1. Correct approach
- the secret of Modern Accountancy Marketing!
The general
approach of a prospecting activity has to be planned precisely
right. It's no use simply offering Accounting services the traditional
way. To fully appreciate the value of this, you need to read
through all the materials on this site, really - it's not a small
subject because it embraces the whole concept of Modern Marketing
technology.
In a nutshell,
the traditional way of thinking in a directly sales-oriented
way doesn't work in prospecting.
Offering
ANYTHING for sale will instantly turn off 99.9 percent
of the target group.
It isn't WHAT
you offer that matters in at first contact - it is that you OFFER
anything that gives away the concept of "this contact is
done only so we could get some money out of you."
In other words,
you cannot plan your approach on a direct attempt of SELLING
something. I know this sounds a bit confusing, but let me explain.
Of course the
goal of any marketing activity is to obtain new clients. But
prospecting is the first phase of it - and in THAT phase, the
goal is NOT to sell or obtain new clients.
Instead, the
goal is to...
CONTACT
members of the target audience, and to...
HANDLE their previous disappointments and upsets about
Accounting and finance, and to...
FIND OUT
what they WANT and NEED from Accounting, and to...
ENLIGHTEN
them on the possibilities and benefits Accounting services can offer, and
to...
GET THEM TO CHANGE THEIR MIND about "Accounting firms
are identical," and to...
INTEREST
THEM in
continuing to hear how they could get more out of Accounting...
...thus effectively
(and in the final analysis) getting a potential client - someone
who is willing to continue with you, hear more, and to participate
in another interview... and so on.
The basic thinking
of TRADITIONAL marketing strategies that always aim at SALES
has failed utterly for DECADES.
Why sell at
first contact when there's no way to get anything sold at that
time?
It is simply
IMPOSSIBLE to sell your services at first contact. YOU don't
want to take on a new client without ANY knowledge about him
or his views, values, ability to pay... things like that. For
a business owner, the decision to change Accountants is a MAJOR
one - and there's NO WAY he would make it based upon one telephone
call from a person he's never seen or heard of before.
So, if it is
neither possible nor even desirable to sign on a client at first
contact - the why would you bother trying? Why would you WASTE
your chances to get a potential client by approaching him in
a way that is utterly proven to turn him off more than just about
ANYTHING you could imagine?
I tell you
why: Because the "marketing experts" tell us to do
so!
Now, it IS
possible to get potential clients with sales-oriented prospecting.
If it were totally hopeless and brought NO results whatsoever,
then nobody would use it.
But the point
is that it is MUCH HARDER to get a potential client the old sales
approach.
MUCH
harder.
The instant-rejection-ratio
will be 98-99 percent. With "instant rejection" I mean
that it is an automatic REACTION that occurs with the traditional
marketing approach after which the decision-maker isn't really
listening anymore.
In other words,
BEFORE the business owner even understands WHAT it is you're
offering he recognizes that you're TRYING TO SELL something...
and he REACTS NEGATIVELY to that. So, most of them aren't even
LISTENING with an objective viewpoint by the time you get to
your great offer!
I'm talking
about that good old FIRST IMPRESSION.
With traditional
marketing strategy, it'll be a negative one always simply
because the recipient recognizes "the smell of an attempt
to sell" as the first impression.
It isn't YOU
or what is offered that turns him off. It's the SALES connection
of it!
Once you've
read the articles on this site you'll know why that is. In a
nutshell it is caused by DECADES of "group memory"
of being subjected to aggressive sales closing using the means
of traditional marketing strategy - the overpowering of the other
person's own will and the "over-smarting" of his intelligence.
It is the ingredient
of SALES that is so repugnant to business owners!
And it is that
instant rejection caused by the traditional approach that makes
is so repulsive for YOU to offer your services!
Prospecting
the hard way won't get done
There's a TIME
AND PLACE for selling the service. But, if you ever hope to get
really serious about prospecting you need to employ a method
that is NOT sales-related. You need the MODERN Accountancy marketing
approach, not the traditional.
See - I can't
blame you if you don't presently do any prospecting to speak
of. Done the way traditional marketing strategy advises, it is
one of the most unpleasant and unrewarding tasks imaginable.
It's like a punishment, it is like getting ridiculed, scorned,
and insulted on continuous basis.
Who would want
that? And, more to the point - who could ENDURE it for any meaningful
length of time?
You shouldn't.
It's not good for business for you to receive such abuse. The
whole future of your firm depends on YOUR spirit and vigour.
Allowing cold contacts to insult you on daily basis is going
to incur more losses than profits. Not a good idea, is it?
To work AT
ALL, the prospecting system you use must be COMFORTABLE and PLEASANT
to use. If it isn't, you're not going to use it in length. And
if you don't use it, it won't bring any results, obviously.
To BE comfortable
and pleasant to use, the system has to have an approach that
clearly differentiates you from those sales-oriented contacts
right from the first second.
When selecting
a prospecting method, pay attention that the approach fulfills
those two important points.
Does the approach
engage the decision-maker into a dialogue immediately - or is
he forced to just sit there, quietly listening to your monologue?
This applies in personal contact as well as when using direct
mailing letters in your prospecting.
Whatever the
communication, it has to immediately engage HIM in a dialogue,
get HIM talking and answering questions - or, as in the case
of a letter, thinking and answering questions in his mind. It
has to concentrate on HIM.
The approach
has to be something that takes the CLIENTS' viewpoint, not yours,
from the onset and does not SELL ANYTHING to start with.
These are not
mere theories but principles of the Modern Accountancy Marketing
technology, tested and proven in countless practices. Try them
and you'll see an immediate increase in the results - and how
much more comfortable it is to have the right approach!
CLICK
HERE to get back to the main article on the seven-point prospecting
system analysis.
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