don’t tl;dr this one. here are 8 areas to work on.
by rob nixon
there’s an old saying that dogs can smell fear.
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it’s the same theory for people who are in a sales role. if your “dog” (person in front of you) can sense that you are not confident then you are not going to make the sale. you will get questions and objections from the prospect/client that you don’t want and ultimately not make the sale.
just the thought of the word “sales” can put the heeby-jeebies into accountants. for some reason accountants don’t like the word. i am unsure why that is. maybe they think it’s a bit grubby and “we don’t sell – we’re professionals.” do you think new business will just come to you because you are a professional?
yes, you are a professional. you’re a professional who needs to learn how to sell, otherwise you’re not going to thrive. to remain relevant in the future you must learn the art of sales. accountants are really good at sales (once you’re taught) because you come from a position of trust and authority.
the credibility is already there before you open your mouth and start talking.
if you don’t like the word “sales” then how about changing your mindset to “servicing your clients properly”? the duty of care that an accountant has with their client is that if you spot an issue or an opportunity then you are obliged to let the client know about it. it’s in your code of conduct if i am not mistaken. as you dig deeper into this and if you are super interested in your clients, then all clients should be buying everything they need from you that helps them achieve their goals. that means you need to service them properly – aka making sales and helping them to buy.
every accountant is involved in sales in every client interaction. making a sale is a transfer of trust. even when you are recommending a type of structure or a tax plan, you are selling. you are taking your idea and convincing the client that they need to use it or buy it. you do it every day when you meet with a client. you are selling every day. accounting is selling.
back to the dogs and the fear. no matter what techniques, process or questions you adopt in your sales role, it is all a waste of time unless you have confidence in what you are doing or promoting. to be good at sales and good at transferring trust, every accountant needs to work on their confidence levels. the more confidence you have the more successful you’ll be.
to increase your confidence levels i think there are eight areas to work on:
- language
- tonality
- health
- dress
- knowledge
- success
- stories
- process
1. language: what you say is so important while you are communicating with prospects and clients. it’s the language of the sale.
do you ask open-ended questions or closed questions? closed questions get a yes/no/maybe answer – e.g.: “do you have a will?” open-ended questions get a detailed response, e.g.: “what is your documented plan for your loved ones when you are gone?”
are you telling your prospect/client what he or she needs or are you explaining why it is needed? e.g.: “you need a budget and cash flow forecast” vs. “our best clients are freeing up new cash flow and creating more profit by having a detailed and real-time budget and cash flow forecast.”
are you giving statements or articulating your value and ending with a question? e.g.: “you need to apply our tax strategies so you can save some on taxes this year.” or… “we’ve worked out you’ll save $40,000 per year for the next 10 years if you apply our tax strategies. that’s a minimum of $400,000 that we can help you with. i’m curious, what would you do with $40,000 per year that you don’t have to pay?”
learning the language of the sale will give you more confidence and more importantly, your prospect or client will see the confidence in you.
2. tonality: not only is it what you say it’s also how you say it. when you are in a conversation, are you boring and monotone, or do you have a bit of passion in your voice? are you miserable-looking or do you smile? do you sit still or do you point and wave your hands? do you alter your volume (higher and lower) during conversation or do you remain flat? do you talk faster sometimes and slower at other times to make a point?
you’re supposed to be transferring passion in a sales environment.
when i am in your presence, can i feel the passion and the excitement? if you want me to transfer funds to you, i need to know that you’re excited by the idea that you’re selling.
whenever i design a seminar, i write a “running sheet,” which is how the day will run. i have it timed in five-minute blocks so i am covering key content at certain times. i never rehearse and i am always on time. i live by my running sheet. at the top of every running sheet i have my energy objective, my personal state and my business objective. here is the top of a recent running sheet:
capitalizing on the cloud – running sheet
energy… to create an inspiring, challenging environment for accountants to realize their potential. the program will be full of energy, passion, excitement and practical strategies.
state… give it everything – excited, thankful, privilege, humble, sharing, fun, best ever, smiling all the time.
objective… influence the delegates to take action.
the top of the running sheet sets my tonality for the program. i have it on me at all times. my team has a copy as well. even if i am tired, i want to set the tone and put on a great program.
the tonality of you will have a big impact on your confidence.
3. health: it’s a known fact that when you are fitter, stronger and healthier, you feel better about yourself. your health could mean your body weight, your bad teeth, your hair loss, your fitness level or even your skin complexion. all can be fixed. i don’t think accountants need to train excessively to run marathons or compete in triathlons to get more confidence. however, if that’s your thing then go for it.
you may only need to lose enough weight for people to notice and pay you a compliment. or you just getting your teeth professionally cleaned or adjusted might help you to smile more. you might need to see a dermatologist to get your skin seen to or a hair loss specialist to see what you can do with your receding hairline. even training moderately a few times a week can improve your health and fitness.
i remember once talking to the partners of a three-partner firm. they were complaining that there was no energy in the office and everyone was pretty “steady.” they wanted a better culture with more energy in the office. they asked for my advice so i gave it to them. i was in one of my blunt moods so i simply said to them, “look, a fish rots from the head down. how will there ever be more energy in the business while the three of you are unfit and overweight?”
they got the message. they went on a health kick, lost some pounds and led from the front. your health makes a big difference to your confidence levels. maybe it’s time to sharpen up.
