The Bottom Line Mid-September 2010 15F O C U S

By KIMBERLEYRICHARDSON

This past year has been verydiff icult for businesseseverywhere. With budgets

tight and resources limited, clientsare being cautious about their dis-cretionary spending. Anyone whois attempting to market their serv-ices must recognize that the need tobuild high trust, respect-filled rela-tionships has never been greater.

Nowhere is this more evidentthan in the professional servicesindustry. Accounting f irms areasking their people to be moreclient-focused. And specifically,f irms are asking their people tomove beyond the execution anddelivery of services, to becomingmore market-focused in their deal-ings and interactions with theirclients and prospects.

Today, selling a firm’s servicesis not about ‘the sales pitch’ or con-vincing the prospect ‘to buy fromthem.’ Instead it’s about cultivatinggenuine relationships and pre-senting the value included in doingbusiness with that firm.

What does a genuine relation-ship entail? Quite simply, it’s aboutmoving away from a sellingmindset, to a mindset of respect andcaring. Truly caring about aprospective client means asking theright questions and doing the rightthing. Truly respecting a prospectrequires an understanding of theirneeds and then providing the rightsolutions.

So with that understanding,forming a relationship gets so mucheasier, especially if an accountant isgenuine to begin with. To getstarted then, it helps to recognizethat an accountant’s goal is to builda practice and increase revenues.

Prospecting for new businessover the phone is one of the ways toaccomplish that. Once anaccountant has identified a quali-fied prospect who will benefit fromhis or her services, what happensnext? The challenges are how toopen up the conversation, suc-cinctly explain how particular serv-ices will benefit a potential clientand f ind ways to inspire theprospect to listen, take action and‘buy.’

Accountants can actually makethe prospecting process fun as longas they remember that having astrategy for success is critical.There are three simple steps that,combined with a positive andenthusiastic attitude, will help anyprofessional motivate the client tolike them, listen to them and impor-tantly, do business with them.

Step 1: Be genuine, and take thetime to build rapport. Whenspeaking to a prospect over thephone, after stating his or her nameand company name, an accountantshould ask a prospect the $million

question: “Have I reached you at agood time?” This question is aboutrespect and is often overlooked byprofessionals who are so eager tocut to the chase that they fail tobuild rapport along the way.

Often prospects will reply witheither a yes or no or a laugh and say,“it’s never a good time, but goahead.” If it’s a yes, the caller thenneeds to take the time to give theprospect a personal snapshot, byfinding some common ground. Theweather is often a great topic.

The business end of the conver-sation will naturally unfold oncethe caller demonstrates that they’rereal and have made a connection.This initial personal groundworkgives the accountant the opportu-nity to build a relationship with theprospect, without having said aword about business. Now, howeasy is that?

Step 2: State the purpose of thecall. After having listened andestablished a level of comfort andtrust, a segue to the purpose of thecall will naturally unfold. And itmay go something like this, “It ismy understanding that you arelooking for expertise in tax compli-ance. Is that correct?”

If the answer is yes, begin bysaying: “I would like to f ind outmore about your concerns in thatarea and see how we may be able tohelp you. Do you have a moment toshare those with me now?”

By asking these questions, anaccountant is showing — not telling— the prospect that he or she caresabout and respects them. Withoutknowing what the prospect’s priori-ties or concerns are, an accountantdoesn’t know what their problemsare and, without that knowledge,has nothing to sell them. By

changing from a selling mentalityto one that focuses on providingsolutions, an accountant’s credi-bility goes way up.

Step 3: Create your 10-secondcommercial. One of the most pow-erful tools available to both newand tenured accountants is creatinga personal 10-second commercial.This ‘ad’ is a very important rap-port-building tool and an essentialpart of the relationship buildingprocess, especially over the phonewhere time is of the essence. Tocreate a commercial, an accountantmust ask and answer the followingquestions:

• What are my unique talentsand abilities?

• What separates me from thenext accountant?

• What are the skills andexpertise that I offer?

• How do my services bringvalue to my clients?

• What is the ‘value-included’ inmy services?

• And the all important one:How do my services provide myclients with peace of mind?

Once an accountant has askedand honestly answered these ques-tions then, and only then, will theybe ready to craft their own commer-cial. The 10-second commercialmust be natural, genuine andunscripted. If it doesn’t come fromthe heart, you are wasting their timeand yours.

For example, if an accountant’sprimary goal is to help clientsreduce their taxes and in turn, savethem money, the resulting 10-second commercial might go some-thing like this:

“Over the past 10 years, we havehad the opportunity to work with anumber of clients who have hadproblems similar to those youshared with me. Through theexpertise that we provide in thisarea, we were able to give themgreater peace of mind and savedthem a lot of money in the process.Is that something that would be ofinterest to you?” It’s very difficultto get a ‘no’ from this question,making it easy to take things to thenext step — the sale.

For professionals or people inany other business, the key to suc-cess is to set themselves apart fromthe next person who may be calling.People do business with peoplethey like and trust. Accountantsmust remember that they are sellingthemselves first and everything elsesecond. Doing business in today’s

economy is much more than simplyselling or marketing services. It’sabout fostering a belief in oneself,and the value one can bring toothers. It’s about striving to do theright thing and becoming theperson others aspire to emulate.

Accountants using these strate-gies will not only build their busi-

ness, they’ll also discover thatbuilding genuine relationships isreally fun and may just take theirpractice and their life to the nextlevel.

Kimberley Richardson is thepresident and co-founder of Image-makers International Inc. Sheteaches the course ‘Executive Pres-ence – The Key to Creating Gen-uine Relationships’ at the ICAO.She can be reached at (416) 466-6101, toll free at 1-866-466-6101or krichardson@imagemakersintl.com. Her website is www.image-makersintl.com.

Genuine people will get genuine results

RICH

ARDS

ON

Without knowing what the prospect’s priorities or concerns

are, an accountant doesn’t know what their problems are

and, without that knowledge, has nothing to sell them.

Kimberley Richardson, Imagemakers International Inc.