In our last article in this series we explored the four different sales that you have to make when seeking to win a new client followed by the four distinct phases of the sales process.
How important is fine tuning and improving your approach to selling? Very. This provides the platform for firm growth and improving your closing ratio.
Missed the article? You will find it here.
In this article we continue our journey toward improving the results from selling accountancy, tax and business services.
HOW TO PLAY THE “NUMBERS GAME”
In some respects, marketing the firm resembles a pipeline. You pump the appropriate resources into one end of the pipeline and clients come out the other end. But in between lots of your resources leak out. There are several joints in the marketing pipeline which leak.
1. You gain prospects into the marketing pipeline by creating a public image with a lot of people…which results in personal contacts. In the next section of the pipeline you then….
2. Develop relationships with some of these contacts… which sometimes results in buyer interest. In the next section of pipeline you enter the…
3. Selling phase. . . which, if successful, results in a sale and an actual client. Then, you must…
4. Retain the client. . . through high-quality service.
Key Point: Sales wins the client. Outstanding client service retains the client – who will, hopefully, recommend you to other [good] clients.
Back to our ‘pipeline’ – each joint of the marketing pipeline leaks prospects. For example, you may create a public image with thousands of people by virtue of advertising, your online presence, social media, speaking, writing articles, or public service work. This puts, hopefully, many into the pipeline. However, most of them leak out because they already have an accountant, or do not need an accountant, or maybe they live or work too far away from your office and are not enamoured at being a virtual client. Only a small portion of these people become contacts or acquaintances and enter the next section of the marketing pipeline because the “personal contact joint” leaks. But some of them will become contacts and make it to the next section of the pipeline.
You may develop many relationships, but most of them leak out, too. Most will not develop into a relationship that could result in interest in your professional services. The “buyer interest joint” leaks. But some of them will result in interest in your professional services and make it into the next section of the pipeline.
You may make any number of sales meetings/presentations, but a lot of them leak, also. Some choose to stay with their current accountant, some choose another accountant, and some decide to go in-house with their needs. The ‘sale joint’ leaks. But some of them will say yes and become clients and enter the last section of the pipeline.
Even there some of your clients leak out, whether through death, bankruptcy, moving, or just your giving them service that is poorer than they expect. That is why you need a continuing source of new clients to keep the firm viable and growing.
Key Point: To have a reasonable number of interested prospects, you must have far more relationships. And to have a reasonable number of relationships, you have to have a lot of people aware of you and/or your firm.
That is the numbers game. You must create a favourable public image with a large number of people to overcome the leaky marketing pipeline.
DECISION-MAKING MODEL USED BY A PROSPECT
We previously covered the four stages the accountant traverses in the sales process, but what about the prospect? How do people actually choose an accountant? Most prospects go through a specific mental process…
1. Based on some information, the prospect recognises a possible need or want or mild curiosity about the possibility of some value which you could be to him or her. This results from your continuing marketing activities. The first sign of a need is a slight discontent or dissatisfaction.
Definition: Need: any statement made by a person which expresses a want or concern that you can satisfy.
Some authors say, “Needs are logical and wants are emotional.” They also relate this to the phenomena that:
- “People buy on emotion and justify it on facts.”
- “People only buy two things: Solutions to problems and good feelings.”
These authors often equate needs with logic, facts, and solutions to problems. They equate wants with emotions and good feelings.
The distinction is not particularly useful because all needs have both an emotional and logical content. I use need broadly as “anything which a prospect wants which the seller can provide.”
2. The prospect decides to investigate the information. Here you get an appointment to discuss a specific opportunity (selling).
3. The prospect gathers facts and evaluates them based on their own personal, unique, subjective, idiosyncratic criteria, which may involve gathering proof. Here you interview the client and make your responding presentation. This stage may involve several meetings (which are actually sales calls), each of which would produce a closer relationship and escalating levels of involvement with the prospect. Each meeting or sales call should end with some level of commitment by the prospect which advances the sale.
Key Point: The prospect’s perception of a problem or need, even a severe one, does not mean they will buy. The final step in developing a need is for the problem to escalate in the prospect’s mind sufficiently to cause the prospect to act.
4. The prospect decides. Here you get a commitment to your proposal and close the sale.
FOUR KEY DIFFERENCES IN PROFESSIONAL FIRMS
Professional firms differ from other types of service firms in four key aspects:
1. Clients of professionals take greater risks than the purchasers of nonprofessional services or products. The decision is more important than choosing other vendors. The decision is more public than other business decisions and a bad decision can be very visible to others in the organisation.
Key Point: The greater degree of risk the buyer faces; the greater degree of trust the buyer must have in the seller.
2. Professional services are customised to respond to the individual client. You design and produce an intangible product uniquely for each client. Prospects and referral sources intuitively know this and must evaluate your potential effectiveness in dealing with their personal characteristics or distinct operating methods.
3. Clients cannot judge the technical quality of professional services. Clients have little or no rational basis to distinguish one accounting firm from another on technical grounds. Except for larger businesses with in-house accounting talent, most prospects must make buying decisions based on non-technical considerations.
4. Professional relationships can continue for decades. The client’s decision to engage a professional is not a decision to engage in a single transaction, but a commitment to a relationship of indefinite duration — much like a marriage. This requires the professional firm to have a more complex business strategy than other service businesses. The relationships between professionals and their clients only begin when they close the sale. You might say: “The courtship phase is concluded, and the marriage begins.”
In our next article we will continue the journey of how to improve your sales closing skills.
