WHY is selling
Accounting services such an unpleasant and difficult task?
 Let's open our coats
here and just say it as it is: For most of us, selling is a job
for dogs as far as enjoyment is concerned.
And selling
yourself is ten times worse.
Really... who
would ENJOY having to sell his or her own services?
You're selling
yourself, in actual fact - and your self confidence has to be
made out of steel if you don't get affected by the doubts and
belittling remarks that go with sales work.
And what about
the closing phase - pressuring the client to decide when he slashes
out with all his might to escape having to make that decision
now? If you're like the rest of us, it isn't your idea of fun,
is it?
Selling
is just about the most awful thing one could think of, isn't
it?
But WHY
is it so horrifyingly abominable, really?
After all,
what's happening in sales?
There's a prospective
client who has contacted you (or remained in contact with you)
by his own free will.
He obviously
WANTS a new Accounting firm, he is obviously INTERESTED in what
you have to offer - why else would he BE here? - and yet, it
is like World War III when you try to close the deal that both
of you so obviously want!
It doesn't
make any sense,
really.
Granted, there's
always SOME sales resistance. But whence comes that terrible
panic that takes potential clients in its grips, making him
postpone the decision at any cost?
It isn't something
you do. Instead, it derives its force and desperation from decades
of traditional marketing push.
Selling by force
- before the client knows what he is actually supposed to buy!
Effective,
aggressive selling is the watchword of traditional marketing.
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against selling as such. But
I do think it is silly to push for a closure before the other
person is fully aware of what he is supposed to BUY.
It's not only
silly, mind you. It is also terribly irritating to the client.
In fact, it is such a negative experience that he isn't likely
to talk to the salesperson ever again!
Traditional
marketing has, as its basic principle, the insistence to SELL
as soon as possible. Everything in a marketing strategy has to
be sales-oriented and commercially motivated in one or more ways.
Everything a salesman says is somehow intended to GET THE SALE
for him.
Of course,
you know this already. Everyone knows it instinctively. And why
is that?
Because it's
been going on for TOO LONG.
The experts
behind traditional marketing apparently never realised that a
client might not KNOW the product or service offered to him.
These experts never figured out that THEY should ensure that
the client understands what he is offered, how it will benefit
him, how it will save him money... and so on.
Sure - there
have been many sales lectures on naming benefits and unique sales
propositions have been created... but that's not what I'm talking
about here.
It's a small
but infinitely decisive point - but so obvious it is hard to
see:
To a client,
truth is only that which HE is certain about.
He will
only regard something as a FACT if HE has reached certainty about
it.
In other words,
if YOU tell him "a fact" it won't BE a fact - not to
HIM.
This is especially
true in a stressful situation like selling, wherein the salesman
has obvious vested interest in having the client believe the
facts presented.
Now, this is
SO obvious that it almost escapes our notice: The facts presented
in any sales activity are, of course, carefully selected to give
the client a REASON TO BUY the product or service.
Only, the PROSPECT
is looking at it like this:
"Oh
well, this person gets a bonus if I buy so obviously, he would
only tell me positive things about the service. It is in his
interest that I buy and I won't buy unless it's good - so therefore,
he may well be LYING or telling me only a partial truth..."
Can you see
how this "inverted logic" works here?
The client
suspects every single "fact" that the salesman so carefully
presents. Thus, the salesman's hard work actually serves to create
a directly OPPOSITE effect than intended!
Of course,
not everyone suspects every single fact presented by the salesman.
But almost everyone suspects a good portion.
And that's
where the fatal flaw is:
The client
never really achieves certainty on WHAT he is supposed to be
buying and WHY.
I stress the
word CERTAINTY as in "the feeling and knowledge
of having found something to be true without any reasonable doubt."
Since the traditional
marketing strategy doesn't allow for any casual contact between
the salesperson and prospect but instead, gets straight down
selling aggressively from the onset, there's never a relaxed
moment for enlightening the prospect on the product or service
itself.
