Are you good
at closing prospective clients onto your services but wonder
why you still can't get as many clients as you want?
If you have
an excellent closing ratio on signing prospective clients onto
your services, you may well dispute the idea of needing a marketing
& sales system at all.
In fact, you're
probably thinking along these lines:
"I
don't need any help on presenting and selling my services since
I close practically every single prospect that I get. Instead,
I just need a way to get MORE PROSPECTS..."
And right you
are.
You need more
prospective clients.
But I've got
some very bad news for you:
There aren't
any more to be had.
See. Those
prospective clients that you get are few and far between. And
you're probably getting your full share of those already, so
there's no way to increase your share without getting a huge
inflow of new businesses into your area.
So, you're
stuck with whatever number of prospective clients you currently
receive every year.
These consist
of two types of prospects:
Referrals
from
existing clients and "upstream prospects."
Upstream prospects
— a rare luxury
I call these
"Upstream prospects" because they act the same way
as the king of fishes, salmon, when it does its once-in-a-lifetime
feat of swimming against the current up the river to spawn.
Upstream prospects
are actively seeking to change Accountants.
They take the
initiative, they make the decision to change and they have the
tenacity to FIND a suitable Accounting firm to contact.
These are VERY
ACTIVE prospects.
They're also
very rare — so infrequent, in fact, that if you get
more than 1-3 a YEAR you can consider yourself very lucky
for receiving a lion's share of these precious lucky strikes.
Referrals —
an infrequent delicacy
You don't really
need me to tell you how rarely clients refer someone to your
services.
Again, it's
a great chance if you can get it.
And again,
if you get more than 1-3 referrals a year you are so lucky.
Closing upstream
prospects and referrals
I don't want
to upset you but I have to come out with the facts. And the fact
is that the easiest people to close onto your services are
referrals and upstream prospects.
It takes skill
but nowhere near as much as closing someone ELSE.
A referral
is
basically decided on changing over to your firm. His friend has
already recommended you and thus created sufficient CERTAINTY
on that he is doing the right thing by signing on as your client.
To LOSE him,
you actually need to do one of two things: You have to MESS IT
UP ACTIVELY... or you have to SEND him back home to "think
about it" by NEVER asking him to sign on at all.
An upstream
prospect
is also totally committed to CHANGING Accountants. Here, your
job is to make sure that he sees YOU as the right choice.
With upstream
prospects, the traditional Accounting firm presentation usually
does the trick. He WANTS to find you suitable, he is looking
for a reason to get it over with and get back to the normal routines
of business.
Thus, both
referrals and upstream prospects have certain unique qualities.
Both have decided to leave their current Accountant. Both WANT
to sign onto your services, provided you and your presentation
meet their criteria.
But that's
definitely NOT the case with the overwhelming MAJORITY of potential
new clients in your area.
The remaining
99.9 percent of viable prospects in your area...
...are neither
referrals nor upstream prospects.
This group
of prospects consists of those thousands of business owners
in your region... by FAR the biggest target audience available
to you.
I call these
PASSIVE prospects.
They're not
doing ANYTHING to change Accountants. They're not looking for
a new Accountant... they're not even THINKING of changing Accountants.
In fact, they're
unwilling to even CONSIDER changing Accountants.
And yet, this
target audience offers a huge potential source of new clients
IF YOU CAN ACTIVATE them into thinking along certain lines (in
which case they become ACTIVATED prospects, which I'll go into
later on).
Now, this
is important:
Their reluctance
doesn't stem from being satisfied with their current Accountant.
They are
NOT satisfied with what they receive from their Accounting service.
Contrary to
what they SAY when you try to interest them to discuss changing
Accountants, about 85% of them are NOT satisfied with what they
receive from their current Accountant.
They just
SAY SO because that's the proven formula to get rid of any sales
calls!
NOTHING disarms
a cold-calling Accountant better than being told that the business
owner is FULLY SATISFIED with his current service provider.
And that's
why they say it.
It's the guaranteed
way to end off any sales-oriented calls within seconds.
Are they LYING
then?
Well, whether
or not they are is really irrelevant and rather academic to our
problem here.
It could be
what is known as "an acceptable truth" in the trade
— not a direct lie but definitely a partial truth. Or it
could be that they simply say so because they think there's nothing
more to be GOTTEN from the service than bookkeeping and whatever
else they're currently receiving.
Whatever. It's
what they SAY.
But what they
THINK is another thing thing altogether.
The underlying
cause for getting rid of you comes from how they view the act
of changing Accountants.
This is not
going to be pleasant reading so brace yourself.
For the first,
they think all Accounting services are basically identical.
You're doing their books, right? So how could that be any different
from how their current Accountant is doing their books, see?
And, while
they're not satisfied with the keeping-up-to-date and advice
they receive from their current service provider, at least they
KNOW him... and, for all they know, you could be WORSE,
see?
Then there
are the social veneer and other issues concerning loyalty: How
are they going to tell their long-term Accountant that they're
leaving him? How EMBARRASSING is that going to be?
And what if
the Accountant gets upset, charges them double for the remaining
months or intentionally obstructs the turnover of documents to
the new Accounting firm?
