today everyone contributes to growth.
with sarah johnson dobek and ty hendrickson
inovautus consulting
sales is sometimes presented as this abstract notion of convincing someone to buy your product, but it actually follows a simple framework.
it may seem like an obvious answer, but there’s some science behind the why.
key takeaways:
- what makes a good business developer.
- the skills professionals need for business development.
- the professional’s role in growth.
transcript
ty
so to kick this off, i’d just love to get your thoughts on what’s going on with business development these days in the accounting industry.
sarah
yeah, there is a lot going on with business development today, one of the probably the biggest things that’s changing and as a result of the environment that we’re in today, but one of the biggest things that’s changing are the skill sets that are needed today for growth and you know it used to be that firms could get away with having one or two rainmakers, right? and a whole bunch of worker bees. and today that’s just not the case
the group growth really has to be a culture within the firm and spread across it. so one of the conversations we are having a lot of today is not only how is it changing, but how do we get everybody involved in growth? and what does that look like? because i don’t think it’s what most people perceive it to be meaning everybody is going to be a rainmaker.
ty
i love that you talk about this. everybody can’t be a rainmaker because somehow, we’re going from there’s one or two in the firm to now everybody has to be a rainmaker.
and that’s not really realistic.
so what is the balance successful firms are finding?
sarah
yeah, i think a lot of it really.
is it really in how they deliver on client service right.
so we’ve known foundationally for a long time that that has been a necessary evil, but with all the changes that are happening and a lot of firms making a move towards doing more advisory and consulting services. this is requiring a different skill set. a lot of soft skills in relationship building and questioning and all of those are client service skills and so one of the ways that we’re helping firms work through this transition in this environment and get their people ready is we’re actually helping them address client service skills to getting their people that are ready for some of that into it, as we know this is a belief of ours and this is a foundation for business development; and, it is a way that you contribute to business development is by serving your clients.
you’ve got to have the the skills to be able to do that.
ty
and i i hear this all the time, as is the complaint, the number one complaint about staff level individuals is that they just don’t have good communication skills and i don’t know if it’s all the texting that we all do these days.
right
i see it out of my kids.
you know they’re they communicate way differently than we do.
and so, there’s this gap in the way younger accountants are communicating versus those that have been in the profession for a long time so we’re hearing all the time that that they need to improve communication skills.
but what does that really mean? and how are the firms helping them improve those?
sarah
well, i don’t think it’s necessarily always the channel.
i think it’s a lot of it comes down to the questions you ask of what you’re listening for and what you’re trying to articulate in communication.
the other is the relationship that you have and those are two core things that we teach in client developer, but i think one of the misconceptions or challenges that i see is that we think that texting or an email creates a relationship and well, it does influence that relationship, and if you’ve got one that’s there, it does. but that isn’t building a relationship with your client. it’s not helping you understand their fears, and it’s not understanding having you help them understand you know how they like to spend their time with their family or what their hobbies and interests are. i don’t know what their vision is for their business, they’re a business owner, right? or their legacy for their family so i think when we look at some of these things and building some of those skills building that communication is understanding how do you use the technology that’s available today and the things that a lot of these people are very innate at doing?
how do you do that in a way that allows you to build those relationships to have the right conversations?
and what channel was appropriate for some of those communications because i think sometimes that is not always thought about and sometimes emails, they’re not the best form to have a onversation with somebody.
ty
yeah, there’s a lot of talent cannot come across an email, so it it’s not the best way to build relationships.
and i i love the fact that we talk about the role relationship plays in growth because so many people hear the word business development or rainmaker or anything along those lines and they automatically think, oh, i’ve got to go out and sell, and selling is bad.
selling is not a good thing.
we’re accountants.
we don’t sell but the way accounting firms grow is more than just bringing in new business, it’s cross- selling with their current clients. it’s, you know, using the client relationship to also get referrals to bring in new business.
there are so many more ways than being scared of that fear.
when you talk to individuals or firms that that have that negative connotation of selling that’s blocking this whole process from starting, how do you define selling and how do you help them get over that fear so they can move towards the relationship building.
sarah
yeah, so really, we start with selling is helping, right? t the end of the day, you’re helping somebody solve a problem that they have. that’s where all good sales starts.
that’s what we call consultative selling which is you’ve got to understand the clients needs enough to understand what are those problems and how does your product your service help solve that problem for them, and so if you can help them understand that i think that’s a big starting point to understanding what it really means.
the other thing that i find, and we hear this all the time in our coaching engagements i didn’t know that was business development. these simple acts and behaviors that peoplecan do when they’re talking to somebody on the phone or talking to a client.
they don’t see that as business development and so through training through coaching, they start to realize that some of the things they’re already doing that is business development, and it helps build confidence.
oh, i can do this and it may not look like bob rainmaker, right?
whoever bob is in your organization, it may not look like bob, and that’s ok.
but this this what i’m doing right here.
this small thing.
this ability to look at a tax return and bring it to the partner and go, oh hey, did we look at this for them, is that a planning strategy? does that apply here?
