4. A systematised,
phased-out system with TOOLS that can be used within days without
specific training.
The more your
system relies on personal ability, competence and skill, the
less likely it is ever to produce reliably - and the less likely
it is to CONTINUE working for long... and there's no hope of
ever getting anyone else to do it.
Skilful salespersons
that can handle people and any situation that arise are one in
a thousand. If you're one of them then let me congratulate you
for that - and commiserate the lifelong entrapment it will bring
you unless you realise this point:
Any ACTIVITY
(as in doing things successfully day in day out), to reach any
degree of PERMANENCE, must be STANDARDIZED into tools that are
SO easy to use that it well meets with the existing skill-level
of 95 percent of people.
Am I saying
that "most people are dumb?" Well, no.
But I am saying
that able, competent people like you are often too generous in
their assumption of the general aptitude, ability and competence
of the rest of the population.
Don't make
the mistake of thinking that whatever YOU find easy is easy for
others. Don't think that your powers of evaluation and estimation
are shared by everyone. There's a reason why YOU started the
firm and/or run it - and it isn't because "you're just like
anyone else."
YOU probably
find it easy to absorb and digest large quantities of information.
Not so with the majority of population. YOU might find it interesting
to study new methods until you know everything about them. Again...
that's not the case with the bulk of people.
For you, it
might not take long to get the gist of some system - but on the
average person, it will take very much longer. You can take in
huge amounts of information, organise each datum in its correct
category and come out with much improved understanding of the
how and what to DO.
Unfortunately,
the ability to handle lots of data in this manner is not very
common among us. For you, it might be an interesting undertaking
leading to positive and productive action after you've studied
all the material. But for the majority of people it will be too
much, resulting in utter confusion with NO production at the
other end of it.
So, don't be
misled to assume that what you find easy will be easy for others.
MAKE IT EASY enough for anyone to get those results that you
can achieve with your natural abilities and skills.
The way to
that is through ready-to-use tools.
What kind of
tools?
In the context
of marketing, the concept of tools is not all that clear. The
principle itself is the same as with any physical tools. A hammer
"knows" how to enforce a downward force onto the nail,
driving it inwards into the wall. An electric drill "knows"
how to make a hole in the wall.
The purpose
for which each tool is developed decides the set of rules and
necessities for its planning. Some bright ideas are needed to
realise there's a NEED for a tool. Certain experience and aptitude
are required to develop feasible prototypes that could become
that specific tool: It is simply much easier for an expert with
familiarity and experience to develop it as he or she will start
from a much more evolved level as he already KNOWS the subject.
But no tools
can be sold before they're TESTED and PILOTED extensively. For
it is the END USER that has to find them useful, it is HE who
must be able to use the tool without extensive learning process.
Obviously,
the tool has to WORK - it has to produce the expected RESULTS
uniformly in the hands of its users - and it has to be so easy
to use that almost ANYONE can use it within few minutes.
Complicated
tools that necessitate a high level of skill as a prerequisite
find very few users. Tools that require long and arduous study
to be used, rarely achieve popularity and thus, are not used.
People have
the right to choose their own intellectual challenges and it
isn't very clever to enforce such a dare when creating tools.
A can opener that requires an hour of training won't find many
users.
To create a
tool that can be used widely and successfully, it has to be easy
to use - and it has to be TESTED so that the MAJORITY of people
will be able to produce the expected results with it without
fail.
A tremendous
amount of work goes into the creation of any tool - albeit invisible
to the end users. But it is that research, planning, testing
prototypes and developing of the tool which ultimately bring
about an instrument that can be used universally by almost anyone
with a good success ratio.
It isn't easy
to create a functional physical tool. And it is even harder to
create one that works within nonphysical subjects such as prospecting.
Once we enter
the sphere of "intangible walls and nails," the number
of uncertainties and arbitrary factors increases markedly. You
cannot see the immediate result in a prospecting system the way
that a physical tool allows.
Hit a nail
dead-on and it will give you the feel of having hit it - and
you see that the nail penetrates deeper into the wall.
Ask a question
from a business owner and you cannot always immediately tell
the effect of it. What is he thinking? Did he arrive at a positive
opinion on the subject you asked him about?
Also, obtaining
a potential client is a much more involved action than driving
a nail into a wall. In terms of nails and walls, it would be
better compared with erecting the frame of the wall rather than
just driving in one nail.
