Winning bigger and better accountancy clients is often seen as hard by accountants. This is because too often we think we need to sell to win clients for our accountancy firm. Actually, the very best salespeople don't sell. What they actually do is help people buy. It may sound like a subtle difference, but when you help people buy it becomes so much easier to win accountancy clients – particularly the bigger and better type of accountancy clients.
This blog post is a transcription of part of my webinar with Practice Ignition on scaling your practice. It explains the buying journey and how you can use this knowledge to help with winning bigger and better accountancy clients. Click here to listen (or read the audio transcription) of the whole webinar.
Winning accountancy clients: It's all about understanding their buying journey
Every new client of yours is going to go through some defined specific steps. It doesn’t matter whether you sell widgets or services, people go through these next steps, and this work came out of the research done by the people behind spin-selling (it was a project for Xerox 30-40 years ago). They were asked to find out what it is that made the best salespeople effective. They read all the books around it at the time and went on every single sales course, every programme they could find across the world; Then they interviewed the top salespeople.
First, they got rid of 50 per cent because these salespeople didn’t know what they did. They then got rid of another 50 per cent, because they couldn't say what they did. Again they got rid of another 50 per cent, because whatever they did, it didn’t help to win the client. They were left with a tiny few - they discovered that these top salespeople helped people to buy. They helped them along the buying journey.
The buying journey
Status Quo - Everything is fine in my world.
Problems and needs - There’s something not quite right and I’m researching, I’m trying to find out whether or not I need to worry about it.
Define outcome - I know what I want, (ie I want a new accountant who will help me do ‘x’) but I might not know how I’m going to get there.
Develop selection criteria - Who is going to be the right accountant for me? What do I really need?
Explore solution/supplier options - I’m going to go out and talk to some accountants. I’m going to find out what they think is the best thing to do.
I’m going to Assess solution/supplier options.
Now I'm going to make a Decision to Buy.
To win bigger and better accountancy clients, you’re going to need different activities for each part of the buying journey. When someone is in status quo, they’re not going to want to know you! They don’t want to talk.
When somebody is developing the selection criteria, they’re going to be looking at your website, seeing who’s credible and investigating their options.
Too often, accountants don’t target their marketing throughout the whole of the buying journey. They very often just look at people who are wanting to explore solutions/supplier options who are ready to buy now. And, unfortunately, if you do that you’re going to miss out on the many people who have been researching online, have been reading content. It’s often the bigger and the better accountancy clients who you are going to miss out on if you’re not marketing and building that trust earlier-on in their buying journey.
In summary
Winning bigger and better accountancy clients effortlessly is not about selling, its all about helping Prospects and Leads buy from you. This means understanding their buying journey and tailoring your marketing and sales activities to it.
In the webinar you will discover:
1. Why relying on referrals is not the best way to grow your practice
2. The 4 hygiene factors you need to take note of if your sales and marketing is going to be effective
3. What sales and marketing systems you need in order to steadily and predictably win business
4. How to use the buying journey to win bigger and better clients
Click here to download
Listen (or read) the whole recording of the webinar
In the webinar you will discover:
1. Why relying on referrals is not the best way to grow your practice
2. The 4 hygiene factors you need to take note of if your sales and marketing is going to be effective
3. What sales and marketing systems you need in order to steadily and predictably win business
4. How to use the buying journey to win bigger and better clients
Click here to download