Trying to Specialize - But New Clients Not Having it

Fortunate to have a jam-packed book of retail business, I'm trying to specialize when it comes to taking new clients.

I only wish to accept new clients with s corporations, sole props, and family-type 1040 taxes.

I wish to turn away new clients needing:

Amended tax returns for non-clients
HARPTA for non clients (Hawaii withholding of non-resident property sales)
Back Taxes and multiple years
Trust tax returns for non clients
IRS/State Representation for non-clients
Clients living abroad or with foreign interests
Non-profits
Multiple States/MSRRA
State Return Only (no fed)
Businesses with over 5 million in sales

I make exceptions for certain referrals for and return clients with these tax situations.

I have the following script for emails and the phone for my administrative employees:

Thank you for contacting us.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a tax professional with the availability to take on your tax situation at this time, so we can’t take you on as a new client.

We’re sorry we can’t help, and we wish you the best in your searches.

Clients are getting angry with us over the phone and we have gotten a couple of bad reviews as a result. Clients basically explain their situation, and then feel betrayed as if we are saying, "oh, you need that? Wow, OK. I see. Hmm. Nah, we don't think so, we can't be bothered. Go somewhere else".

We ARE saying just that - just more politely as scripted above.

Not only are the clients pushing back - my admin is pushing back hard at me too, complaining that it sounds terrible and that it doesn't work.

I tell them I like this wording because it's the truth, it's our written policy, and if we turn one person away and not the next, that this can't be taken as discriminatory.

I've considered setting up prices so that these other needs would be priced out (or more worth taking on), but I have a feeling that this is not going to go over or work so well either. Whenever I'm way too expensive, clients can sense it and they expect the world from me. Like when you spend $30 on the onion soup at the steakhouse and it's just a little bit too salty. You feel slighted.

Has anyone experienced this? Have you tried to specialize but had trouble with it? Is it wrong for me in any way to only accept clients within my specialty? Is there a better way to do it?

Do you have a united front? As in, have you updated your website to include this new information? i.e. your ideal client and who you will not be able to help. Have you sent an e-blast to your existing clients notifying them of the shift and asking them to take it into consideration when referring prospects?

Why is your admin staff delivering this information to prospective clients? Have you trained them to qualify a prospect?

Why not have a firm or two that you can refer prospects like this to? That way you can tell the prospect that they don't have enough complexity to justify your fees, however you're happy to refer them to another professional or two.

Whenever I'm way too expensive, clients can sense it and they expect the world from me.

For the clients that try to dictate your fees, those are the ones that will eventually find their way out of your practice.

If you deliver an excellent client experience, advise well, and execute well, I think you'll find most clients will glad pay your fees, even if it hurts a little. There are a lot of sub par preparers out there who take a month to respond to an email and give shoddy advice, if any at all.

Differentiate yourself.

Retail clients are different than business clients.
What you've described is my experience with a number of retail clients.
There's little you can do to influence this dynamic other than what you've crafted, which I think is rather good.
Just simply increasing your price to "weed out" certain folks rarely achieves the goal you're trying to accomplish and will likely result in you having to compromise the principles you've set to achieve those goals.

An individual who had been CEO of many successful organizations once described strategy as: You don't have a strategy until you've identified what you're willing to say 'no' to. You've done that. Stick with it.

I agree with having firms to refer work to when you do not do that type of work, or choose to pass on a prospect. I had a foreign citizen recently inquire about me doing their 1040-NR and I said no, but then gave him a referral to another CPA that will do it. That type of tax work simply is not within my increasingly limited scope of services.

The only way to build a quality firm and thus earn more money is to define your client and stick with it. I do not advertise my ideal client type, but I certainly know very quickly when a prospect does or does not fit within it.

We appreciate you reaching out, thank you! Unfortunately, your situation isn’t one we can take on at the moment. We have a specific focus that doesn’t include (service requested) unless it’s for someone who is already a current client of our firm. We do this so we can keep the promises we already made to our current clients.

Again, we appreciate you reaching out. If you would like us to send over a few contacts who may be able to assist as you continue your search, we are happy to do so.


I tied to soften the email response.

ItDepends that is the tack that I take. "Thank you for contacting us.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a tax professional with the availability to take on your tax situation at this time, so we can’t take you on as a new client.We’re sorry we can’t help, and we wish you the best in your searches."

It is your business and you should be able to take on the type of clients you want. If you make exceptions and then it comes to bite you guess who is at fault here!

So stick to your business plan and if these people are upset that you did not take them on as a client so be it!