How to Sell an Outsourced CFO Service
When selling anything, you’ve got to understand who you’re trying to sell to.
So that…you can communicate in a way that will get them to respond.
That’s pretty much what selling is.
Understand your audience. Then, communicate in way that gets them to respond.
Most people do not do this well.
Enter most accountants.
Most accountants, arguably, don’t understand their audience.
And, most accountants, arguably, don’t communicate in a way that gets their audience to respond.
Therefore, it’s incredibly difficult for most accountants to sell a service (like a CFO service) that goes beyond ‘compliance’ work.
Business owners must have proper books. Business owners must file their taxes.
It doesn’t take a genius salesperson to sell something that people must have. Therefore, most accountants have plenty of work. However, they have plenty of compliance work. They have plenty of low price-point, highly detailed, very tedious, unscalable, and highly competitive work.
However, if you are trying to sell a high-ticket, somewhat ambiguous, CFO service…it takes something more.
It takes…
Understanding your audience.
Then, communicating in a way that gets them to respond.
Understanding Your Audience
We, as accountants and bookkeepers, like numbers. I mean, we really like numbers.
Most people do not.
Therefore, most people do not respond to someone who approaches a conversation from a numbers perspective.
Numbers (and it’s sisters ‘accounting’, ‘financials’, ‘bookkeeping’, and ‘analysis’) sound boring.
Because they are. To most people.
So, when an accountant tries to sell their CFO service (again, something that’s high-ticket and somewhat ambiguous) and they approach it from a numbers perspective their audience tunes out.
Therefore, accountants struggle when selling their CFO service.
They struggle because they’re approaching a prospect from their own perspective (numbers) — not the potential client’s perspective.
And that’s because most accountants don’t understand the potential client.
At all.
Most accountants don’t have empathy for what the client is going through. Most accountants can’t put themselves in their clients’ shoes. Most accountants can’t relate to the challenges the client is facing.
And, they’re facing several big challenges.
Communicate In a Way That Gets Them to Respond
When selling anything, we want our prospect to respond.
To take some action.
To buy what we’re selling.
To do this, we have to communicate to them in a way so that they will take the desired action we want them to take.
And that desired action is to get their attention. Their un-divided attention.
Then, and only then, will we be able to sell them on our service.
The reason: we’re not selling another brand of toothpaste. Everyone knows what toothpaste is. It’s easier to convince someone to buy your better version of toothpaste because you don’t have to convince them they need toothpaste in the first place!
With a CFO service you do. Most people don’t know what a CFO service is. It’s not like toothpaste.
Therefore, you need to communicate two things:
Thing #1: What a CFO really is.
Thing #2: Why you need one.
These two things can only be communicated when you have someone’s undivided attention.
It cannot be communicated via a website. It cannot be communicated via a Facebook ad. It cannot be communicated in a 30-second elevator speech.
It can only be communicated one-on-one with someone whom you have their undivided attention.
Once you get their attention, you can begin the ‘sales’ process to sell them on a CFO service.
Once you get their attention, you can show the prospect how you’re not like other people. You can show the prospect that you care.
Because your prospects are human they want (read: crave) someone that they trust to tell them what to do to have a successful business (however they define success).
If you can do that, you will have zero problem getting clients.
But it starts by, first, understanding your audience. Then, communicating in a way that gets them to respond.
That will transform you into an accidental genius salesperson.
That will transform your business and your income.
And…by providing a stellar CFO service, that will transform your clients’ lives.
And that makes all the difference.
This post is written by Adam Lean, co-founder of TheCFOProject.org. Have any feedback or suggestions? Send an email to adam@thecfoproject.com.
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