. Be it GPT or Meta AI or Perplexity or Claude, it doesn't matter.

They all understand their users on a much more personal level than old blue links. No, I think that's really important. And the the reality here is we wanted to answer why should I choose you? Okay. Um so I'm going to we're going to continue on.

We kind of mentioned a little bit here. You you had mentioned services are not positioning. Uh and there's a a brand expert Marty Nummire that said at one point and this is a a quote that I've heard multiple times. I never knew who it was but I went and researched like when everybody zigs zag. And you know I follow the purple cow theory as well.

So when I look at tax and accounting firm websites, um I see a lot of zigging. Again, trusted advisor, personalized service, uh years of experience, every one of these statements may be true, right? But if everybody says it, nobody owns it, right? So that's where firms accidentally underell themselves because clients rarely buy what accountants think they are selling. and explain that.

Um, when you talk to clients when we're dealing with narratives and get creating their story, what is the disconnect? Like accountants always think of the way their brains work and even we just made a new hire. Mike uh Gleon is the director of tax intelligence here at accounting works and he has a interesting background very technical. Uh but one of the things even when he was going through school and his professors they always say is accountants are really really bad at explaining what they actually do right and they try to sell those services that are highly technical but they don't actually sell the value of what you're actually receiving what is the pain point you're actually solving what is that result that you're delivering so kind of explain how you go through that process to kind of change the mindset of you know traditional CPA firm enrolled agent etc. Right?

So, a lot of accountants, and this is just natural, they know what they do, right? So, to them, they're selling bookkeeping, but to a client, they are buying clarity, they are buying confidence. Um, the same goes for advisory. The client is buying certainty in their numbers, uncertainty in their financial future, whereas the accountant might think they're just selling an advisory package. They're totally different conversations at the end of the day because prospects don't want a service.

They want confidence and trust in the person they're hiring. And that's where storytelling really comes in. It also is where copywriting becomes increasingly important. Your website should not be about what you do. It should be about what the client needs and how you're going to solve their problems.

That's where social proof becomes so important. It's where the actual word you becomes more important. As people are reading, you want to be speaking directly to the client and telling them how you're going to solve their pain points, what solutions you're going to offer them because people don't necessarily care about the technical aspects of what you do in QuickBooks. They care about the solution you're providing them, the clarity you're providing them, and therefore the confidence they can have in running their business or making financial decisions for their family or whatever the case may be, right? And a way to look at it is a business owner, you know, who's searching for bookkeeping help isn't thinking, I need monthly reconcil bank reconciliations, right?

They're thinking, I have no idea what my numbers mean. They're a total mess. I'm behind. They're not, you know, it's not reconciled. They don't know that's the word.

I'm tired of being surprised come tax time, you know, and the reality is that's an emotional problem underneath the service that you were providing. So, I'm providing bank reconciliations, but the emotional problem is that's solving a bunch of these issues, right? So, if your website only says bookkeeping, you're missing that deeper conversation. And that's what we're trying to get across here about how you adapt and how you tell your story and get out of the sameness. So, let's talk about this a little bit more in the mind of the prospect.

Let's kind of run with this a little bit. So when someone lands on your website, you know, they're asking deeper questions than, you know, do you offer this service? Maybe they are. Maybe if you're looking for QPS stock um or you know, I need advice on how to create QPS stock treatment, right? That is a different intent user than perhaps a small business owner who is their books are a mess.

So uh you know there's a lot of research about it that a lot of purchasing decisions a percentage you know if it's I think there's a Harvard study a professor said like 95% of purchasing decisions happen in the subconscious right so people justify their decisions logically and these are the biases that they have right but they make their decisions emotionally which I think raises a big question so why do tax and accounting firms mark market almost entirely with logic, right? If 95% of the buying decision is is my emotions, um, and it's subconsciously kind of like, oh, you know, then why are we talking about services? Why are we listing, credential after credential after credential or certifications and years in business? Those are social proof. Those are indicators that help build your story.

But, you know, prospects are subconsciously asking, can I trust you? Right? Will you actually help me avoid mistakes? Uh will you make my life easier? And I think that's really re Rebekah what this is all about.

So where do you think firms um tend to underell themselves uh the most here? A lot of times they bury their differentiators if they exist at all on the about us page or somewhere in about the firm or meet the owner. They don't use client language. They don't use layman's terms. Their homepage is all very jargonheavy, which is confusing to prospects.

