The idea of “sales” can be intimidating for many accounting professionals. Accountants often consider sales complicated or worry they’ll come across as pushy or aggressive. In reality, sales is simply about understanding and addressing client needs.
Fortunately, you can help your team members overcome the fear of sales calls and get better at having sales conversations to better serve their clients and grow the firm.
What is sales, really?
You might view sales as a skill reserved for outgoing personalities or trained salespeople. However, the essence of sales — especially in an accounting firm — isn’t about hard selling; it’s about communication and problem-solving.
To be the best advisor for your clients, you need to understand their challenges beyond the work you’re currently doing for them. You may have a service that can help them. But if you don’t ask, you can't fulfill that need.
Become obsessed with your clients' problems
To have effective sales conversations, shift your focus from talking about your own services to asking clients about their problems. This client-centric approach means becoming genuinely interested in the challenges your clients face.
For example, some questions to ask your clients include:
What challenges impact your business?
What keeps you up at night?
What would you do if those challenges were solved?
By asking these questions, you demonstrate your commitment to their success and gain valuable insights into potential service offerings. The trends that emerge from these questions can help shape your firm's future service lines.
Connecting solutions to problems
Once you understand your client's challenges, the next step is to match your firm's capabilities to these problems. Assess what your firm can offer and where gaps may need to be filled, either internally or through external partners. Even being a connector rather than the ultimate problem solver enhances your value to the client.
How to prepare for client calls
So, you’ve made the leap and scheduled a call with a current or prospective client. Preparation is crucial for a successful sales call. Before you meet, think through the questions you need to ask to uncover their challenges and needs.
Consider creating a question bank to help guide the conversation and ensure you cover all necessary points. For example, if a client says they’re having trouble holding on to customers, some follow-up questions might be:
Can you tell me about the profile of your target customer?
What options have you tried already?
How prepared is your company to make a change?
What problems are customer churn causing for your team/your business?
Walk me through how you currently handle a client who wants to end their relationship with you.
What aspect of the customer experience would you never want to see changed?
These are just a small sample of the questions you could ask to get to the heart of the client’s problem and start identifying potential solutions.
The better prepared you are to ask probing questions, the better you’ll be able to steer the conversation and identify opportunities for your firm to provide value.
Learn from the experts
Every firm has rainmakers. They’re the people who are uniquely capable of bringing a substantial amount of new business to the firm. They’re usually great at building networks and making people feel comfortable when speaking with them.
Not everyone has what it takes to be the firm’s star rainmaker, but everyone can learn from them. Have your less experienced team members shadow your experienced rainmakers. Listening to how they engage with clients, the questions they ask and how they respond to client needs provides invaluable insights and practical knowledge.
Seeing these conversations firsthand can help reduce anxiety and build confidence.
Sales calls do not have to be intimidating. By understanding that sales is about helping clients solve their problems, preparing thoroughly and learning from experienced colleagues, every team member can engage clients in meaningful conversations.
Embrace the opportunity to engage deeply with your clients, understand their challenges and offer solutions beyond your current services. This mindset shift can transform sales from a daunting task into a natural extension of your role as a trusted advisor.
Could you benefit from a peer network of other advisory service leaders?
The Boomer CAAS Circle is a peer group of advisory service leaders from top accounting firms who benefit from sharing knowledge, best practices and lessons learned. Apply now to get plugged into the Circle and start transforming your firm.
As the Solutions Manager for Boomer Consulting, Inc., Deanna works to help clients and prospective clients identify their dangers, opportunities and strengths. Once these are identified, she works to develop a personalized game plan for their firm to focus on the area, or areas, they need to improve on most. These areas are critical to a firm’s success and future-readiness; Leadership, Talent, Technology, Process and Growth.
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