Thus, it takes
quite a few actions to start actually seeing the shape of what
you're doing.
Now, there
are a few successful ways to obtain potential clients for Accounting
services. I'm not claiming that the Modern Accountancy Marketing
& Sales Course has the ONLY way. (In fact, the course itself
contains SEVERAL methods of prospecting.) All I'm claiming is
that this way has been tested and proven - and it is put into
easy-to-use tools in its entirety, leaving NOTHING to chance
in obtaining those expected results.
Be that as
it may, the fact remains that there are only a few ways of SUCCESSFULLY
obtaining potential clients for Accounting firms.
And there are
MILLIONS of ways to do it unsuccessfully.
A successful
prospecting system has a set of tools that each incorporate all
the needed actions in a way that requires the user only to READ
through the tool he is using to effect the results with an acceptable
success ratio.
If it is a
direct mailing letter, then it needs to have several SETS of
letters with successful approach to create interest - and there
must be clear, step-by-step instruction on the whole chain of
actions that are required to get the letters out and get results.
If it is a
package giving you the way to set up your own telemarketing activity
inexpensively, then the set must include EVERYTHING: A successful,
proven interview, instructions on how to get someone to use the
interview so he or she succeeds more than fails (and it is easy
and comfortable to use), how to establish the activity and ensure
it runs smoothly and produces the expected results in form of
several potential clients found weekly.
If you get
a load of theories and then "simple instructions" like
"Develop a great method of obtaining prospects," and
"Next, use it daily," you won't get there. There's
just too much missing in between and you're basically paying
for being told to do something about your marketing!
Unfortunately,
that's the general theme in what traditional marketing of Accounting
services offers. You are give great ideas but never a tested
set of tools to SELL THEM EFFECTIVELY.
Lack of tools
- the ailment of traditional marketing strategy
Traditional
marketing of Accounting services often aims at developing new
additional services. The majority of these ideas are, quite frankly,
very good.
But here's
the thing: They give you loads of clever ideas on how to deliver
great services - but no effective way to interest anyone about
the services, let alone a planned-out (and tested) set of tools
to present and SELL them successfully!
You pay thousands
of pounds, get highly motivated to expand your firm, get absolutely
dazzling new services to deliver, and then... WHAT?
All dressed
up and no place to go?
Where is the
MEAT? Where's the START of that rainbow, how do you MAKE IT HAPPEN?
See - no
applicable tools!
All those superb
ideas of additional services, all those carefully prepared plans
of delivery... all just sitting there without any effective way
of getting them sold so you could deliver them - that's the way
it usually is with traditional marketing strategies!
The weakest
link is prospecting and selling of the services.
But, unlike
in the famous television quiz, the vendors of these marketing
techniques aren't the ones getting embarrassed with an indifferent
"goodbye." It's YOU who gets ignored by business owners!
Obviously,
there's a problem here that the traditional marketing strategy
hasn't solved. They come up with great new services - and absolutely
NO effective, tested or proven set of tools to SELL IT EFFECTIVELY.
And that's
a gaping hole, a major omission that creates a huge problem.
And here's
how Modern Marketing of Accounting services solves it:
You get ONE
simple service that ensures constant contact with you and the
client. You then build the service on the one need that the target
audience most identifies with so as to achieve WIDE DESIRABILITY
for this service.
You create,
test and pilot a reliable, successful and inexpensive way to
get prospects for this service and to successfully sign most
of your prospects onto this service.
Now, you have
lots of new clients that confer with you monthly on the problems
they face in their businesses. Now, they trust you and take your
advice.
And only NOW
you can actually get those more involved additional services
sold with ease. Not only that, but you will KNOW when the client
needs it - and the groundwork of building TRUST has been done
so he will believe when you tell him he needs it!
Thus, the monthly
consulting service that the Modern Accountancy Marketing &
Sales Course includes is ITSELF a tool, albeit a very large one,
to get those ADDITIONAL services sold in abundance.
The importance
of success in prospecting
Theoretically,
any prospecting is better than nothing. Mathematically, the principle
is that if you try, you maintain the possibility of succeeding
- whereas if you give up and cease trying, there are absolutely
NO possibilities of success.
Mathematics
and practice are different because when you have to DO it, the
element of human nature enters the equation.
The important
factor is that success and failure directly regulate our willingness
to do something.
If a person
mostly FAILS in something, he won't keep it up for long. IF he
SUCCEEDS in it more than he fails, he will be pleased to continue
it.
