Establishing a Selling Culture

Source: Public Practice E-News

CPAs often eschew the sales function. They may prefer to think of themselves as advisors. But if your services have value, establishing a sales culture can help fulfill your clients' needs. Here are some highlights on how to establish a sales culture:

• Designate someone as sales coach--the managing partner or another accomplished business developer. The sales coach will manage the sales pipeline and help the sales team. The sales coach may have a more active role in smaller firms.
• Add a sales coordinator. This person may also have marketing responsibilities and will provide administrative support such as writing proposals and letters, pre-qualifying leads, maintaining the CRM system, and managing the pipeline. When the pipeline grows you may add an account manager to generate new business.
• Adopt a sales methodology to be followed by everyone. A typical sales methodology includes: introduction, qualification and needs analysis, presenting your solution, closing, and follow through.
• Create a uniform sales process including maintenance of a contact management database, assigning an owner to each prospect, assigning closing probability percentages, and conducting pipeline meetings.
• Conduct regular sales meetings to communicate and reinforce the sales process throughout the firm.

For the complete article, click here and read "Does Your Firm Have a Sales Culture?"

From Public Practice E-News, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, July/August 2009, http://www.tscpa.org/.