October 14, 2022
Read time: 4 minutes
In this edition, I'm going to explain how I find leads for my fractional CFO firm, KFE Solutions.
Learning how to generate consistent leads for your firm is essential. When you have regular leads coming in, it's a massive stress reducer. It also helps you forecast both revenue growth and team growth.
Unfortunately, most firm owners don't have a process for generating leads. Which means they stay in the scarcity zone.
89% of firm owners hope and pray new clients will come to them.
There are several incorrect assumptions that lead to a dry well of new clients:
• A beautiful website and shiny logo will drive leads
• The perfect scope of work and prices will drive new leads
• Clever social media posts talking about accounting will drive leads
Those things don't usually work out particularly well.
Neither does cold calling, cold DMs, nor cold emails.
Over the last 6.8 years, I have found 4 primary sources of new leads for my firm and they are all sources that you can leverage as well.
And here they are...
Source 1: UpWork
I've talked before about my best practices for UpWork.
But the reason I like UpWork, especially for new firm owners, is because UpWork is already stacked with people looking for your services. You don't have to convince anyone why CFO services are important. Your job is to convince them to work with you.
Source 2: Speaking Events
There are 3 ways to unlock INSTANT credibility:
✅ Write a book on ANYTHING
✅ Have a PhD in ANYTHING
✅ Speak on stage
Getting on stage at events where your ideal clients attending is a gold mine. Because you instantaneously gain authority with the audience. Plus, the audience is captive. They pretty much have to listen to you! I've also found that people typically have their walls down at events which is another huge bonus.
A word of advice: you don't have to be on stage at a huge arena. Even getting in front of a group of 15 people at a local industry event can be a huge win.
Source 3: Masterminds, group coaching programs, and conferences
When it comes to finding new business, my ideal clients are:
Growth minded
AND able to invest in their growth and their business' growth
AND willing to invest in their growth and their business' growth
Why?
These characteristics make for the perfect CFO client!
So then the question becomes:
Q: Where do people who are growth minded AND who have the willingness and ability to invest in growth hang out?
A: They hang out at places where they can grow! They invest in masterminds, group coaching programs, and conferences.
So that's where I go.
In fact, that's where I spend the vast majority of what would be considered my "marketing budget".
I spent anywhere from $30,000 to $75,000 per year on this source of leads and my ROAS is easily 10x.
Beat that, Facebook.
Source 4: Referrals
I ask for referrals!
I know this sounds like common sense, but common sense isn't always common practice.
I don't like to be pushy about referrals so I tend to not ask for them as often as I COULD.
But I do like to ask 1-2x a year.
How do I do it?
I make sure I absolutely crush it on a CFO call. At the end of the call when the client is feeling great, I'll ask them if they know of anyone else who could use our help.
For years, I looked for the golden biz dev channel for CFO clients.
It doesn't exist.
Instead, finding new CFO clients comes from casting a net in several places and building a book of business a few clients at a time.
Where are you going to cast your net?
Have a great week!
Your coach,
Michael
Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1. The Inner Circle - every month my team and I go live and share the most impactful lessons we've learned in our journey to start, scale, and optimize our own CFO firm (including live Q&A). Plus you'll get access to our private community of nearly 150 fractional CFOs.
2. The CFO Academy - This is a 7 week deep dive into the exact playbooks that I use to run my firm, KFE Solutions.
3. If you'd like more amazing (and free!) content about starting, scaling, or optimizing your Fractional CFO firm check out:
→ The CFO Report on YouTube (if you love video)
→ The CFO Report on Apple Podcast (if you prefer audio)