Like you said, Lee, people aren't searching for someone who can do my bank reconciliations, right? They're searching for someone who can help me understand my small business finances. Um, and exactly what those problems are. They may not even know, right? Because they understand their industry, not tax and accounting.

So accountants kind of fall into this trap of assuming credentials and logic are what they need to feel trustworthy when in reality what they need to feel trustworthy are stories. They're narrative. It's solving those problems on the homepage. It's saying hey we are here to help you solve x painoint that people in their niche are experiencing right. It's not saying we have 25 years of tax preparation experience.

Well, so do 5,000 other tax professionals, right? 5,000. Come on. Everyone, the average demographic is is people are old in this vertical. A lot of them are.

So, they're seasoned. They've been around a long time. And I think that's really important. So, you had mentioned, you know, like the story. So, we're not talking about bank reconciliation.

We're more talking about you want to put your prospect, your client that you want them to see the story you're telling and put themselves in it, right? what is that outcome? And it's much easier for them to understand. Um, you know, and if you think about this, all of these story narrative items are probably inside the client reviews you get. So, go to your tax buzz profile, go to Yelp, you know, what are people saying about you?

Um, what are the consultation questions people are asking, you know, over and over again? These are signals to say well maybe my story my narrative my you know nonsess um these are the things I should be talking about right these are the exact pain points that your team is hearing every week so the story isn't invented it's uncovered so I think this is an important kind of thought positioning isn't just what you say about yourself positioning is what prospects remember after um about you after they leave so you know what is it when they go through experience your website, what is it that what is their takeaway? If you ask them, what do you think of this firm? If you were to refer me, what would you say about me? Okay, that's what it is.

It's about creating a story that is clear. So, let's define this a little bit more. Uh because I think uh story and narrative, I'm using kind of marketing journalist type words, can make some accounting professionals feel uncomfortable. U we're not writing a script. We're not doing a movie trailer, but we are kind of okay.

So, when we say story, we are not saying every firm needs some dramatic founder journey or some influencer, right? You don't have that's not what we're saying you have to do. Um, you know, you don't need to write a memoir, right? We are not replacing expertise with fluff. Story beams, uh, what I mean, uh, I think story means clarity.

Is that a good way to say it? Like, you know, kind of expand on that a little bit. Yeah, I definitely think story means clarity. So, a lot of times, yeah, when people hear story, they think novel. We're not we're not writing the great American novel here, right?

We're just honing in on what makes you different because every firm is different. I work with a lot of them and they're all unique, even if they don't realize it coming into the call, right? There will be times that we sit down to do an onboard for Accounting Works client and we're talking through the things they do and they're like, "Oh, we don't really do anything different. We're just accountants." I've heard people say that and then as they talk they'll be mentioning that oh before this they were in agriculture for 20 years and they love working with farmers and that kind of thing and it's like hold on hold on that's your story that you have this expertise or this niche that you don't even necessarily realize you have and I think without telling a whole backstory of your whole life you can absolutely provide clarity what are your core services who is your core demographic and what problems do you solve? If nothing else, answering those three questions is going to give you a story on your homepage that's going to be very different than just having generic we do tax preparation and we've done it for 20 years.

Well, I would argue that clients don't necessarily buy from the best service providers all the time. Um, they buy from the best service providers they can understand the fastest, like what are you going to do for me? And if if that story resonates, they become a client much quicker. So the the story is what I would call the framework that helps the client say, "This firm gets me, right?" Uh a service list tells people what you do. A story tells people why they should care.

So I like to do a little before and after kind of examples. if you could run through, you know, some ideas on what like a generic firm looks like versus uh perhaps a and we're just talking now copy or headlines like a hero headline on a website or maybe you know a lead on an ad or something, but if you could just so we make sure we're communicating this properly, you know, what how would you explain this? Absolutely. So, a generic example of a headline on a homepage would be something like we provide tax preparation and accounting services. A much stronger headline would be, "We help business owners stop being surprised by taxes and make better decisions all year." Boom.

That positions you much better. Who do you work with business owners? What do you do for them? You help them stop being surprised and you do it year round, not just at tax time. That's a position.