And that's
why, in practice, "any prospecting is better than no prospecting"
doesn't actually work.
The success ratio of your prospecting system is of utmost importance
in ensuring that it will be used sufficiently to GET potential
clients - to say nothing of using the system continuously, of
course.
Now, obviously
it is impossible to create any single approach that would result
in getting more prospects than refusals. If it were possible,
nobody would have any problems in obtaining new clients.
Thus, you need
to DIVIDE the prospecting itself into several parts. You set
each up with a goal in a manner that makes a success ratio of
51% or more possible.
I don't want
to go too deep into this as it's not really within the sphere
of this article, but let me give you an example of this anyhow.
Let's say you
set up your own telemarketing activity to obtain potential clients
weekly. You have ready-to-use tools that almost anyone can use
- it doesn't have to be an Accounting Professional, it doesn't
have to be someone with telemarketing experience, and so on.
You would need
a system that would allow for contacting business owners without
creating that immediate rejection that a sales-oriented prospecting
method does. So, let's say you contact them to survey their opinions
about Accounting services in general - and take it from there.
First target - make 20-40 calls to business owners on
a list.
Second target - reach the owner
/ decision-maker in more than half of these businesses
Third target - get more than half
of those you reach to agree to participate in the interview
Fourth target - get more than half
of those participating to continue until the end of the interview
Fifth target - determine which
ones appreciate your services naturally and are interested in
doing something about their finances
Sixth target - get more than half
of these to agree to a telephone appointment with the Accountant.
These six phases
each have their own end products defined. Now, as the above comes
from an existing, tested, piloted and proven prospecting system
- instead of being just a great idea never put into a test -
I can tell you that it is quite easy to reach a success ratio
far above 50% on each of these targets.
But you do
need to have ALL of it in the tools - see? It has to be EASY
TO USE and it has to leave little to the imagination of the user
so as to keep it standard (keep him or her from changing it)
and to make practically anyone able to produce those results.
Some people
say that all it takes is self-discipline to keep up just about
anything. Well - that's true enough... but it isn't the way to
an enjoyable life.
Without getting
into a philosophical discussion about disciplines, let me just
state my own observation: A person who continuously forces himself
to do things he doesn't enjoy, won't like what he does.
Idiotically
simple, isn't it?
But here's
the thing: One of your goals should be to ENJOY your work.
Once you do,
you will also find it much easier to expand the business. Similarly,
the best thing you could ever do for a marketing-or-sales-employee
is to plan the tools so that he or she continuously succeeds
more than fails.
Success and
pleasure go hand in hand. Succeed more and you will enjoy life
itself more. Conversely, failure brings always something that
is NOT pleasurable.
Certainly,
a stiff upper lip will be needed in a workaday life. Self-discipline
must be used to keep industrious and productive simply because
most of us are prone to enjoy pleasure a bit too much. But it
shouldn't have to be used in doing something that is utterly
repulsive to the person.
It is a disfavour
to your own quality of life. The long-term effects of it can
only LESSEN the true productivity because it so destroys the
overall motivation and morale of a person. The spirit of play
dies out and in its stead, the game becomes too serious with
little or no fun.
Whether or not you agree with that, I'm sure you agree that it
is more fun to succeed than to fail. Logically, one would attempt
to find a system that allows for more success (and makes for
fewer failures) whichever one's personal belief on this might
be.
With prospecting
tools, it is vital to have that higher-than-average success ratio.
Otherwise, there won't BE a prospecting activity at all!
Keeping it simple
will increase the likelihood of results
The easier
and simpler it is to effectively get potential clients, the more
likely you are to obtain those results - and the more probable
it becomes that the prospecting system becomes a part of the
routines in your firm.
Prospecting
is just one step of a marketing system. To get results, it must
be SIMPLE in its layout and structure in terms of applicability.
With this I mean that USING it must be made as easy as possible.
Now, the mistake
traditional marketing makes is to be simple in CONTENT
- to get right down to business and approach the target audience
with a sales-related message.
That doesn't
work. That's not the type of simplicity I'm talking about.
To achieve
results, your prospecting system has to contain ENOUGH parts
and pieces to really create interest. It has to be an evolved
approach that has nothing to do with sales - and it has to consist
of sufficient substance of primary interest for the majority
of business owners.
The contents
of the approach and tools cannot be reduced.
But you make
its USE simple and easy by incorporating it all into tools that
anyone can use.
