The vital role
of Accounting service presentation in the results of your marketing
& sales system
 Once
you have a prospecting system that produces a good flow of potential
clients, the next important issue is to have a well-planned method
of presenting your services to these new contacts.
Everyone knows
one should have a high-quality presentation in order to get potential
clients signed onto your Accounting services.
You don't only
need a high-quality presentation in CONTENT.
You also need
to get comfortable with presenting it.
Any successful
presentation system needs a good number of "practice particles"
to ever get to the stage where it is fluent and effective.
In other words,
a presentation needs to be USED quite a bit to show its good
and bad parts - and to become a second nature to the presenter.
A presentation used once every two months will never become successful
simply because it won't have a chance of getting results.
The way to
get good at it is to do it lots of times in a real-life situation.
It's practice that makes perfect, in other words.
As to the contents,
structure and nature of a successful Accounting service presentation,
it is a very confusing area that makes evaluation quite difficult
before you actually buy and try it out.
So, let's first
take a look at why it is such a confusing subject.
Presentation
- the black hole of traditional marketing technology
Nowhere does
the traditional marketing strategy fail worse than in presentations.
Bear with me and see if you don't agree.
Presentation
is perhaps the most misunderstood component of marketing. It
is usually confused with advertising, public relations or sales
and yet it is an area separate from these. Let's take a brief
look at how these other subjects differ from presentation.
Advertising
is similar to presentation but EARLIER on the chain of actions
and much more general... and a LOT more concise (shorted, condensed)
than presentation.
Public relations
activities are also similar to presentation but used exclusively
with persons or entities that you want to think well about your
firm and know your good work... but who are NOT likely to sign
onto your services.
These would
include banks, chambers of commerce, any kind of "breakfast
clubs" and other such groups or individuals usually under
the heading of "networking."
Sales activities
are LATER on that chain of actions leading from the state of
"no knowledge of the existence of your Accounting firm"
to the end phenomenon of signing onto your services.
You cannot
sell your service to a business owner before he fully understands
WHAT IT IS that you're selling – what the item of sale is,
in other words.
And that –
enlightening an interested decision-maker on what you have to
offer – is in very broad terms the general purpose of presentation.
Additionally,
the goal is to educate the potential client until HE realises
what he could achieve with your service.
In presentation,
you show the potential client what he would get from YOUR Accounting
service.
With presentation,
you seek to establish FOR the business owner a workable understanding
of what your service would mean for HIM. There's a lot more to
it than this, but let's go with that for now.
Thus, presentation
is used ONLY when
- the person
you're talking with IS interested in obtaining your services
but knows very little about them as of yet
- the person
is the decision-maker that can actually sign onto your services.
Basic types
of presentation
Most commonly,
Accounting service presentation to a potential client is automatically
replaced by a Public Relations -type of presentation – the
kind one would give to a bank manager in order to establish credibility
for your firm for OTHER purposes than selling your services.
Let's call
that "PR-presentation" and the other one (that
you would use with a potential client) "Sales Presentation"
just so we know what we're talking about.
In a PR-presentation,
you would concentrate on your firm, services, experience, references,
turnover, and other such things that DIRECTLY inform the listener
of YOUR good qualities.
You would tell
them how much experience you have, how many satisfied clients
there are, what the revenue is, how many partners & staff
your firm has... things like that.
The PR-presentation
is (or should be) used with people or entities (firms, institutions,
organizations, etc.) that have little reason to DOUBT what you
say – and it is a way of bringing the other person up to
date about you.
The MOTIVATION
or purpose of a PR-presentation is to gain acceptability
or just to brief another about your firm and areas of expertise.
For instance,
if you would hire a consultant, he would want to get a presentation
like this in order to better understand your objectives, resources,
needs and so on. Someone applying for a position in your firm
would also benefit from such a presentation.
These people
would have NO cause to DOUBT what you say, of course.
You aren't
be selling them anything.
You're simply
explaining the existence and nature of your firm, plans, ideas,
policies... things like that.
In a PR-presentation,
you are actually POSITIONING your firm in the same class as "other
successful Accounting firms," if you wish.
Such a presentation
makes use of the fact that Accounting Industry is known to exist,
known to be respectable and dependable – and you're saying
"I'm like the others, see – so I'm respectable and
dependable also."