Have you ever
been truly pestered by an aggressive salesperson? If you have,
then you know what I'm talking about.
That feeling
of being boxed in makes it really hard to concentrate on anything
else but how to get AWAY from that situation. The salesman is
just TOO active and aggressive... you feel really rushed and
just want to shout "GIVE ME SOME SPACE HERE!"
You DON'T want
to agree to what he says simply because he PUSHES and RUSHES
you into making the decision sooner than you feel comfortable
with.
You know how
it is.
Have you noticed
how, if later a SIMILAR situation arises, you're already worked
up because of that earlier unpleasant situation?
If this happens
often enough, the mere reminder of it - or anything even
vaguely resembling such a situation - turns you off IMMEDIATELY.
And once that
happens, you don't really listen to what the salesman is saying
any more. Instead, you feel uncomfortable and just can't wait
to get away from the situation.
Now - how
often do you think an average business owner gets "hit"
by an aggressive salesperson, be it on the telephone or in person?
Right. He is
a prime target for thousands of salesmen in the area. He
gets it all the time!
Now, a SKILFUL
salesperson doesn't create such an effect.
Unfortunately,
for every skilful salesman there are at least a thousand - some
say 10,000 - salesmen with much less ability and aptitude for
the job. And these boys and girls WILL make you feel uncomfortable
- guaranteed!
Now, here's
the important part:
Without
a period of totally non-sales-related time with your prospect,
there is absolutely no chance he will be able to reach sufficient
CERTAINTY about your service in order to sign on.
All this "get
to the point and sell" approach doesn't create a circumstance
wherein a potential client COULD trust the information you give
him.
He doesn't
have a CHANCE of evaluating those facts on his own, he doesn't
have the time and space to figure it out... and he remains uncertain.
In other words,
with the traditional marketing approach, the prospect will NEVER
be able to form an informed opinion about your service.
This means
that you have to PUSH to get him to sign on, because he definitely
doesn't possess the required certainty to do so. With "certainty"
I mean the knowledge of doing the right thing or, conversely,
the confidence of knowing he isn't making a terrible mistake.
Now do you
see where that terrible panic making the client avoid decision
comes from?
Right you are.
It comes from not being allowed a FACT-FINDING phase prior to
selling.
To make your
selling EASY, you only need to AVOID selling until it IS TIME
to sell.
It's not at
first contact. It's not at handling the prospect, not during
presentation of your services, not during defining his needs
and wishes for the service, not during creating a tailored quote
for him, not during going it over with him... but only when all
that is said and done.
And guess what?
If you do it the right way, you won't really have to sell
at all!
Because done
right, this will CREATE the required certainty in the mind of
your potential client. He will KNOW what it is he agrees to,
he will have confidence in that he is doing the right thing and
he is sufficiently assured signing on is not a mistake but something
that will clearly increase his own success.
Makes sense,
doesn't it?
The fundamental
mistake of traditional marketing philosophy - the wrong flow
Tell me - if
you start running aggressively towards another person...
what happens?
Obviously,
nothing positive, if your intention is to strike up a friendly,
trusting relationship with that person.
And that's
the fatal and fundamental mistake of traditional marketing: It
teaches us to attack people aggressively from the onset.
But that's
not the way you create relationships, no matter what type of
relationship, is it?
For instance,
if you want to find a spouse, you wouldn't just walk up to every
representative of the opposite sex and ask them to marry you,
would you? You'd get turned down awfully fast, every time!
First impressions
are so vitally important. You don't make friends and you don't get clients
by ATTACKING them. I don't care HOW the traditional sales experts
paraphrase or justify it - it is the wrong thing to do.
You don't easily
correct a bad first impression. Well, I'm being too nice here
- for it's a fact that you rarely even get a second chance if
you blow it the first time.