So, I hope that difference is clear. Another one would be something like, "We offer bookkeeping services for small businesses." That doesn't really tell you much. Saying something like, "We help growing businesses turn messy books into clear decisions, cleaner tax planning, and confident tax cash flow." That's positioning. It's providing specific examples of the problems you're going to solve. So, this doesn't have to be a dramatic shift.

It can just be something simple that provides more clarity and more specificity. Um, and then also for something like tax planning, saying we provide tax planning for individuals, again, fairly generic, doesn't really offer a lot of clarity about the problems you're actually going to solve for the client. Whereas saying something like yearround tax guidance for households whose income, equity, bonuses, and investments make tax planning too important to leave until April. That's a really good one because it's actually making the person feel like there is something here that they really need help with, right? Like their income is far too critical to leave sitting on the back burner until it's tax time.

So, these are all really good. And then a last one would be something like we help real estate investors with tax planning. Again, doesn't really answer any questions or provide a lot of clarity. Whereas saying something like tax strategy for real estate investors who want better decisions before they buy, sell, refinance or expand is providing some specificity there of services you can provide and decisions you can help them make. So someone who might be struggling with any of those areas, those four four things that we mentioned, they're going to lock in a lot faster than reading we help real estate investors.

Um which kind of goes without saying, right? So just that specificity. Again, I know we're kind of really driving home that point, but just providing clear definition of what it is that you do and who you serve is how you set yourself apart in the AI era. Yeah, I know. I know it's crazy, but we do have some clients that actually focus on businesses that have messy books and they will lead with a desk with paperwork up to, you know, above their heads because those are the people they're trying to connect with, right?

Those are the people they're trying to attract. So then the positioning and the story that we tell is all about how we can help people with messy books and how we can take this stress off of your, you know, your life, right? That is a story. That is not a I'm a bookkeeper and I provide bookkeeping services. You've now, you know, narrowed your niche, narrowed your focus, narrowed your audience, but more importantly, you started connecting with a specific audience that you're looking for.

And I think this leads into how the old-fashioned referrals and now we call them recommendations for AI. Um because a lot of people are saying, hey, you know, I built my business on referrals. And I think that is very true with most, you know, I I would say the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years, right? They are incredibly valuable. But what has changed here is this is not exactly what happens anymore, right?

People are going straight to chat GPT. you know, before it said, "Hey, call my CPA." And um and you know, they didn't do any research, so they couldn't find anything about them. You know, maybe, you know, 10 years ago, they would Google them and they would read the reviews, right? They they might have checked out their LinkedIn. Um but the referral today is completely different, right?

The referral is also the starting line in some respects. And if you have a niche, so I don't know if I know this is going to be hard, but if you're looking for messy books, the messy book client probably knows a bunch of other buddies who are also messy book people. And then you can get a pipeline of like-minded people and that's the type of practice you're trying to run. But think now u movie professor, you know, a movie producer and they run in tight circles. They all talk.

Who is your entertainment CPA? You know, Scott is. And why is Scott so great? He knows movie producers. That's all he works with.

He he knows the secret sauce. He knows things others don't. That's when it starts validating things. So when a referral h actually happens, it makes much it makes it much easier for people. But you know, and that's what the thing is.

They're looking for proof. So kind of explain how an outdated website or more importantly a generic sameness weakens this referral because if you're referred into this generalist and you're that movie producer, does that speak to me? I mean, am I going to connect with that referral? Not at all. And this is where copy is really important and why having very specific narrative industry centric terms kind of comes into play.

Um, I think auto brands often do a really good job of this. I had to just buy a new car. Uh, my old car passed away and it was very sad, but I had to get a new car and honestly the branding was one of the big things that that made me go with the car I went with. Um, and so I think autobrands do an excellent job of kind of attracting the right kinds of clients and the people that they really want to get in their vehicles. So if you think about it and someone who's a movie producer goes to your website and all it says is we do taxes, that's not providing any sort of kind of confirmation of that referral that they may have received from another person.

You want to say industry related terms. You want to use terminology that's going to connect with the right audience. You want to use terminology that's going to draw in the people who are in that demographic, whether it's movie producers or doctors or people with messy books. The more your imagery and your terminology is specific to them, the more likely it is that a referral is going to stick. Furthermore, the more likely it is that AI systems are going to refer you to the right people even without a human interaction.

