plus: how to get past your aversion to sales.
by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library
as with just about anything, people can be taught business development skills if they study hard, apply themselves and, most of all, have a healthy, positive attitude toward bringing in business.
more: how marketing systems produce business growth | 14 marketing activities needed now more than ever | now is the time to activate your referral network | the 4 marketing disciplines | why you have to kill the old paradigms | are you ready for the great disruption?
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“can people be taught practice development skills?” in 20 years of consulting to cpa firms, we have been asked this question hundreds of times. the answer, most certainly, is “yes.” note, the question is not “can people be taught to be rainmakers?” the answer to that question is mostly “no.” there is a big difference between being a rainmaker and learning business development skills.
people may not know it, but every person has a meter on his or her forehead that is visible only to others. it’s a business development meter, with a number ranging from 1 to 10. a “10” is a rainmaker who can walk into any room of people and walk out with an order or two. a “1” wouldn’t know a business development opportunity if it hit him or her in the nose. in fact, 1s hyperventilate at the mere thought of selling.
there is nothing anyone can do with a 1 or a 2. but with the proper attitude and training, a 3 can move to a 5; a 6 can move up to a 7 or 8. it’s probably impossible to move someone up to a 9 or 10 because one needs natural business development skills to earn such high ratings. but people can move up levels if they have a positive attitude toward business development and receive the proper training and mentoring.
the 4 disciplines of cpa firm marketing
before you begin the 4 disciplines:
- what is your firm’s vision and growth target?
- people create growth, not marketing plans.
- differentiate your firm.
- you need a champion to drive marketing execution.
- establish services to sell and cross-sell.
- develop specialties and niches.
enabling systems: engines that ignite the system and keep it on track
selling professional services vs. selling products
product selling is usually typified by these qualities:
- the salesperson starts the conversation.
- the salesperson often doesn’t know much (or anything) about the customer before they meet. to many, product selling is synonymous with cold calling and being hustled.
- the customer is maneuvered and perhaps manipulated into saying yes.
- the product is what it is; the sales rep has little or no ability to customize it to meet the customer’s needs.
- the hard sell and pressure tactics; getting customers to buy even when the product doesn’t meet their needs.
- the salesperson does much more talking than the customer.
- there’s a tinge of dishonesty, especially with lower-priced and lower-quality products.
with these traits (which i’m sure many sales personnel would disagree with) it’s no wonder that cpas find the prospect of selling distasteful and terrifying. most of them don’t have the typical product sales personality.
selling professional services requires the opposite traits from product selling. it’s consultative selling. it’s all about helping prospects and advising them how their problems can be solved and their needs met.
here is what you need to know about consultative selling:
understand what we all want in life. sorry if this is too spiritual, but it’s really important. prospective clients, like all of us, are always looking for ways to make their lives better, whether personal, business or both. prospects may say they want an audit or a tax return, but what they really want is peace of mind. always remember this.
there should be no cold calls. selling professional services is most effective when the prospects have been qualified in some manner. common examples are meeting people through referrals or at networking and charitable events, service clubs, professional organizations, etc.
the relationship comes first. at the onset, the professional should strive to form a relationship with the prospect. unlike product sales personnel, professionals should never dive right in and say, “here’s what we do.” as prominent cpa industry marketing consultant gale crosley says, “relationship precedes revenue.”
seek first to understand, then be understood. this will be familiar to many of you – it’s habit #5 from stephen covey’s legendary “seven habits of highly effective people.” everyone loves talking about themselves. get the prospect to do 80 percent of the talking and limit yourself to 20 percent. the best way to do this is by asking questions. the goal is to learn prospects’ business and what their needs are. then and only then will you know how what to say. remember, listen has the same letters as silent.
beware the scattergun approach, part 1. most cpas provide many services, some of which prospects don’t need (or aren’t aware yet that they need). in consultative selling, when it’s your turn to talk, describe only services that meet the prospects’ needs, which you learned by listening patiently and silently. this technique lets you customize your selling approach to appeal to what the prospect needs the most.
beware the scattergun approach, part 2. i’m sure we can all agree that the most pleasant way to sell is to not have to sell at all. how do we do that? by having expertise in an industry or service that appeals to the prospect so that the prospect approaches you. it’s a lot easier to sell a niche or specialty than generalist services.
create a little pain. this may be advanced selling for some of you, but it is very effective. when you do your 80 percent listening and asking questions, there is a good chance that you will identify things the prospect is neglecting or doing wrong. example: “do you have a will? without a will, your estate may not be distributed to your liking and your heirs may pay unnecessary taxes.” or: “you should consider hiring a controller to perform financial duties instead of doing them as the owner. this frees up your time to make more money for the company.”
matthew dixon and brent adamson wrote this in their book “the challenger sale: taking control of the customer conversation”:
there is a very good chance that your company stresses building relationships with customers to help boost your sales. but this traditional approach no longer works in a world of sophisticated and risk-averse customers.