Sorry for the
terrible generalization, it's only to illustrate what makes a
PR-presentation work.
Immediately
we see that once the MOTIVATION and PURPOSE of the presentation
become SELLING, the PR-presentation loses most of
its effect.
Once you're
asking another person to give you MONEY, the element of DOUBT
is definitely introduced into the game.
You want the
other person to commit into a long-term relationship with quite
some financial obligation.
Money is to
change hands in exchange of what you PROMISE.
It's a MAJOR
difference in degree of trust as compared to presenting your
firm to a bank manager, see?
Look at it
from the potential client's viewpoint:
You tell
him how great you are and promise huge benefits... but
HE has to pay regardless whether or not you keep
your promises.
You SAY things
and he PAYS MONEY.
Of course,
I'm not saying it is YOUR intention to cheat him in any way.
I know it isn't.
But he doesn't
really know you from Adam - and he has been promised a lot of
things before.
The trust factor
isn't there, not yet.
But... WHY
do the traditional marketing strategies TELL us to do such a
presentation, then?
Well, you
tell me!
What are the
chances that the business owner is going to take the word of
a previously unknown person and commit himself financially based
only on that person's say-so?
You wouldn't
do it –
and you'd not advise a client to do it either.
Yet this is
what we're told to do!
And what's
the point in proving that your firm is "just like other
firms?"
He's already
GOT an Accountant
– he isn't looking for someone that's "just like the
current one" but something MUCH BETTER.
Is it any
WONDER we get so few sales from our traditional Accounting service
presentations?
What is the
potential client looking for?
The business
owner is basically looking for an Accounting firm that MAKES
SENSE to him - in other words, an Accounting Professional that
he can UNDERSTAND better.
It's that simple,
yes.
Understanding
IS the key element for the client in obtaining any BENEFITS from
an Accounting service.
Information
that isn't understood cannot be used - and anything that is not
useable has no value.
In essence,
you're not out to prove that you EXIST or that you're "just
as good" as his current Accounting firm. Chances are, that's
not going to put your services very high on his scale.
To get him
to CHANGE Accountants, you must give him A REASON to do so.
To do that,
HE must realise why and how your service would be MUCH BETTER
than that of his current Accounting firm.
In fact, you
want to give him as MANY reasons as humanly possible! Here, more
is definitely better.
And it will
not be possible to achieve that with the traditional marketing
suggested PR-presentation.
See, the presentation
of Accounting services being what it is today, he probably
bought his current service after a PR-presentation.
In other words,
he ACCEPTED the word of the Accountant at face value, he believed
when the Accountant said (in essence) "I'm really good and
you can trust me."
And now,
the business owner KNOWS it was a mistake to trust those promises.
Thus, we see
the futility of using a PR-presentation to convince someone of
the benefits of CHANGING Accountants. It doesn't do the trick,
as we all know from experience so well!
Yet, that's
the traditional form of presentation that Accounting firms predominantly
use.
An EFFECTIVE
Sales Presentation cannot concentrate on YOUR firm or YOUR qualities...
or YOU at all, for that matter.
It MUST
concentrate on the CLIENT instead, wholly and utterly.
Creating TRUTH
with your Accounting service presentation
"Truth"
is an elusive, subjective concept. What is true for one person
might not be true for another.
Basically,
the most TRUTHFUL fact of all is the one that a person has
created in his own mind.
From this,
we get a simple rule of thumb showing how to make something true
for another person:
Get HIM
to invent the fact and it will be TRUE to him... simply because
it is HIS datum.
TELL him
that same fact instead, and he will RESIST it... simply because
it is YOUR datum.
Thus, there
is only one successful way to get that business owner to TRUST
you and make the benefits of your services TRUE to him... which,
as we see, will immediately give him lots of reasons to CHANGE
Accountants.
You have
to get HIM to form the idea that you can be trusted.
You have
to get HIM to realise, all on his own, each and every BENEFIT
that changing over to YOU would bring.
HE has
to invent and come up with all those reasons to change Accountants.
Give those
reason to him directly, and he will SUSPECT EVERYTHING YOU SAY.