Um, I know we've talked a lot, Lee, about how your next referral may come from AI, not even come from a person. So, this goes to that, too. If the AI system has a deep understanding of who you are, and there's a movie producer looking for a new tax professional or accountant, you are going to rise to the top if all of the language on your website is geared toward those particular people. All right? And it's not just, I guess, the language and the story that helps with the recommendation.

And I would argue that the modern day referrals will get smaller and smaller and smaller. They have moved to recommendation engines and um you know if AI cannot recommend what it doesn't understand that is a big problem and you had mentioned um I think on our slack channel uh and we started kind of doing some research and we already do schema etup for all of our clients. So that is kind of like a library card is the best way I can say like a tree and it tells exactly where all the information is, what that information is for and it and it organizes it for the recommendation AI engines. But explain you went in deeper on kind of what this thought leader was saying and what the trend is saying because why this is so important is if you have an outdated website I guarantee you you do not have schema set up correctly. Why is that so important?

now than communicating your story now to these AI recommendation tools. Yeah. So AI can't recommend what it doesn't understand is the very very short version. So the more information you give it, the more deep context it has, the easier it's going to be for that system to understand who you are. So it's not just looking at the copy on your website.

It is looking at that deeper backend technical data, the schema, the meta, all of that. So this is where it finds out the specialties, the industries that are served, who owns the website, where is the firm located, what is the actual site map of this website, what services are they providing? Um, all of those things are signals. And if you don't have that information on your site, it's impossible for the AI tool to know why you're the best fit for someone. You, the AI can't know what you're not telling it, in short.

So the more you provide information, the more complex in ways your website is, not complex in a bad way, but complex in a deep and important way, the more likely it is that you're going to be recommended because the AI system understands precisely who your firm is and what you do in comparison to older firms that have outdated websites, that don't have any schema, that don't have any tree data, that don't have any specific local information that just have a generic template that's not really telling anyone anything. And this is why Lee, you often say that people aren't necessarily hiring the best firm. They're hiring the firm that has the best story and the best visibility. And all of this comes together to kind of tell the systems who the firm is that has all of those signals, not necessarily who does the best work. It's all about your positioning and your visibility.

Well, I would say Rebekah, it's about being relevant, right? It's not about which R website ranked the highest anymore. It's, you know, which firm appears most relevant to me. So, that's a different question. Uh, and we've given examples.

We kind of walked around this, but uh, you know, someone goes to an a chatbt, hey, who is a great accountant for dental firms? Um, you know, who helps real estate investors with tax planning or advisory? And if your website leads with generic sameness, we provide tax and accounting services, not we provide tax and accounting services and setup advice for dental practices, you're no longer So like, think about that. So, if there's five firms that are doing the proper way, we're giving the the AI the relevant terms and and background and reviews and content and articles and FAQs that why you help dental practices. Why do you think you would be recommended just because you're in the same area anymore?

And that's what we mean here where you become invisible to the machine. And it's not because you're bad. It's not that you don't know what you're doing, but you've become generic. you become a commodity. So, uh AI is going to reward the specific language.

AI is going to reward this clarity. And when we talk about future ready firms, it's not just using AI as a back-end tool for your practice management. It's making your firm easier to understand, easier to understand from the prospects point of view, easier for prospects and these engines to trust you. And more importantly, it's easier to sign up, to get onboarded, right? It makes it easier to refer um and more importantly if you're doing what we're talking about and getting out of the sameness um trend or whatever you want to call it.

I call it safety uh you're going to make it easier for these AI systems to understand you. So which circles back to kind of my and and this leads into my next segment is why good firms are becoming invisible. Um and that's because when you sound like everyone else, it's not necessarily you're bad. It's not like you don't have the expertise, but some of the best, most experienced firms have the weakest messaging. They're too busy.

I we don't need to do marketing, you know, and online, they look completely interchangeable from the next firm. And the the natural consequence here is, you know, is of generic uh positioning is price pressure. And if the amount of time it takes you is going down because AI is is automating a lot of different tasks, you know, sameness then creates a a price competition area. I don't think most firms are looking forward to a pricing competition. I think most firms you're seeing are going higherend, higher end, right?

So, how do you create that power position? It's uniqueness. Uniqueness that creates value. Uh when prospects can see the difference, um I don't think they're necessarily comparing your price points at that point. If you're connecting with them, they're not even thinking about price right now.