The person
only has to be able to READ - and then he or she just follows
the instructions in the tool.
It doesn't
matter WHO is going to use the tools - having easy-to-use tools
with step-by-step instructions that can be put to use within
minutes makes sense regardless of whom uses them.
If it's you
who use them, then I'm sure you don't want to spend days or weeks
studying yet another system, figuring out how to actually implement
it and put it to use, do you?
If it's a staff
member that uses them, you probably don't want to spend days
or weeks training him or her before there's a chance of getting
results, do you?
The huge bonus
of ready-to-use tools is your future freedom!
There are many
points speaking for having all your marketing systems set into
ready tools. A good system prepares for a better, easier running
of your marketing activity in the future.
And that's
where easy-to-use tools become vitally important.
With them,
you can easily hand over the prospecting, marketing and sales
functions (and even delivery of the monthly consulting!) to OTHERS.
It is easy
and fast to get others to produce results in very short time.
All they have to do is to use the tools - and keep on adhering
to them. If something goes wrong and results stop emerging, you
just find the spot in the tools that they've stopped using or
changed.
Reinstall the
missing or changed bit (or delete the added, inapplicable bit
they may have included) and the system will again produce as
expected!
This, practically,
means FREEDOM to you in the future. YOU won't have to do everything
any more. YOU won't have to service every client personally anymore.
And you won't
have to spend weeks or months in training a junior into the task.
The difference
in training of personnel with tools and without them is immense.
It is much easier, faster, economical and effective to train
people to use tools.
Compare these
two tasks given to a normal person:
A. Compose a symphony.
B. Pluck the strings
on a guitar in correct order, starting from the lowest.
Which of these
tasks would you get executed by a normal person with sufficient
willingness to work for you?
Right. Now,
here's another set of tasks, now put into the framework of marketing
& sales:
C. Find me clients every
month.
D. Call 20 business owners
a day and interview them using exactly the text that's on this
paper (giving him/her a tool that has in it all the person has
to speak).
And therein
is the difference.
If you have
a systematized marketing programme with specific tools for each
part - tools that have EVERYTHING in them, all the knowledge
and techniques incorporated in so LITTLE PERSONAL SKILL IS REQUIRED
- then you have something that will get done, will continue,
will produce results... and won't require YOU to do everything.
Given an order
"Find me clients" a person would have to have IMMENSE
knowledge, skills and ability - to say nothing of competence,
fortitude and tenacity to keep at something SO complicated and
strenuous DAY AFTER DAY.
As professional
of finance you know that the groundwork for a good fiscal year
cannot rely mainly on heroics or exceptional luck. Instead, one
needs systems in place, ROUTINELY producing results of expected
quantity and quality - or surpassing even that.
Superhuman
feats have their time and place in life, but if the viability
of a business activity is dependent on constantly correcting
catastrophes...
Not exactly
ideal circumstance to create predictable growth, continuity or
risk-free enterprising, is it? And THAT is what the traditional
marketing strategy basically TELLS us to do. Well, that's what
it RESULTS in, anyhow!
Prospecting
is the subject of discussion in this article, but you would have
specific tools of this kind for ALL the phases, such as...
-handling
of the found prospects
-presenting your Accounting service
-defining the potential client's exact needs
-creating a quote,
-closing him / signing him onto your services
...and even
DELIVERING OF THE SERVICE itself!
Now, the traditional
way of training people for their tasks is to basically teach
them ALL there is to know about the specific marketing task and
then have them figure out how to use these data in order to get
results.
With tools,
the approach is totally different. No study of marketing is required.
No challenge of creating a clever way to use the data is needed.
When the tool
incorporate all the active components of the specific activity
in exactly the correct sequence, the person using it only needs
to FOLLOW the clear road the tool lays out for him or her.
That's as in
"read and start" - and that's it!
This enables
the person to obtain results without actually knowing why the
tool works, which components make it work, or how it works.
And that makes
it possible to get people producing practically immediately.
Thus, you get
results FIRST and then expand their knowledge afterwards bit
by bit, once questions or problems pop up.
Do the math
and you'll see what a world of difference it makes. Instant income,
minimized risk - and a lot less time and effort required on your
part!
All in all,
a prospecting system of your choice should be based on ready-to-use
tools so that you can totally bypass the phase of planning and
training and just start the activity and get results!
CLICK
HERE to get back to the main article on the seven-point prospecting
system analysis.
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