Furthermore,
how long is it going to take before he learns to speak the
same language — gets onto the same wavelength —
with the NEW Accountant... and what if he finds out after
a while that he simply ABHORS the new person?
Mind you. These
are not my ideas and conclusions.
They come
directly from an in-depth SURVEY with business owners on the
subject of changing Accountants.
It's not what
I think but how THEY see it.
So, let's sum
it up.
By offering
your services the traditional way, you're basically suggesting
that business owners who've never heard of you before to...
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change the
service he is receiving to an identical one (possibly for a higher cost also) |
|
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take the risk
of additional cost and hardships in transition |
|
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face the embarrassement
of terminating contract with current Accountant whom they've
befriended over the years |
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gamble on that
you'll turn out to be pleasant to work with at least to the degree to which they
felt comfortable with their previous Accountant (and preferably
more so) |
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hope that you
know what you're doing (for THEY've no way to know) so that your work
is as good as or better than what their current Accountant puts
out for them... |
...and a HOST
of other doubts and considerations.
Doesn't sound
very inviting, does it? Not from the business owner's viewpoint.
Now, let me
again remind you this is what THEY think, not my view
of it.
I don't agree
with what they think. But, as a professional in marketing Accounting
services, I know for certain that this how they THINK.
It's very much
the truth of what THEY THINK. It's very much true TO THEM.
And you'll
be wise not to try going AGAINST their thinkin.
In fact, their
fears should be the ESSENTIAL point in your MARKETING STRATEGY
if you ever hope to open up this ENDLESS SOURCE OF NEW CLIENTS.
If you want
results, your marketing approach MUST BE BASED ON THEIR REALITY
OF THE SITUATION.
Any service
you offer, any message you approach business owners with, any
presentation you do with prospects MUST GIVE THEM SEVERAL REASONS
TO CHANGE ACCOUNTANTS.
You must get
them activated into THINKING what they would WANT from their
service and what would BENEFIT them. You bring them realisations
on that it is POSSIBLE to get this from an Accounting service.
Little by little,
you have to enlighten them so they begin to see how much they
could DO with the information provided by an Accountant, if only
their service was tailored exactly to their needs.
Once you have
such a system and obtain a prospective client, he becomes "an
activated prospect." Your message has hit spot-on and, as
if pressing the START-button, ACTIVATED him into contacting you
(or into agreeing to be contacted by you).
Closing activated
prospects
Now, handling
ACTIVATED prospects — presentation, sales closing, etc.
— is a different proposition from what you need to do with
referrals and upstream prospects.
With activated
prospects, you must continue building their motivation to CHANGE
Accountants while simultaneously ensuring they get more and more
REASONS TO CHOOSE YOU.
With referrals
and upstream prospects, you must actually DO something to LOSE
the sale. With passive prospects, you must actively do something
to GET the sale.
It is a very
precise system with many smaller parts — like a pathway
that's been mapped out through a mine field by thousands of trials
and errors.
This system
exists. It has been based on the researched needs and wishes
of this gigantic "passive" target audience — those
thousands of businesses within your area — and it was piloted
in more than 50 Accounting practices for YEARS before being documented
into a course format.
I warmly recommend
that you consider it.
And, what's
the alternative?
If you can't make the unknown business owner SEE
BENEFITS in changing Accountants...
...then you
might as well not bother marketing at all.
You're not
going to get any prospective clients from 99.9% of your
target audience — meaning from these so-called PASSIVE prospects.
You won't get
a single one.
You'll still
get the number of referrals and upstream prosects as before but
your marketing input isn't going to help you get any more of
those.
Save your money,
it's not worth it. You're just throwing money away with no hope
of ever getting back the cost, let alone MAKE MONEY from it.
There's no
point in offering someone to change the service provider they
KNOW to one they don't UNLESS you can offer some significant
advantages to the business owner and, in his mind, create a sufficient
degree of certainty on that he will GET those benefits by changing
over to you.
You're at a
grave disadvantage from the onset simply because the business
owner doesn't KNOW YOU... and because he IS familiar with his
current Accountant. It's the old logic of "Better the devil
you know than the one you don't," in other words.
That's why
it seems impossible to get MORE prospective clients on top of
your share of referrals and upstream prospects.
But there
is a way.
It took years
to navigate through the booby-trapped field and create the precise
route.
And because
that route exists, you don't have to accept the impossibility
of it any longer.
Now, you actually
have a choice. You can now decide whether to...
...dismiss
it or take advantage of it!
So, if you're
very good at closing referrals and upstream prospects but want
to get MORE clients than these provide, you now have two alternate
routes to take.
You can simply
IGNORE this information — consider it untruthful,
dismiss it, dispute it, argue against it... whatever, it doesn't
matter — or you can EXPLORE the possibility that
this information is, in fact, the solution to your problem.
If you choose
to explore it further, CLICK HERE to read about Modern Accountancy
Marketing & Sales Course. It gives the successful and proven
way to tap onto your biggest target audience and obtain new clients
practically at will at very low cost and with an amazingly quick
return of investment.
Whichever you
choose, I wish you the best of success!
Best wishes
Harry Kafka
HDK
Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
CONTACT
FORM
E-mail: info@accountancymarketing.co.uk |