discover how not selling produces better business.
by russ alan prince
your $5 million high-net-worth practice
selling is persuasion. it’s convincing someone – prospects and clients – that they should engage you for your services.
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as an accountant, you have a set of expertise and selling is about getting others to hire you for your expertise. however, a much more powerful way for you to grow your accounting practice is by not selling.
allow me to explain.
let’s be clear … selling works. it works, at least, some of the time. if you’re proficient at selling, you can grow your practice. still, you might want to consider not selling and growing your practice faster. even for those accounts with capable salespeople, there is a more efficacious alternative.
in selling, the focus is on the person doing the selling, or the salesperson. with accountants, the focus is on the proficiencies of the accountants and their firms. there are major limitations when accountants are pitching their services. for example, one such limitation is often the inability of the majority of accountants to differentiate themselves from their competitors, as most accounting services are commodities. have you ever run into any professional who said they were not very good at what they did?
exponentially more effective than selling is determining ways to add value to prospects and clients. when you deeply understand the various issues your prospects and clients are facing, you are well positioned to determine ways to help them achieve their goals and address their concerns. this perspective and approach are all about you finding ways to add meaningful value – as defined by the prospect or client – and then delivering that value.
why does this perspective and approach work so well? there is a simple answer. it is because a very large percentage of individuals and businesses are being poorly served by their accountants and other professionals. from getting wrong or incomplete answers to missing out on significant opportunities, a great many individuals and businesses are not optimizing their financial situations.
most of the time, these failures are tied to the professionals they are relying on not knowing that much about them. by developing a solid understanding of each of your prospects and clients, you can – with great consistency – find ways your expertise or the capabilities at your accounting firm can make a substantial difference.
the key to this approach is discovery. the discovery process is a proven methodology that uses open-ended questions and probes to enable professionals to deeply understand prospects, clients and even other professionals. by systematically asking insightful questions, you can uncover the goals, preferences, concerns and anxieties of your prospects and clients.
when discovery is done well, your prospects and clients provide the equivalent of a trail of breadcrumbs. if you follow those trails of breadcrumbs, you can determine the very best answers for them. now, you have to match up their agendas to what you, your firm and other professionals you know can deliver. the end results are prospects becoming clients and clients doing more business with you, as well as providing you with qualified referrals. because you are finding out what is important and then showing how you and your resources can add value, your practice grows quickly.
discovery is about making the conversations all about the other person. you are focusing on what is meaningful as well as what is not meaningful to every one of them. as most of them are being poorly served, you can find ways to significantly enhance their financial lives. in sum, by mastering discovery, you will grow your accounting practice. more importantly, you are delivering greater value to clients.