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Source: CPA Practice Management Forum
Chris Perrino, business development director at Cincinnati’s Barnes, Dennig & Co., provides these ideas for growing a business:
- Create business ideas and present them to existing clients.
- Don’t be afraid to give away ideas, especially tax savings ideas, to clients. If competitors give your clients these ideas, you won’t get an engagement anyway.
- Be good to your referral sources (e.g., provide free tax services).
- Don’t pursue cold leads when you can pursue warm ones such as former clients, prospects who selected other firms, referrals, and contacts made through networks. Companies change accounting firms, and when they do, you want to be considered.
- Don’t wait for referrals to call. Call them. They may have been referred to more than one firm.
- Use a process approach such as meet, analyze needs, develop strategies, get support from referral sources, and make personal presentations.
- Research a prospect and its industry. You may come up with ideas it hasn’t considered. Use the Internet, associations, Dun & Bradstreet, bankers, attorneys, employees of the prospect, newspapers, etc.
- Meet with the sales team. Go over research, needs, potential objections, the objective of the meeting, the roles of team members, etc.
- Prepare an agenda for the meeting with the prospect, and send it. Lead with information about the prospect. Information about your firm should be next to last. (This helps relate your firm’s strengths to the prospect’s needs.) The last item should be next steps. It avoids ending the meeting without a scheduled follow-up.
- Use war stories, such as how you saved money for a client, which are more memorable than abstract concepts.
- When prospects ask about your firm, it doesn’t mean they’re interested in your answers. It’s better to talk about your firm in relation to the prospect’s needs, so ask the prospect to talk first.
- Spend two-thirds of the meeting listening. It’s a better approach and, for many accountants, is more comfortable than talking
- Try to see things from the client’s perspectives.
- Know the difference between one- and two-phase selling processes. If the prospect has expressed a need, it’s a one-phase process—you need only persuade the client you’re the right firm. Otherwise, you must first convince the prospect there’s a need.
- Know to whom you’re talking. You may talk to a CFO about technical accounting principles, but a CEO is probably not interested. The CEO is more likely interested in how you can help improve the business.
- Be discreet when taking notes. Don’t write down very personal things.
- Ask for a facility tour if practicable. It lets the prospect show off and helps establish a relationship. It also may stimulate ideas.
- Prepare a list of things you might expect the prospect to say, such as “margins are narrowing.” Be prepared to match your services to such problems. But don’t sell just the process (e.g., helping with inventory management). Sell the solution (higher margins) as well.
- Learn to talk about your services with passion. Passion is infectious.
- Don’t assume prospects are aware of the benefits of what you do. Be sure to articulate the benefits of every feature you present.
- Information not relevant to a client’s needs is just that—not relevant.
- If you offer a guaranty, don’t qualify it with fine print.
- Ask the prospect what he or she thinks should be done next, such as “Would you like us to prepare a proposal?”
- Anticipate common objections, such as fees, and be prepared to answer them. Be prepared to say your fees are higher, but that you are experts in the client’s industry. Another common issue is partner involvement. Be prepared to satisfy the prospect about the attention that will be given by the partner.
- Follow up on client meetings quickly, or someone else will get in the door.
From CPA Practice Management Forum, CCH Incorporated, 800-449-8114,
September 2005, p. 14. |