Be patient,
use a modern marketing presentation tool to take him through
the subjects in a way that allows HIM to invent these things...
and he will BELIEVE those benefits!
Simple, isn't
it?
It is not only
simple but also the ONLY way to get results from presentation
today.
See - you're
not starting from "zero-experience" with most potential
clients.
And because
of that, using the traditional presentation will absolutely KILL
your chances with each prospect!
Let me explain.
Let's look
at the track that led your potential client to you.
Some years
ago, he decided to trust the PR-presentation of his current Accountant
and accept at face value the claims that generous benefits and
services would be given in exchange for the money he pays.
For one reason
or another, those expected benefits didn't materialise.
Or, they did,
but the client didn't realise that it happened – his Accountant
didn't ensure the client UNDERSTOOD what he was getting.
Whichever it
was is purely academic at this stage.
The fact remains
that NOW, the business owner feels that it was wholly unjustified
to trust that PR-presentation.
It didn't enhance
HIS understanding and thus, he didn't really feel that he was
making an INFORMED decision.
He just took
the Accountant's word for it - and now regrets having
done so to some degree.
Obviously,
he isn't likely to believe it again. He's "not going
to fall for it" a second time!
This time,
he won't MAKE a decision before he has personally evaluated
the new firm's services so he can be CERTAIN he isn't changing
to an even WORSE Accounting service.
This is a subjective
reality I'm talking about.
It is what
the average business owner considers TRUE, viewed solely from
his own viewpoint. He isn't going to TELL you this, but it is
vital to understand that it is what he will use to evaluate YOUR
services.
And here's
the thing we usually miss:
Unless he
CAN achieve a relative CERTAINTY on that this new Accounting
service would be MUCH BETTER – and see it with his very own
eyes, evaluate on his own and without taking anyone's word for
it – HE WILL NOT CHANGE ACCOUNTANTS.
The mere IDEA
of changing Accountants represents RISK to most business owners.
An overwhelming
majority of business owners are fully aware of the fact they
don't have ANY means to evaluate whether the new firm will be
better than the current one.
Translated
into math, it's a whopping 50% chance of making a fatal mistake.
But, in reality,
it's much WORSE.
See - the previous
bad experience WEIGHS HEAVILY in his estimation. He tried and
he failed. So for HIM - again, subjective truth - the likelihood
of making yet another wrong choice is HUGE.
Can you see
how that previous "failure" to choose Accountant could
weigh quite heavily in HIS equation?
Inactive state
of potential clients and how to get them moving
Do you think
you're competing with other Accounting firms?
I've got news
for you. You're not!
You're not
competing with another Accounting firm about these clients.
You not really
even competing with their current Accountants!
Your nemesis
is the INACTIVITY that holds business owners in its grip
when it comes to changing Accounting firms.
That inactivity
is caused by LACK OF POSITIVE CERTAINTY on being able to make
an informed, correct DECISION about it.
And that, in
its turn, derives its paralysing force from the inability
to EVALUATE and COMPARE Accounting services.
My own clients
– Accounting Professionals like yourself – ask me why
I'm so CERTAIN that their COMPETITORS won't give them much of
a challenge.
Well, it's
because the clientele of Accountants is VERY PASSIVE –
and if you don't close the potential client, he is simply going
to STAY with his current Accountant.
If you give
the prospect a PR-presentation, he won't sign on - but he isn't
going to go to another Accounting firm, either.
You need to
appreciate just how much it takes to get him to EVEN TRY "to
make sense out of Accounting services" ... just ONCE MORE.
See, it's a
subject he doesn't understand. He identifies Accounting with
all sorts of unwanted things such as taxation and mandatory keeping
of records. It simply isn't on the top of his "most desirable
things to do!"
For whatever
reason, he became active and tried with you... and got the same
"we're-better - take-my-word-for-it" PR-presentation.
He won't say
anything but he will NOT TRY AGAIN for YEARS!
He will become
INACTIVE in this subject - totally and utterly so.
It's much like
trying to make sense of some software manual. You know those
tomes that use "outer-space" vocabulary nobody understands?
You try it, get stuck, get disgusted, put it aside... try again,
get more disgusted... and wait MUCH longer until you give it
another shot.
