In part one of this three-part blog series, “Move your accounting firm forward with high-value payroll services,” we cover the hot topic of how offering and marketing high-value payroll services is a worthwhile effort for accounting firms. Learn how your firm can provide full-service payroll services and take advantage of the benefits a partner-sourced payroll solution offers.
We spoke with Greg Maravilla of PracticeCFO to get his insights on why he decided to take the partner-sourced payroll route. He firmly believes partnering with myPay Solutions for his clients’ payroll needs increased bandwidth in his firm, him and his team to focus on their areas of expertise.
Offering high-value payroll services
For many CPAs and accountants, payroll is understandably outside of your comfort zone. If you are brand new to payroll, do some research to find out what are others doing. How are other firms growing or retaining clients? When building a payroll strategy, how can you add revenue with payroll? There are some things you can do with marketing and branding best practices to take advantage of the market opportunity payroll offers.
Greg’s firm, for example, made a cognizant decision to offer high-value payroll services to a niche audience. Greg saw an opportunity that was being missed. Many dentists and doctors have their financial planning handled in one place and their tax and accounting handled in another. Disjointed professional services means that his clients don’t have coordinated strategies. Greg saw an opportunity to be narrower in his focus, at least in terms of the industry he wanted to serve, but broader in his product offerings in order to provide more comprehensive and coordinated services. He explains:
“Most of the dentists that we work with have their own S corporations if they’re in California, or LLCs for other states. They all need to pay their employees. Under our full-coverage philosophy, we don’t want them to have to leave our umbrella, so we offer payroll. It’s one more thing that they don’t have to think about or go elsewhere to get.”
He made sure to train his staff how to spot payroll opportunities, how to explain the benefits of consolidated services to clients, and how payroll services fit into the firm’s over-arching umbrella philosophy. He cautions firms not to skip this important step.
“Are your staff informed about the complexity of selling payroll? Are they saying yes to payroll opportunities, or are they possibly turning that business away? Does your staff fully understand the benefits of high-value payroll services?“
Keep focus on payroll to improve client retention
Even in a smaller firm, you can still manage payroll easily with a comprehensive partner-sourced solution. Greg’s firm has eight professional staff and one firm administrator. But the idea that we are trying to leverage and streamline in order to either grow your firm or retain existing clients and nurture those relationships, is: how do you keep that focus in your firm, regardless of its size?
“Many firms can relate to the desire to maintain high client retention and satisfaction. That’s something every CPA firm wears as a badge of honor. It’s important to make sure your client is a good fit for your firm and offerings. But sometimes that can also be a double-edged sword. It can be challenging in terms of how you qualify your clients.”
Greg’s firm is a good example of one that continues to grow, adding over 100 new clients in a very short period of time by introducing high-value payroll services to his firm’s service mix.
It’s just as important to vet your service providers as much as you do your clients. Greg’s firm is selective in the clients it takes on in a couple of ways. Although the focus is mostly on dentists and doctors, the firm wants all clients to agree with his firm’s philosophy.
Greg understands that when his firm selects its clients properly, it can serve them better. Because his firm is focused on a particular industry, it gets to know all the things that a CFO would know. It knows what the industry trends are, and that sets apart the firm from the competition.
Why did Greg decide to partner with myPay Solutions?
Why partner with myPay Solutions instead of other competitive payroll solutions? When focusing on your core competencies, how is partnering with myPay Solutions helpful? Most clients are happy with a high-value payroll solution that manages all the complex situations that come with processing payroll, is consistent, trustworthy, and efficient, and takes the burden off them, reducing their stress related to payroll.
Greg understands that when payroll is done wrong, it can upset employees and shake clients’ confidence. He knows so many people have had that experience with other providers. His experience with myPay Solutions is that those kinds of mistakes don’t happen. He explains:
“We have a dedicated person over at myPay Solutions. They know how we operate, and they are very responsive. That keeps our clients and their employees happy, which is important, especially when it comes to payroll. Since myPay Solutions is a comprehensive solution, you can set it up and forget it. All the clients’ employees need to do is submit hours, and everything gets processed for them. There’s little worry for them, not a lot of effort, and it basically runs by itself, so you can focus on more important things.”
Coming up in the second and third parts of this blog series, we’ll break down some best practices in selling and marketing high-value payroll services, and also cover the importance of branding, both online and in print. In part two, “Opening up a payroll niche in the firm,” we’ll discuss how to begin offering payroll in your firm. In part three, “How to sell and market payroll solutions to grow clients,” we’ll offer tips to boost your online presence and brand via marketing payroll services, plus how to strengthen your client relationships via payroll solutions with our experts. Bookmark this blog and come back soon.
Can’t wait for the next post?
Access the free webcast replay, “Sell and Market High-Value Payroll Services Through Payroll Services” for the full interview with April Welliver, Greg Maravilla, and me.
Learn more about to see how you can offer payroll services in our free white paper, “Start Your Growth Engine: Rev Up Your Profits with the Right Approach to Payroll”.
