Some prospects are looking for the cheapest provider of the service; and I think most of us, after a number of years in any profession, can filter these out pretty quickly. They are ‘cheap,’ and do not make good clients. The remainder are, of course, also going to be fee sensitive - in that all of us want to feel we are getting “our money’s worth!” But the difference is they can be enlightened to see the value of what we have to offer – if we know and understand the technology of how to create value – otherwise known as “sales!”
The problem is not so much “fee-sensitive clients” – it is more the problem of most CPAs having never been taught the technology of sales. They do very well at closing clients referred to them, which is what we call “order-taking,” and while it is highly commendable that they get these referrals in the first place, there often isn’t a lot of salesmanship involved in closing them. However, where sales technology does come into play with referred clients is, in regards to closing them for more than the bare minimum services they came in asking about. Many do not offer higher ticket, value added services, thus leaving a substantial amount of money on the table, over many years of being in practice.
What can be very helpful is to identify the difference between your prospect’s ‘needs’ and their ‘wants’ – i.e. what do they need? - versus - what do they want? E.g. they may “need” to have their tax return filed on time or they will get into trouble with the IRS, but what they want is to pay as little tax as possible. They ‘want’ to feel that emotional connection with their tax advisor, so that he understands and will do his utmost to ensure that they don’t overpay one cent! The same goes for accounting. They ‘need’ to have their accounting records accurately kept – but why would they ‘want’ that? Maybe because they can then feel emotionally secure, when they fork out that big sum of money on the latest dental “toy” (equipment), that they know they really do have the funds to cover it! But whatever it is, we need to find their “wants” when it comes to our services, not just their needs.
Building value by focusing on ‘wants’ is a technology that anyone can learn and thus be in more control of the services they provide, the type of clients they provide them to as well as, of course, reaching higher revenue goals. Learning sales tools is a very important investment in one’s practice, as learning by the ‘school of hard knocks’ is very expensive. I speak with too many CPAs in their 60s (and 70s) who are getting close to retirement and don’t have the kind of value in their practices, that they would like for their retirement needs.
Sales training is probably 50% mindset/psychology and 50% tools that need to be gotten down cold. The reason most never get to the tools – is they never change their mindset about the possibility that prospects will buy higher priced services.Also, if you are investing in any marketing, with the result that you will wind up sitting in front of prospects who have not been referred to you, sales training is even more important, as these leads are colder. But even if you see mostly referred in prospects, sales training will mean that each new client added to the practice will increase the value of your practice way more than it would otherwise.
Ciara MacMahon
Author Bio: Having worked with accounting practices since 1998, and prior to that working as an attorney in a set-up, very similar to a CPA practice, Ciara MacMahon, CEO of Phase Two Management Consulting, has successfully boosted revenues of accounting practices by 3 – 4X, while allowing the owner to take more time out of the practice. Accounting practice owners are faced with endless deadlines and the challenges of managing workflow, finding the right staff, staff training as well as securing the acquisition of quality new clients! They are also often tasked with the not too pleasant responsibility of imparting bad news regarding taxes due, that the unprepared client is unhappy enough about, to oftentimes ‘shoot the messenger’!
As no two practices are the same and each owner has his own vision for what he/she wants, the first step is a Planning Session to work out the owner’s goals and a strategy to obtain them, in the fastest time period, and for the highest return. To schedule your one on one complimentary practice analysis and consultation, email Ciara MacMahon at consultantciara@gmail.com today. www.PhaseTwoManagement.com