YOU may get
through it some way because you paid for it - and, as an Accounting
Professional, you have a high ability to make sense of cryptic
formulae anyhow.
But your prospect
hasn't paid for the presentation and if it doesn't "open
up" and make his eyes shine with newborn insight on uses
and benefits of Accounting and finance... that's it!
He's
HAD IT!
Why would he
want to go to get that same PR-presentation again from ANOTHER
Accountant?
If your presentation
convinces him, he will sign onto your services.
If it doesn't,
he stays with his current Accountant.
End of competition
report!
Every few years,
he MIGHT again go for an Accounting service presentation, just
to see if anything new has developed.
The second
he realises he is getting the same old PR-presentation... well,
he knows nothing new HAS popped up.
So, back
to hibernation he goes for yet a few more years.
Can you see
how you really don't have to worry about a THIRD Accounting firm
- or ANY firm using the traditional PR-type of presentation,
for that matter?
Your "competitor"
is the BUSINESS OWNERS' INABILITY TO INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATE
Accounting services in order to reach sufficient CERTAINTY of
making the right decision!
No certainty
reached - no decision. Makes sense, right?
"Call
me next week..." "I need some time to think this over..."
- do these sound familiar?
Join the club
- they are the signs of "not sufficient level of certainty
reached" and the consequences of traditional marketing presentation!
Avoid the authoritarian
approach - and engage him in an interesting dialogue instead
The EFFECTIVE
days of the traditional marketing presentation are gone. It is
based on the olden times when an Accountant was a big authority
in the society, just like most other professionals such as doctors,
attorneys, inspectors and pharmacists.
I'm not putting
down the value of Accounting Professionals. Today, it is higher
than ever - and the benefits of using Accounting services
are better that they've ever been.
But the
way we present our services must change with the times.
Society today
is not based on authoritarian rule - and the world of commerce
certainly is at the forefront of this evolution of personal relationships.
Similarly,
the presentation of Accounting services needs to aim solely at
enlightening the business owners' comprehension on what Accounting
COULD do for him.
You must increase
his understanding and, IN HIM, effect a thinking process that
will evaluate the key points of achieving CERTAINTY on that your
service is what he has been "always looking for."
This cannot
be achieved by TELLING him things. That's the old, authoritarian
approach and it creates an automatic rejection.
But it can
be achieved by ASKING a long series of questions that allow him
to evaluate the pertinent points without any interference or
bias attempted by you.
The effective
way to present your services is to INTERVIEW your prospects.
If you TELL
them directly what benefits your service offers, they will AUTOMATICALLY
DOUBT what you say simply because it is so obviously in YOUR
INTEREST that he would believe it.
So, TURN
IT AROUND.
Make HIM invent
each fact. Make it in HIS interest to HAVE that part or benefit
of your service.
Make your interview
such that he realises the CAUSE of things - why something didn't
work and why something else DID. This is not only enlightening
and useful but also immensely enjoyable for both of you!
The dynamite
way is to NEVER SAY ANYTHING SELF-ASSERTING in a direct way -
but to ASK WHETHER IT WOULD BE VALUABLE FOR HIM.
There's much
more to it, but if you add just that one aspect to your presentation
in a correct way, you'll get much better results.
And, to this,
you can add something to give him an even more convincing reason
to change Accountants...
Selling through
a problem
There's a very
old principle of selling that involves utilising PROBLEMS.
The basic idea
is simple: To be interested in a SOLUTION - which your service
would be and / or provide - the business owner must have a
PROBLEM he wants solved.
Regardless
of what HE says, he does have SOME problem. Why else would he
spend his valuable time to find out about the SOLUTIONS that
you offer?
Those clients
that KNOW exactly what the problem is and TELL YOU are usually
the easiest to sign on. Basically you only have to AGREE with
him that it IS a problem and then tell him that the SOLUTION
is to sign onto your services.
Well, that
may SOUND simple enough - but tell me... how many times do we
eagerly tell our prospect that what he says is a problem IS NOT
A PROBLEM AT ALL?
I know, we
do it in the mistaken belief that it would prove how magnificent
problem-solvers we are... when in actual fact, we take away his
reason to sign onto our service!
All right.