right, that that is business development.
that’s a contribution or hearing something on the phone with the client, and going, hey did, did you know we might be able to help you with that?
explore that i could pull on the partner that, you know, does that work and they could answer a few more questions, but i’m pretty sure we can help you with that problem.
i’m never going to a client and say, “hey, i can help you with the problem?” and go “oh no, sorry thanks, i’m good. i’ll suffer alone”.
ty
yeah, i was never alone and that’s the other thing too.
is that fear also allowing other people to get in there as well.
because if you’re not fulfilling their needs, and if you’re not going above and beyond and understanding what your client needs and figure out other ways to help somebody else, is so you know this is just fundamental service and i think a big change though that firms have to think about is the culture shift right and it all comes back to this culture piece.
if you want everybody to contribute to growth, if you want those that are interacting with clients to listen, ask questions to uncover opportunities to know how to move those through the firm.
that’s a culture thing.
so how can we get away from one or two people being the rain makers, everybody else getting the work done to building that mindset that hey i need to listen for this or hey, this is what something looks like, how, how do they move to that type of culture?
sarah
yeah, so two things.
i think in my opinion one is you got to start early.
we’ve known that from the beginning
i’ve been in this profession longer than i care to share on here.
even though you can’t hear for sure we started early and myself experienced this, but when i was in my very first role in accounting firm we did training, you know, they hated me, we sat around the table we did mock prospect and sales calls and we practice getting comfortable, and it worked, we had a culture of growth people. would go to networking events. they would come along on proposal partner meetings and they had a sense of what it took to grow the firm and they could have better conversations with clients they were more comfortable having some of those conversations with client.
the other thing that i would say this comes from the top down leadership.
it’s an, it’s an and not an or and what i mean by that is too many times it’s i can do my work or i can go grow the business. i can do this. or i can wait because we don’t have the people, there’s always an aurora, but or something in there. it’s not an and i can do my job and i can build these skills and these are important because this is how we serve our clients and so in order for that mindset to shift, we have to realize that it’s an, and that’s not an, and you know, one of the things that i think makes this important in the culture shift is is figuring out how people can contribute, and so just to share real quick with everybody.
ty
you know, we feel like there’s really four ways that individuals can contribute to growth in an accounting firm, and it starts with being a client developer right and this is.
if you know what you never just talking about in terms of being able to provide good client service and it it’s building those relationships.
it’s understanding how to grow what you have, and that’s the foundation that everybody in an accounting firm.
even if you’re in a technical role, can really contribute with and, and that should be the foundational building block and then as you move up in your career, and if someone is interested in selling, you know the next step is to really get into a sales support role, right
you’re not bringing in a ton of leads
you’re not closing a bunch of business by yourself, but.
that person can start to learn a sales process can start to understand what it means to bring in leads and what it means to to, you know, work them through proposal and negotiation and really start to get involved and those people in the firm should be shadowing and they should be involved in some of these sales meetings and then as that person moves along, they can move into a sales driver role.
the sales driver is someone who is is going through and giving their own leads.
they have a great referral network and they are bringing clients in from prospect to close, but that person still might also have a lot of technical work that they have to do and balance in that and right there that you were just talking about.
you can still bring in business and be a technical cpa or accountant in your firm and that’s when that fourth level really hits is the rainmaker.
and these are all building blocks, so you’re not everybody is going to make it to the top.
not everybody is going to make it to rainmaker.
it’s going to be very few that make it to that point where they’re more valuable to their firm in a bd role.
they’re more to that thought leader out in the community, you know they’re they’re doing more business development than anything
but if you have all rain makers, and then you know you have, if you only have one or two rain makers, and then that person leaves, you’re in trouble.
so if you have all client developers and you have no one out there closing business, you’re going to be in trouble, and so that’s where understanding the different levels of contribution makes a big difference so that you can start to see where people are on their career path where they’re going to fall and and really help them get to the potential they want to be.
i think that’s got to be a big part of the culture and growth, not assuming it’s rainmaker or nothing, right?
sarah
correct it you know, it really does.
ty
right?
sarah
you know i, will say too that i feel like so many firms are talking about the need for advisory skills and also be honest.
if you’re good at consultative selling if you can sell in the profession today you are advisor.
you have to be advisory.
today’s selling really requires advisory skills.
so if you teach those early that’s important and you raise a really good point to that not everybody is going to be a rainmaker.
it is ok to only go and be a client developer.
it’s ok to only be a sales supporter, right?
and that’s where if we get a little, you know more people contributing to that just a little bit, it really does make a big impact.
they may never, you know, be putting them posting up big numbers.
so let me tell you, there’s a huge impact that we’ve seen in just moving people further along in this ability.
and again, at the end of the day over get back to the fact that you’re serving your clients.
there is no bad outcome of building skills to serve your client, and the benefits right when they they do identify something is now they’re contributing to your growth.
ty
perfect well, i think that’s a great place to leave it for this first conversation that we’re having.