They're thinking, "This person, this firm understands me. They're relevant. they they they're looking at like, okay, if I looked at this firm and this firm's promised me this outcome and they back it up by these client stories and this narrative, that's a different conversation. So, I wanted to a takeaway today about and I've been leading this to you, Rebekah, on kind of like a how how can a firm create their own story? Something that's practical.

Every firm from this podcast can go, you know, utilize some of these steps. So, what are the five core? I created what I call five core questions. And if you can kind of run through this a little bit, I think this would be really helpful. Super easy to do.

Every firm should step back. You know, it's June, middle of June. Take the next four weeks and create your story and just go out there, do a little risk, you know, get it out there and see what happens. But go ahead. So, there are five really great questions here that everyone can ask.

I kind of think of this as like when you're making a new friend and you're like a kid on the playground and the things you want to know about someone. You kind of want your website to make friends with the AI engines so that it wants to recommend you and get you more friends, right? And that's prospects. So, there are five things here that you really should be able to answer very easily and your website and other content should answer. Number one, who do we serve best?

Not everyone you serve, who you serve best. So, think about that. That's your niche. That's your demographic. Two, what keeps those specific clients awake at night?

What are their pain points? Three, what do we believe that most other firms don't? And that can be about the client experience. It can be about how you serve clients. Whatever it is that sets you apart.

Number four, what outcome do we consistently create? And five, could a client explain what we do in a single sentence? And once you answer those, you're going to be well on your way to creating a solid story that both AI engines and prospects are going to resonate with. Yeah. How many uh tax accounting firms do you think have a sentence of one one single sentence?

Very few. Yeah. It's not uh it's difficult. So basically this is the framework and you know in the future and what we call the future ready firms you have to adopt to move forward. Okay.

And that that I think a lot of people get caught up right now and looking at kind of their internal tools. Um they're looking at you know their practice management side right now with technology and they're not focusing enough on this narrative on this storytelling getting out of the sameness uh because these are all the client-f facing experiences. This is your moat. Your client relationship is your moat. um they don't really care what you're doing in the back end.

It might help you deliver services a little bit faster, but they they want clarity, okay? Um and that means having a digital presence that captures your reviews, for example. Um and you know, and proactively ask for reviews, get those case studies going. Uh you want a platform that curates educational content maybe specifically to your dental firm prospects, right? uh you want to be able to capture leads smoothly.

You want to be able to onboard clients um very quickly, painlessly. You don't want like another chore for these people. You don't want to make it so difficult. You want to you want to set the expectations so high at the beginning that they come in trusting you right away. Okay?

And that includes proactive communication. So instead of being reactive to your your client base, you want to be uh proactive, right? You want to be predictive. You want to have systems in place that are looking at your client data and saying, "Hey, Joe should be doing X, right?" Um, that's a lot of things we've been working on at County Works. I I it's probably different than kind of where all the money is going, where all the money is being spent right now, but I firmly believe that this relationship layer is probably the most important thing that you can invest in today that can really move the needle.

Okay? So, ask yourself, are you easy to understand? Does your foundational story work? Am I attracting the kind of prospects we actually want to work with? Right?

So, you know, Rebekah, if you sat down with a firm owner tomorrow and you could only change one thing on their website, usually we get them and we're like, "Oh my god." Okay, where do we It's easy. It's really easy. But, you know, what would you do? How would you paint this picture uh to a firm just to get them started on the right path? Yeah.

The number one thing you should change is your default hero headline. That's the first thing people see on your site. If you don't know what a hero is, it's kind of that top image, that top section. We also call it the H1. It's basically the defining thing about your website.

It defines everything that comes after. So, if for example, it says something like, "Welcome to our accounting firm," or "We're your trusted financial partner." I would challenge you right now to go out and look at your site and change it to a line that names precisely who you serve and one specific problem or pain point you solve. Done. From there, everything can build off of that. But if you're going to change just one thing to get started, that's the number one thing to change because it's going to change the client experience from the minute they come to your website.

All of a sudden, you are appealing to the right people automatically right off the bat. um you're no longer a generalist. You have positioning and that can all happen with just changing one sentence. Be careful to make sure that the sentence of the people you're there's a market for it, right? The market's big enough to big enough to support your firm.

Um but what you'll find is the referrals and the recommendations. You'll have a waiting list of people coming in. You'll have pricing power. It completely changes the battle that commodity uh you know uh template style firms are going through today and we can see the difference already. We see the firms that are out there communicating, putting themselves out there, you know, they they have a story.