Now, for the majority of potential clients, it isn't at all clear
WHAT exactly their problem is. Also, most business owners are
very reluctant to admitting that they even HAVE a problem. You
know how it is.
This presents
us with a problem: How can you SELL THE SOLUTION if the PROBLEM
it's for "doesn't exist?"
Well, you can
try what we all try first - to CONVINCE him that he HAS a problem.
Only, of course,
he will immediately DISAGREE with that - didn't he just
TELL you he doesn't have any problems?
It is quite
useless to ARGUE with him as he has already played his hand.
He simply cannot give in as that would mean losing face.
Obviously,
you cannot IGNORE the problem either. No problem and, thus, no
need for a solution.
Believe it
or not, prospects will take it as a "professional confirmation"
that they DON'T have a problem and just go home, happily continuing
to ignore the problem!
Enforce the
problem and he is likely to use a lot of energy DENYING that
it exists and criticize your solution to it as inapplicable.
If you cannot
point out to him any unhandled problems or unutilised potentials
that his current Accounting service may have missed, you're not
really giving him a reason to change - not over to you, anyhow,
right?
But if you
try to point out these things you're likely to get into an argument
or be ignored.
What is really
happening here?
The basic problem
of a business owner is that he WANTS to achieve so much and continuously
underestimates the time and effort it takes to DO it.
In other words,
he means to do the right thing, organise his activities and get
everything streamlined - but then the run of the mill gets him
constantly distracted from this great plan.
It isn't easy
to organise all the functions of a business. In fact, it's quite
an undertaking just to map out what needs to be done, who should
do it, how it should be done... well, you get the idea.
Organising
isn't the owner's first priority. He is mainly concerned with
the sale and production - without those, there's nothing to organise.
Of course,
as his business grows, the task of organising becomes even more
daunting... so it is a bit of a Catch 22.
Be that as
it may, the situation in which you find most business owners
is that they are doing all they can to cope with the tasks at
hand.
There's too
little time to get things done.
Lack of resources,
shortage of money and time... that's the regular roller coaster
he is riding. It used to be he that was at the controls... but
now, to a degree, he has turned into the passenger.
He is reacting
to things, trying to cope with whatever he absolutely MUST...
and it all just becomes more, year after year. It all becomes
a bit too much for him.
All right.
Enter an Accounting Professional, pointing out to the business
owner what he has missed.
Hold on - but
you're not pointing out HIS mistakes... but those of
his current Accounting firm, right?
Well... yes
and no.
What you want
to say isn't always received the way you intended it to be understood.
The receiver will form his own opinion on what HE perceives that
you're saying.
A missing factor
in this equation is this: Most business owners will feel responsible
for their choice of Accounting firm.
Thus, he will
receive your well-intending message with a prefix of "The
Accounting firm that YOU selected..." and consequently,
he WILL experience it as direct criticism on his leadership!
Even if he
doesn't see it that way, your well-meaning observations will
remind him of that forever increasing imbalance between what
he should do and what he gets done.
He isn't going
to like that, obviously.
See, the amazing
thing is that he KNOWS he should do a lot of things - and he
is upset because he hasn't done them.
So, what's
the solution?
Well, take
a look at how the Modern Marketing technology handles the presentation.
YOU don't tell
him anything directly - you ASK HIM to evaluate each point
and TELL YOU how it is.
You have a
set of questions that gets him to LOOK at things from a new viewpoint.
You lead the subjects on GRADUALLY and get him on the way of
WANTING TO FIND OUT WHAT'S TROUBLING HIM.
You let
HIM do all the work, see?
He has got
to do his own thinking if you're EVER going to get him to GET
IT, see?
You cannot
do his thinking for him!
And that's
what you'd be doing if you used the traditional presentation
- the PR-presentation. You'd be TELLING him all this - doing
his thinking for him - and feeding him "information already
evaluated."
Many people
actually take OFFENSE because such a presentation so boldly suggest
that the recipient isn't equipped to do his own thinking!
All right.
There are many
crucial elements to a functional presentation like described
here.
For one, you
must have GRADUAL approach to these problems. This way, he doesn't
get TOO much to face all at once. You don't want him to DENY
it. If he picks that dead-end street, he will then defend his
viewpoint for the fear of losing face, see?
