DAY 5 TUTORIAL #9: SALES CONVERSION Copyright Academy For Growth Limited Suites 1 10, Springfield House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5BG, United Kingdom www.accountantsgrowthprogramme.com Tel: +44 (0) 1928 508 894
Have A System For Converting Enquiries Into Clients Hello and welcome to the ninth video of Grow Your Practice In 5 Days. When you apply this strategy you ll instantly convert a higher percentage of your enquiries into new clients. The first 8 parts of this course have focused on how to generate a constant stream of enquiries from your PRIME, SECONDARY, and UNKNOWN targets. But that s just part of the job. Now you need to take those enquiries and convert a high percentage of them into clients at the RIGHT fee. Most accountants and CPAs we meet and talk to believe they already have a very good success rate in converting prospects into clients. It s true most accountants and CPAs do convert very well from referred business, you re probably no different but they are generally much weaker at converting non-referred business. But and it s a big but, they don t charge the right level of fees. And that s key to a highly successful firm. So as soon as an enquiry is created irrespective of whether it s a referral or non-referral, you need to have a SYSTEM to convert as many as you can into high-quality clients. The good news is that putting in place a system to convert more enquiries into clients costs very little (if anything at all) and the results are instant! So what is a Sales Conversion System? In simple terms a sales conversion system is a STRATEGIC process used to ensure the firm generates more clients at the right fee, from the number of enquiries generated. It starts the moment the enquiry is received, right through to the point when that enquiry becomes a client. 2
One of the HUGE hidden benefits of a successful system is that the process of converting enquiries is driven by the system, rather than the individual which means anyone (with the right experience in the firm) can use the system to great effect (which also helps with succession planning). Here s a simple diagram explaining why you need a sales conversion system What this chart shows is that the prospect must reach a certain level of interest before they are prepared to say Yes and buy your services. Therefore, what you need to do is increase the prospects interest each time the firm makes contact with them. A contact can be a meeting, a letter, a fax, an e-mail or any way in which you make contact with prospects. Research has shown that on average it takes 7 positive contacts ( The Rule of 7 ) before the prospect says, Yes. Your sales conversion system should therefore automatically cater for these contacts, which in turn will increase the chances of getting a positive result with the vast majority of prospects. 3
Your sales conversion system should focus on each stage and as a result many more enquiries will turn into clients. and there s one more important piece of the jigsaw to consider. We call it the Follow-Up Ladder. You see, Follow-Up is not practised by many businesses, particularly accountants and CPAs think about it, how many positive contacts do you have at the moment from the enquiry to the sale? This means those that follow up correctly will always gain more clients. What you need to do is make a positive impression on the prospect at each contact. By doing this, you speed up the sales cycle and keep more prospects in it resulting in more sales. If one of your contacts has a less than positive impact on your prospect, their interest drops, making it harder for you to acquire them as a client. This is a basic but very important tactic for you to apply and understand. This diagram shows how it all fits together 4
Notice that after the third contact a massive 79.8% of people give up. And by the fifth contact almost 90% have stopped following up. Therefore it stands to reason that just by following up consistently and with 7 or more positive contacts you win on two fronts. Firstly there is less competition and secondly people buy more often once you reach 7 or more contacts. Okay, so let s explore why a sales conversion system is so powerful, and why your firm must have one... 5
So putting in a sales conversion system gives you real leverage. You don t need any fancy software or any complicated system. You just need to plan each contact so the prospect gets wowed each time. For example, one of the points of contact that is usually very weak is parking for the prospect when they arrive for the meeting at the accountant s offices. Even if you have no on-site parking there are many things that can be done to make this part of the system a real positive experience for the prospect. You see, because so few firms really look at the detail of these points of contact, it s easy to score big points against them, especially when you re in competition with them. The likelihood that they have also thought carefully about these contact points is remote so you win and you win big. It s these points of contact and how well you administer them that set apart the good from the great. More importantly, when you look to increase your fees, this makes a big difference to your conversion. So a sales conversion system will give you the ability to convert more enquiries (referral and general marketing) into clients and at the right fee level, all with zero cost. Plus, there are a number of what we call sales conversion strategies that really help to convert the prospect. For example, guarantees and social proof in the form of testimonials are excellent sales converters that cost nothing to apply. That s the sort of leverage any business would love and you can get it instantly. Our members of course have a ready-made optimised sales conversion system to apply. It takes them just a few moments to tailor to their own firm and then it s ready to start working for them immediately. It really is that simple. So let s recap... Here are the key learning points from this ninth tutorial... 6
1. First... to convert enquiries at a high level and at the right fees it is imperative you use a sales conversion system a series of planned steps created to make getting the sale more of a foregone conclusion. 2. Second... to take advantage of the Rule Of 7 you should try and build in 7 or more positive contacts as part of your sales conversion system. 3. And third... you can invest thousands yourself in creating and testing your own sales conversion system, or you can join our Accountants Growth Programme and get a ready-made system that s helping to generate hundreds of business clients every single month for our members across the world. Now please turn to the One Page Action Plan that accompanies this tutorial and start putting in place your powerful sales conversion system. Looking To Accelerate The Growth Of Your Firm? If you want an EASIER way to acquire more of the right type of clients at the RIGHT fee, where everything is either done-for you or ready-to-go, then the Accountants Growth Programme could be for you. To find out if you qualify, click on the link below to watch this short 5 minute video... http://accountantsgrowthprogramme.com/pages/agp-video/ 7