A Team Approach to Prospect Meetings
Source: CPA Practice Management Forum
Stephen W. White, chief administrative officer of Rockville, Md.-based Aronson LLC, believes that a team-based sales strategy, beginning with the prospect meeting, greatly enhances business development effectiveness and increases cross-selling opportunities.
This strategy involves thorough research and planning and brings together key personnel from audit, tax, consulting, business development and other disciplines within the firm. One person (usually a business development executive or someone who has a close relationship with the prospect) needs to quarterback the process, but each team member plays a role and no individual should dominate the meeting.
Firms should start by “scouting” prospective clients to learn, among other things, a prospect's:
- Key decision makers,
- Primary industry,
- Organizational structure,
- Business “pains,”
- Service needs,
- Process for selecting a service provider.
The article also discusses pre-meeting preparation, building the team, preparing meeting deliverables, conducting the meeting, and post-meeting follow-up.
For the complete article, read “Winning the Game: The Client Service Team Initiative.”
From CPA Practice Management Forum, CCH Incorporated, 800-449-8114, Vol. 8, No. 8, August 2012, p. 10.