For second,
your questions must allow him to answer ANYTHING HE WANTS. In
other words, you mustn't try to "set him up" with "clever"
questions enforcing an expected answer. Instead, you would affect
his thinking by your SELECTION and SEQUENCE of questions.
Basically,
the BIGGER the problem is for him, the more urgency there'll
be for him to SOLVE it.
You want the
solution to be "signing onto your services."
Thus, the PROBLEM
must be something that is REAL to him and is real in general
- something that he could change for the better.
So, don't let
the problem become "having to listen to this self-aggrandizing
PR-presentation."
His solution
to that problem is what you've been witnessing long enough,
right?
Instead, present
your services in a way that allows HIM to realise what his actual
problem is.
That same "hardheadedness"
will then work FOR and not AGAINST you!
Understand -
realise - believe
There's a simple
formula that works within effective Accounting service presentations
and UNIFORMLY produces results. With "results" I mean
that if you have and use such a presentation, you will get up
to 80 percent of your prospects signed onto your services.
I won't promise
you 80% though - but I definitely guarantee that a correct utilisation
of this formula will increase your closing ratio SIGNIFICANTLY.
The "presentation
formula" works through and with the understanding of the
prospect.
First, you
must increase his UNDERSTANDING of the subject of Accounting
& Finance.
Next, you must
ASK him questions in a way that makes him LOOK at each small
morsel of data and FORMULATE AN OPINION on it. To do that,
your questions must be...
a) in a correctly-planned
ORDER so you start from most basic things and evolve it into
subjects that these fundamentals then allow him to comprehend
b) formulated
in a way that ENSURES HE UNDERSTANDS each question - for if he
doesn't, he won't be able to EVALUATE the subject at all and
he can't ANSWER your question... and this will defeat the whole
purpose of it
c) planned
so that he COMPARES CORRECT THINGS with each other. With this
I mean that, for instance, you wouldn't compare your price to
competitors' but to what the prospect will be able to DO (produce,
earn) with the timely and precise information he gets from YOU
d) asked in
a way that allows the prospect to answer ANYTHING HE WANTS.
In other words,
you make questions that are carefully selected to "predispose"
the COMPARISON subject of the question (what he compares it to,
the data he uses in his own evaluation) but you make VERY SURE
you don't in any way control WHAT he answers.
Whatever he
answers will be HIS opinion.
It will
be true for HIM because it is HIS DATA.
He has given
birth to it, not you.
He has evaluated
this bit and made an INFORMED DECISION on how it is.
Now, HE will
defend that belief and it becomes the "ultimate truth"
to him.
The trick is
to get more of these decisions to fall your way than not.
And that's
exactly what the presentation system in the Modern Accountancy Marketing
& Sales Course will give you - an effective, comfortable way
to turn around the tables on this.
We also have
a special one-day seminar / consutation package regarding the
presentation of accounting services... click here to view our
unique theme seminars for accountancy practitioners.
You make HIM
invent what's so great about your services and how he would benefit
from it. You get HIM to make small decisions, formulate opinions
and establish facts about you.
Those small
decisions will take you a LONG way in getting him signed on -
for the big decision is simply an aggregate of many small ones!
You just take
care that HE becomes the author and creator of all those positive
facts and opinions about your services.
To do that,
you must "play stupid" perhaps - and it certainly takes
a bit more time than the traditional PR-presentation.
But once you
achieve the objective, he will stick to his truth and make his
decision based on THOSE facts INSTEAD of those past failures
and disappointments (and lack of information, lack of ability
to evaluate Accounting services).
And now,
it will be your competitor and/or the current Accountant that
face the daunting task of trying to prove HIM (not you) wrong
in his deductions.
Any attempt
to put down YOUR firm or services will be interpreted by the
prospect as insistence that HE is wrong!
And wouldn't
that be a nice thing to have for a change?
The exact presentation
tools for it exist. They are tested and proven to bring a high
closing ratio - Accounting Professionals with NO prior sales
experience use these tools and close up to 80 percent of potential
clients onto their services.
CLICK
HERE to get a presentation of the Modern Accountancy Marketing
& Sales Course that gives you this priceless presentation
system
- and also proven ways to get a constant flow of potential clients!
Best wishes
Harry Kafka
HDK
Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
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