It beats sameness every time. Um you what was the client? It was a my tax lady. She put on we did kind of like a a trailer audio podcast kind of version storytelling about her. But just explain how much that moved the needle from, you know, where she was as a firm a few years ago to what she is today.

It's like night and day and it all it was is telling she had the same skills. She was an expert at what she did, but she became unique. And why was that so important? It was very different. Um, at the time we started doing that, very few, if any, other places were kind of offering these audio elevator pitch style stories that you could put on your website.

And she was one of the first of our clients to do it. And it was a game changer. It it immediately caught people and it hooked them. Nobody else was doing this. And so they felt that they could trust her because all of a sudden there was this it kind of let you into her world a little bit more because it was audio.

It was immersive. It really was kind of putting you as a prospect or a client directly into the story of what her firm did. And it was it was hugely influential. And we use that site as an example for lots of other people who now have that same sort of audio elevator pitch. Um, and they've been great.

It's something that, you know, people do on their site. They do it for their blog post so people can listen rather than read. And it's it's a really cool thing. But you don't have to reinvent the wheel here either. just honing in on who it is you serve.

And Lee, like you said, make sure there's a market. But I think what we find when we onboard people is that a lot of people actually do have a specialty already. They're just not conveying it properly through their copy. So this might not be something where you need to sit down and pick a whole niche. You might already have it.

I would say the odds are good that you already have it. You're just not communicating that expertise and that niche through your copy and through your story right now. Yeah. Because it's not all about picking a niche. It's about creating a story.

It beats sameness over and over again. And then kind of an exercise, I would say, a challenge, you know, you know, open your site and look at it and say, you know, go go to some of your competitor's sites who you think are your competitors. You know, cover up the logos. You know, would a prospect honestly know which one is your site versus the other one? Um, you know, would they understand who you serve?

You know, important more importantly, what you believe and what problems you solve? And if not, I think that is your greatest opportunity. And that's why in this space, um, the firms that are doing the storytelling, doing the narrative are killing it. And it's just such a small percentage of they're they're all County Works Pro clients, by the way. Uh because the others are still in the, you know, the cookie cutter world of template websites and it's killing their growth opportunities, right?

So the your biggest threat right now is just being indistinguishable to every other firm and and right now in a cookie cutter is dead. I've been saying it for a while. Narrative wins. So, if you want to be a firm that is winning the next decade, you need to be able to tell your story. Um, that wraps up.

That's I think we've gone through this enough. We're going to start pivoting a little bit more to the onboarding side, some more client experience things here in the next few podcasts, but I thought it was really important to talk about this. We have a um a way to help you tell your firm story. Um, we have a simple uh we call it a ready firm blueprint and what we do is we you answer a few questions. You go to countingworkspro.com.

There's a big blue bar. It says start your blueprint, get your assessment. And basically what we'll do is we will analyze your current positioning and we will give you a like an you know an expectation of what your site, what your branding, what your story could look like. um we'll analyze your story, your current digital uh visibility, your client experience, and your growth systems to show you exactly where you might be leaking opportunities. Right?

So, if you're interested, this is a free service. We've been doing hundreds of them. It has been blown away. People seeing them are like, "That is the firm I've always wanted to look like." Right? And it's boom, we get those up and running very quickly.

So, definitely visit CountingWorkspro.com. Um again, we're doing these every day. My team has dialed this in and the results are amazing. So, we've taken generic same cookie cutter firms. We don't oversell you.

We make you comfortable. You know, it's not everything is super high-end, not as everything is premium. A lot of it, it could be very simple, simple local markets, right? Community style. That is what's really important.

So, Rebekah, I think I've hit everything. Is there anything else you want to wrap up with here? No, I think I think we hit everything. I hope this made sense and I hope there are some good takeaways here that you can actually implement even as soon as today and just looking at your own website and thinking about how you can kind of shift your own narrative to to reach the right people. All right, again, thank you.

We're going to wrap this up. Thank you for being a listener to the GrowthMinded Accountant podcast. We're up to I think right around 8,000 subscribers. We appreciate all the support. If you feel the message we're saying is important, please share it with your colleagues and friends uh who might benefit.

until next week. We'll uh hopefully Summer's almost here. Graduation is kind of almost everyone's through graduation. So, uh it's time to start thinking about your firm growth. So, thank you again for being a listener.