One of the most important steps in growing your accounting firm is finding the right sales process. If you’re not developing relationships with potential clients, then it can be difficult to grow your business.
The right “Sales process” is as follows:
- Discovery (done for free to determine problem )
- Proposal (sent in written form)
- Production (only starts once the proposal is signed and sent back)
The best and most productive Senior Client Manager’s go from Discovery (free) to Proposal in the least amount of time. We find they are the most productive and do not give away advice for free. They have the most proposals sent per day. Once the proposal is signed and sent back then it goes to production.
So we measure the number of Proposals out in the system each day/week/month and celebrate each time we get them sent back with signatures. “That’s another sale!”
This ensures the following benefits:
- Staff are not giving away advice for free
- We don’t start work until the proposal is accepted to avoid debt collection issues such as spending time on jobs that clients won’t pay you for or if there was a misunderstanding as to what the client wanted.
- Removes the awkwardness for Senior Client Managers to talk to clients about fees.
All that your Senior Client Manager has to say at the end of the Discovery session is:
“Yes, I believe we have a solution for that and will send you out a proposal…”
In the proposal, there will be a quote to do the work.
We also have a policy that we give 5 minutes of consultation for free but anything more than that requires a proposal to be sent with a quote.
Problems only occur when the SCM takes a shortcut and fails to follow the above procedure. Once they are trained up in following the above procedure we eliminate:
- Writing time off jobs
- Doing work and not getting paid
- Disputes over fees that harm the relationship with clients
- Eliminates leaving money on the table by SCM
- Gives SCM a structured way to handle the “sales process” without relying on their own personality as some SCM are better than others.
This system is followed by everyone in our team and as long as they don’t take shortcuts, then it works every time. They need training on it and time to change habits.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways we can help you grow your Accounting or Bookkeeping business:
1. Download a free copy of our book – The Accountants 20 Hour Workweek
In this free book, we highlight the No.1 strategy that’s had the biggest impact on building our own practice to run without the owners – Click here for more
2. Join our free Wize Accountants Mastermind group
It’s our new free online community to share daily insights, tips, and free tools to grow your practice — Click here for more
3. Save $’000s in your practice every month with this new program
We’ve just released a new practice acceleration program that will help you save money and time every month whilst taking your practice to a new level of growth. See if you qualify – Click here for more
4. Build your firm to run without you
We have a step-by-step plan to grow a seven-figure profit practice that can run without the owner. Would you like it? – Click here for more