in a study of more than 6,000 sales professionals, the reps who followed traditional relationship-building tactics, like getting along with everyone and being generous about giving time to help others, came in dead last and represented only 7 percent of all-star performers.
in contrast, those sales professionals who challenged customers’ thinking and offered new insights or solutions proved to be four times more likely to be top performers and represented nearly 40 percent of all-star performers in the study.
the good news is that challenger reps are not only born, but they can also be made. in fact, up to 80 percent of sales reps have the ability to become challenger reps when armed with the right tools, training and coaching.
challengers take control of the overall sales conversation.
learn from the pros. if you’re new to business development, try to accompany partners on their sales pitches. this is not to suggest that you copy the partners’ style. it simply makes sense to watch experts. in some ways that are obvious and in some that are more subtle, you will learn how to develop your own style.
do team selling. going on a pitch with one of your colleagues may reduce the anxiety that both of you feel about selling. when two people make the pitch, you convey to prospects that they will be serviced by a team, not an individual. and the team approach serves the client better because two people have broader expertise than one.
think win-win. this borrows from habit #4 of covey’s “seven habits” book. when professionals do business development, the attitude and demeanor should be to close deals because both parties will win.
- clients benefit from the cpa’s expertise and deliverables, and those benefits exceed the fees paid to the cpa.
- cpas benefit because they showcase their expertise to clients and satisfy their needs, which strengthens the relationship between cpa and clients. of course, an obvious benefit to the cpa is the fees that are charged.
when should staff get involved in business development?
short answer: soon after being hired. in the first week a new staff person joins the firm, do you give them a prospect list and a telephone? of course not. but don’t wait long to take these steps:
- educate the staff on what the firm does.
- educate the staff on how the firm gets business, why increasing the firm’s revenue is so vital and how bringing in business will be great for their career advancement.
- convene training sessions on practice development. selling skills aren’t learned at one sitting. the training should take place continuously, with ample opportunities to put into practice what is learned in the classroom. staff need to get rid of any negative feelings they have about selling.
- encourage staffers to join one or two organizations to begin their networking activities.
learning how to bring in business is a gradual process. new staff need to learn about
- developing or obtaining leads. with professional services, a lead is an opportunity to meet with someone who could give business to you. the lead can be self-generated or received from a referral source.
- this is the process of converting a sales opportunity or meeting into a sale, getting a prospect to hire you.
when young staff start their business development activity at a cpa firm, the focus is usually more about identifying leads that experienced firm members can close instead of bringing in business totally on their own. as the staff person gains more experience, they begin to acquire closing skills.
running the funnel: a questioning process for cpas
as we discussed earlier, business development is synonymous with selling professional services. the cpa gets business by first forming a relationship with prospects and understanding their business, then asking questions, followed closely by creating value by making suggestions. this is illustrated with a simple geometric object, a funnel, created by the growth partnership.
how firms train staff in business development
there are two types of training:
- internal. smaller firms usually don’t have the ability to provide internal training in business development.
- external. programs put on by outside companies.
- some of these are one-shot deals. literally, staffers attend a training session with no followup or subsequent sessions. this is less effective than …
- curriculum-based programs. these have multiple sessions, scheduled over a period of months or years.
there are three types of training activities:
- learning in the classroom
- implementing techniques learned in the classroom
- coaching and mentoring, by either firm personnel or coaches affiliated with curriculum-based programs
a curriculum-based business development program
the following subjects should be addressed in any business development training program your firm adopts.
- learn their unique behavioral styles and tendencies by analyzing their own behavioral profile. they also learn to apply this information with clients, referral sources and colleagues.
- understand what selling is and what selling is not.
- learn to adapt behavior to create alignment with clients, referral sources and prospects. learn what it takes to develop meaningful client relationships that are loyal, even in the face of low-cost competitors.
- learn about customer loyalty and the net promoter score.
- discover what clients are really looking for and what creates loyalty.
- learn how to target; attract clients who meet a desired profile.
- learn what it means to truly differentiate your firm as thought leaders and build a personal brand that compels a premium fee.
- learn to develop effective written communication skills and craft compelling proposals.
- learn to speak effectively and improve presentation skills.
- learn networking skills.
- learn how to build a powerful referral source pipeline.
- develop an “elevator speech.”
- learn the fine art of small talk and working a room.
- develop their own personal marketing plan with meaningful goals.
- learn how to prepare for a sales call or client service interaction, convene the contact and follow up.
- learn questioning techniques that will get to the core issues that clients and prospects are facing.
- learn cross-selling (leveraging client relationships to bring additional value and services to clients).
- learn to deal with potential objections during the sales process.
- learn from case studies and real-world simulations.
- receive coaching and mentoring from a trained business development veteran. the importance of this part of the program cannot be overemphasized. for a training program to be effective, there must be continuous opportunities for attendees to put into practice what they learn in the classroom.