4. dress: look sharp and be sharp. most accountants (hopefully not you) i get to meet are cheap so they buy cheap shoes, wear cheap suits and use cheap tools. the way you dress says so much about you and your style. if you look sloppy then typically your work will be sloppy. if you use a cheap pen and paper, then i wonder about the quality of what you are telling me. if you wear ill-fitting cheap suits and out-of-date clothing, does that mean you are out of date as well?
i am not saying that you need to spend $2,000+ on a big brand suit. however, a decent suit that is properly adjusted to your body shape does make a difference. i am suggesting you ditch the cheap conference pen you got for free and the $2 notepad to something more upmarket.
you are taking notes about my business and my future – please pay me some respect by using decent tools.
you are offering me business advice and you look disheveled – it doesn’t instill confidence in me.
if you are having problems with matching clothing then hire a stylist for the day to take you shopping. for the sake of the fashion police, get rid of the 1990s look and get up to date. your confidence will improve as a result.
5. knowledge: knowledge is an interesting one and some accountants take it too far and want to know everything about a subject before they can talk about it. you don’t need to know everything about a topic to know a lot. you just need to get good at asking questions and letting the other person talk. the idea of knowledge is to get more out of it and become more knowledgeable. it’s about broadening your knowledge base so you are more interesting to talk to. the more interesting you are to talk with the more sales you’ll make.
i am amazed at how many accountants do not read the national financial newspapers at least three times per week.
you’re in the finance industry, yet you don’t read the finance news. bizarre! you don’t have to read the newspaper from cover to cover, just scan the main headlines. you can store that content for later and if needed pull it out in conversation. the internet is a wonderful tool for getting useful knowledge – sporting scores, political movements, the latest ipo, trade news, etc.
it’s all about becoming a better conversationalist. if you become a better conversationalist, you’ll be more relatable and you get more confidence.
6. success: the inner confidence of knowing that the work you do is really good shines through in your conversations. every accountant i have ever met (over 100,000 so far) has done some great work for clients. you have saved clients taxes, improved their cash flow, kept them out of jail, been a shoulder to cry on, improved their profit and even helped some to be very wealthy.
what are you doing with all that success you have created? how many testimonials and case studies have you collected?
in my business we have the “wall of fame.” as we meet a client for the first time we take a photo of them, print it in black and white and then get them to write something nice on it. i got the idea from the old-school restaurants where the celebrities signed their photographs and wrote something nice to the restaurateur. we’ve filled one wall and have started two more. so far there are around 1,200 photographs of happy clients and loads of positive words. the main wall of fame is in the hallway on the way to the restrooms. as you go to do your business you feel better about business!
we also have a big focus on w.h.a.m.s – written happy accountants moments. when we interact with our clients, we ask them to put something in writing, what they are experiencing when using our services and tools. in 10 weeks flat we once collected 102 of them. from there we go back and create proper case studies.
as the old saying goes, “success breeds success.”
documenting the success of your clients gives you and also your team more confidence.
7. stories. telling stories is so important in a sales conversation. it’s all about instilling social proof in me. i am sitting in front of you and you are espousing to the fact that i need to do something different. i trust you and respect you but deep down i am wondering if you can actually do what you say you can do. telling a relevant story can give me that social proof i am looking for. here are a couple of examples:
“the situation you are in is so close to another manufacturing client we helped last year. they had rising costs, did about the same amount of revenue as you and were faced with new competitors who drove the product price down. this caused a cash flow issue and pressure from their bank. what we did for them was to put in place a budget and cash flow forecast, helped them to refinance their debt and we worked with them every month to monitor their cash flow. after six months they could see the difference and after 12 months they had excess cash flow because we financially coached them out of the problem.”
“i understand how you must be feeling right now. when we have had this conversation regarding restructuring company affairs, most of the clients we have done this with felt exactly the same way you do right now – annoyed and anxious. one client in particular was annoyed with their previous accountant because he wasn’t structured correctly. he was anxious as to how the family might take the new changes that we recommended. what he found was that when we showed him he was financially better off for making the changes, he jumped at the opportunity.”
telling stories gives social proof and it instills confidence in the person you are sitting with that you know what you’re talking about.
8. process. if you are like most modern firms you will have an office procedures manual. that manual is all about how you do tasks in the office. they typically have guidelines, checklists, a process and standard letters. someone at some time worked out the best way to file, scan, copy, collect the mail, lock up the office and pay the salaries. then it was documented so others could follow the steps.
sales is just like that.
a sales process is like a workflow process. one thing triggers the next thing until a resolution happens.
there is always someone in the office who is the best at sales. hopefully they have been trained by my company! if they are good then sit with them and document their process.
- what do they do at each step of the way?
- what do they say?
- how do they say it?
- what’s their process flow?
once the process is worked out, it needs to be documented into a sales manual. the sales manual includes the sales process and the document is called a playbook. it’s the game plan of how you want to play to win.
the objective is to create a repeatable sales process. a repeatable sales process will give you more confidence. more confidence leads to high self-belief. high self-belief leads to more sales. the dogs can smell it.