it’s a new skill. you have to practice.
by martin bissett
business development on a budget
if winning new clients is simply a matter of being yourself, why is selling so difficult for accountants? well, it’s a combination of several factors, but there are two main reasons.
more: rate your personal purpose | nine checkpoints before every prospect meeting | three questions about conversion | six keys to turning prospects into clients | don’t overlook internal communication | why firm culture matters for partners | competence is step one of seven
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
first, accountants have not traditionally been required to sell. maybe your practice has grown by referral – business has come to you and you haven’t had to do much to win that business. unfortunately, however, business doesn’t always walk through the door; you don’t know how often it will, or what caliber it will be when it does.
so you must learn to create a more suitable flow of new business, one you can direct and influence. this, of course, means “selling.”
you probably find that idea difficult, and perhaps even intimidating, so you’ll be happy to know that this feeling is actually quite logical. why? because you’ve never been trained to sell! selling is a skill set, and skill sets need to be learned.
your clients don’t know how to carry out accounting work (fortunately!) because they haven’t been trained. and you probably don’t know how to sell, because you haven’t been trained in that skill set.
instead of constantly telling yourself how difficult selling is, ask yourself how you can overcome that difficulty. and the answer is education.
another reason for discomfort around selling is a very natural human fear of rejection. to one degree or another, we all have this fear. we’re worried about what the “no” says about us, our firm, our offering and more.
what you must understand from this moment on is that a “no” to your proposal is not a rejection of you personally, or even of your firm. all it means is that the proposal you are putting to this particular prospect is not something they want to take up at this time. that’s it. it’s not about you, and you must not let it affect your self-esteem.
at this point, it’s a good idea to remember winning your first client. once you have firmly made that sale to yourself, you won’t need to worry about every negative reaction to your proposals, and the whole process of selling will lose much of its terror.
business development tasks
- enlist a team member you are comfortable with, and whose opinion you respect, to help you rehearse the meeting by playing the role of the potential client. have your colleague critique your approach and explain how it felt to be on the receiving end.
- schedule specific, non-interruptible time in your diary to practice being comfortable in conversation in a first meeting situation.