don’t be afraid to give them a “taster.”
by rob nixon
want more clients? just doing more meetings is a good start. once you have people actually meeting prospects and clients, you will go a long way to making sales.
more on strategy: how to be a guru in sales | the 10 keys to selling accounting services | 6 steps of moving to value pricing | feel good about yourself | how to build enduring relationships | they should all be ‘a class’ clients | accountants are the last trusted advisors | how to structure your firm for success
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as you monitor the conversion rate of each person (prospect to sale ratio), the number of meetings it takes to make a sale and the average sale value, then you need to work on improving each area. you are looking for a higher conversion rate and fewer meetings per sale at a higher average transaction value per sale.
one of the key ingredients to sales success is the individuals’ self-belief and conviction – it comes across as confidence and passion. you need to get more of it.
just like a dog can smell fear so too can a prospect.
if you have a speech impediment this will affect your success. if you perspire a lot under your armpits or on the palms of your hands this will affect your success. if you say “ummm” before sentences this will affect your success. if you look like an unkempt slob this will affect your success. if you do not seem confident in your tone this will affect your success.
you may need to “fake it until you make it” during your sales conversations. take a deep breath before you get into the meeting. wear dark clothing – and don’t raise your arms. wipe your hand on a cloth in your pocket before shaking hands. invest in some new threads that make you feel better. get some speech coaching. you need to think like a duck on a lake – cool and calm on top but paddling like heck underneath. you need to get those butterflies flying in formation!
during your sales conversation, your number one goal should be to find your clients’ motivation. you need to find out
- what their objectives are,
- what problems they are looking to solve,
- what their goals are and
- what they want to achieve by using your services.
you need to practice the types of questions you will ask. you need to role-play with colleagues before you meet the client. you need to use words and sentences that are conducive to finding out what your clients’ objectives are and you need to do a “needs analysis” with each client.
i love educating prospects during a sales process. that means they have learned something about their situation during the sales process.
when you offer a “taster” of advice during the sales process you are consulting to them while selling.
an example is that you could tell your client/prospect what to do, but not how to do it. during the process of selling i like to use a strategy that i have perfected called “what if” selling. that means that you focus on “now” numbers (broken down by key performance indicators in the profit & loss and balance sheet) and based on you helping the client (you tell them how you can help them) there is a hypothetical “where” result in each of the kpis that the prospect nominates. once extrapolated, the difference in profit, cash, wealth is always massive. makes your fees look insignificant and a great return on investment.
what you send to your clients/prospects during the process (you may have multiple meetings) will have an impact on your success. you should be citing case studies and testimonials of other successful clients you have worked with. you should be sending followup cards, emails and other items of interest. your implementation plans (you would typically call these proposals or engagement letters) should be a confirmation device that summarizes your conversation. they should follow the “language of the sale” process and cover no more than four pages.
there should not be an objection that you have not heard before. you should have a great answer for each objection. you should have a standard objection and answer list.
once you get an objection (and you will get plenty of them) the best way to handle them is to use the “feel, felt, found” technique.
here’s an example: “i know how you feel, others that we have done this for felt exactly the same before we got started. what they found was that once we implemented this solution they … (benefit, benefit, benefit).”
so you have had a great meeting – now what? most accountants in a sales role (and unsuccessful salespeople) say things like “come back to me when you are ready” or “let me know if you are interested.” arrgh – you just poured cold water on the sale. you’ve had a good meeting so always remember the true objective of the meeting – to book the next steps.
you should always bamfam. you should always book a meeting from a meeting. you need to progress the sale with the next step. the next step could be a followup meeting, an implementation plan sent or a start date. either way there is an event that happens after every sale. systematically book it every single time after every single meeting.
if all else fails simply ask for the business. literally, “do you want to achieve what we have outlined and when do you want to achieve that?” they can only say no. if you have done the best job you can in the process, you have uncovered their objectives and you have followed up in a timely manner, then remember they are only saying no to themselves and their objectives – not you. as my sales manager (perry) says, “every no is closer to a yes.” it’s not your problem.