And yet, what
does the traditional marketing strategy so emphasize? SELL! Go
for the jugular! Ask for the sale twenty times and you will get
it!
Definitely,
you'll get some sales. But it'll be very few - you won't like
the success ratio a lot... and you'll like the reactions of your
prospects even less!
Modern Marketing
Technology - the right flow
So, if you
shouldn't go directly AT the prospect, what should you do then?
You should
place yourself in his vicinity with a natural, slow and unthreatening
way. It shouldn't have ANYTHING to do with sales. And then you
don't demand anything of him, you don't tell him what he should
think or do.
What do you
do if you want a person to come TOWARD you? You walk AWAY from
that person in a very definite way. Not upset, not discarding...
but in an atmosphere of "feigned disinterest," while
making very sure he or she NOTICES.
It sounds silly,
I know. But bear with me - it gets sillier!
The game
young people play when forming a relationship is quite educational
to observe to learn the correct approach in sales!
See how the
boy and the girl seem to "accidentally" bump into each
other ever so often - pretending disinterest, casual... nothing
special here... oh, hi there! - see that?
Have you noticed
how they talk about the things that interest the OTHER person,
trying to look at things from his or her viewpoint?
How they find
mutual likes and dislikes, friends and hobbies... things like
that? The way they want the other person to talk and enjoy listening
to what he or she has to say?
And have you
beheld how the more they talk and feel what they say is accepted
by the other person, the more self-confident they become?
How CERTAIN
they are that the other person is the right one - from here to
eternity... no matter HOW many times they may have had their
hearts broken previously?
Observe how
GRADUALLY their relationship develops. It is as if there were
modules or phases of preplanned contacts, following each other
at short intervals - they can stay apart two-three days, maximum...
seen that?
That, basically,
is the anatomy of Modern Marketing Technology of Accounting
services.
While you don't
marry your clients, the principle of creating trust and cooperation
still apply just the same.
You create
a natural reason to be in contact with lots of business
owners.
You look
at things from THEIR viewpoint - not yours.
You have preplanned
tools to find out mutual likes and dislikes, to get the
business owner talking and then keep him talking, feeling
clever and self-confident, enjoying your company.
You get HIM
to evaluate what went wrong on any earlier disappointment
he may have had with Accounting firms and services.
You get HIM
to define what kind of an Accounting service would be
valuable beyond anything he's experienced - what it would
be tailored EXCLUSIVELY for him.
You set it
up so you have SEVERAL contacts with each business owner,
each phase carefully preplanned to further increase that mutual
good feeling, to advance that certainty he has about your specific
services tailored for him alone... well, you get the idea.
You build it
up into a set of contacts - it takes no more than 3-4 from first
contact to a sale, if you have the precise tools for it - and
get him to make SMALL DECISIONS all along the way.
To get an idea
of how this works, CLICK HERE to read about the modern
accountancy presentation technique that so many of your colleagues rave
about.
We also deliver
several theme seminars in and around the subject of selling accounting
services. Click
here to read about HDK Theme Seminars for accounting firms.
You gain his
trust and readily answer his question about Accounting
and finance - all while becoming HIS recognised expert
on these matters. You give him a sense of what it feels like
to be serviced by you.
And you DON'T
ASK FOR THE SALE until it is TIME to do so. You don't SELL AT
ALL!
The benefits
of Modern Marketing Technology
Could a big
decision actually be a constellation formed by lots of SMALLER
decisions?
Is there a
power strong enough to turn the head of someone who has achieved
CERTAINTY that another person is trustworthy, good, skilful and
the one he wants to cooperate with?
What happens
when a potential client gets more and more HOT on the service
you're presenting and you STILL WON'T SELL?
You figure
it out!
To get a better
idea of the exact tools to have the right approach which allows
you to effect sales at an extremely high success ratio practically
without selling, CLICK HERE to view the contents of the Modern
Accountancy Marketing & Sales System.
It might be
the starting point of something big.
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 |