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024 | Where the Sales Conversation Goes Wrong With Accountants

Sep 15, 2019

Do you find the sales process fun, or do you find it scary?

We’re changing things up for this episode of The Abundant Accountant Podcast. Dominique Molina, Co-Founder and President of the American Institute of Certified Tax Planners is interviewing the Pitch Queen herself about how accountants can change their sales conversations to lead to higher conversions, and more abundant clients.

Our guest today is the Co-Founder and President of the American Institute of Certified Tax Planners.  She is a best-selling author and a frequent television guest and media expert on tax issues. She has previously been named as one of the “Top 40 Under 40 Most Influential Accounting Professionals” by CPA Practice Advisor Magazine.  However, she will not reveal to us today if she is still under 40.  

Sales conversations can be scary and intimidating - so much depends on them! But once you’ve moved past the stage in your business where your ideal client is anyone who has a heartbeat and breathes, you can really have fun with it - and find out just how much these sales conversations can change your business.

After you find that balance between being detached and being desperate, and can focus on your clients and serving their needs, you’ll love showing them just how you can serve them and save them money and keep their goals at the forefront.

Learning to listen, and finding ways to incorporate these tricks will help all seasoned sales professionals and beginners alike - these are The Pitch Queen’s techniques that are even used today!

In this episode of The Abundant Accountant Podcast, The Pitch Queen shares all her juicy tips and tricks with Dominique Molina about how to have successful sales conversations. Once you can master those little tricks, you’ll see what a big impact they can have on your firm! 

This episode is sponsored by Terra Optima. Terra Optima provides tax efficient real estate strategies for small to mid-size accounting firms and have become a proven resource to help grow the high net worth client base for firms all over the country. They possess a wealth of resources in the conservation space, as well as tools to add to your success in assembling and presenting tax plans attractive to your clients. Whether it's to manage a personal land conservation project for your client, or to participate in a "best in class"  real estate project that could have a conservation outcome, make them a part of your resource team today. Learn more at www.Terra-Optima.com

Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:

  • Dominique Molina introduces Michelle, the Pitch Queen, and her business.
  • Every time you talk to a client, it’s a sales conversation!
  • The more powerful your sales conversation is, the more people you will be able to help.
  • A sales conversation can be powerful because it helps educate people. People don’t know what they don’t know: you help them move past their own blocks to help them know what is good for them.
  • When you care about a client, that impacts your attitude and you’ll be able to serve them effectively.
  • Bring your full self and full ability to serve in every sales conversation.
  • Listen to your clients! Keep your gallon of water, your green juice, or your coffee pot close! Take a good sized gulp all throughout the meeting - when you’re gulping, you aren’t talking!
  • Use the 80/20 rule: you should be listening 80% of the time, and talking 20% of the time.
  • Take notes while you’re meeting with clients - don’t be intimidated; tell them that you’re making sure to note what is important to them.
  • Those notes will help you know what is important to your clients; the words that they say, and their goals.
  • These notes will help you connect them with the meaning of future actions: “We’re going to do A, B, and C so that you can accomplish these goals…”
  • Make an agenda for client meetings, so that they can relax and listen, and not be waiting for your pitch.
  • Remember, your client meetings are interviews to see if YOU want to work with them - you get to flip the script!
  • The mindset you bring to client meetings is important. Don’t schedule meetings around major deadlines (e.g., during tax season, around March 15th, or April 15th, or when you’re under a lot of pressure). Your mood will impact that new client relationship.
  • When meeting with a client, most of the time, you sit across from each other. Imagine yourself sitting next to them, go through the experience with them! Put yourself in their shoes, and empathize with them. 
  • Keep it real! Clients can sense anything that’s fake - even if it’s a white lie, like “I understand this can be shocking….” if you don’t truly empathize, don’t say that you do. 
  • If you come across as deceptive in any way, it unravels the trust that you have with your client.
  • When you develop this skill to have good client sales meetings, it will change your business!

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If you are an accounting professional who worries about where your next client may come from, or even struggling with inconsistent cash flow not during tax season then head over to 5stepstoabundance.com to get my simple 5-step process accountants use to go from “waiting around for the busy season” to closing high-level clients who are happy to pay the fees you deserve and who actually appreciate the work you do for them! 

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