Intuit CEO outlines strategy to boost sales

Intuit Inc. Chief Executive Brad Smith said the company didn’t bring its “A game” last year and will speed up development of mobile software and undertake other initiatives to turn more online shoppers into paying customers.

Refining products such as TurboTax and QuickBooks can bring Intuit more paying customers and translate into at least 5 percentage points of sales growth, Smith said at a meeting with financial analysts Tuesday at Intuit headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

“It was a solid year — it was not our best year,” Smith said of fiscal 2012, which ended in July. “We did not bring our A game.”

The company affirmed its forecast that sales for the current fiscal year will grow at least 9.6%.

Intuit — which makes the TurboTax, Quicken and QuickBooks tax and financial-planning software — has been aiming to boost the number of repeat customers to reach Smith’s goal of adding as many as 5 million users and increasing annual revenue by $1.7 billion over three years.

Intuit must rely on its own initiatives to boost sales growth because it is assuming no improvement in the economy for consumers and small businesses during fiscal 2013, Smith said.

Smith has been using acquisitions to move the company beyond its roots in financial-management and tax software, which accounts for about 70% of revenue. It has bought seven companies in the last three years to diversify into mobile applications, Web banking and other areas.

Sales for the fiscal year that began Aug. 1 may rise to $4.55 billion to $4.65 billion, the company said last month. Profit may increase at least 12% to $3.32 to $3.38 a share, excluding certain items.

The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg is for Intuit’s sales to increase 11% this year to $4.59 billion, while profit is projected to rise to $3.35 a share. Revenue last year increased 10% to $4.15 billion.

The company is simplifying questionnaires on tax-preparation software to demand less data upfront and using plainer language to keep potential customers from dropping off before they file their returns via Intuit, Smith has said.

Intuit fell 79 cents, or 1.3%, to $59.36 on Tuesday. The shares had gained 14% this year as of Monday.