Cross Selling Web Seminar 092409.ppt

7/31/2019 Cross Selling Web Seminar 092409.ppt

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www.convergencecoaching.com

Copyright ConvergenceCoaching, LLC 2001-2009All rights reserved.



Presented by:

Michelle Baca and Tamera LoerzelSeptember 24, 2009

Retention Marketing:Mining Gold in Your Own

Backyard


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Objectives

Deepen your relationships with your clients

Uncover opportunities within your current

client base Find ways to create more business for your

firm

Explore methods for tracking your client

prospect opportunities to increase youreffectiveness


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www.convergencecoaching.com Copyright

ConvergenceCoaching, LLC 2004-2009All rights reserved.

Poll #1

What is your role in your firm? Partner or Owner

Client Service Manager

Client Service Staff Firm Administrator

Marketing Manager, Marketing Coordinator orother dedicated marketing role

Other


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Cross-Selling Defined

Cross-selling additional services to yourclients includes:

A combination of marketing and selling activities

that result in the sale of other firm services orproducts to existing clients The process of matching firm services to unmet

client needs - it is not selling clients more stuff

Studies show that the more services a client

receives from your firm, the more likely youare to retain them as a client


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Begin By Deepening YourClient Relationships


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Why Focus on Client

Relationships? We want our clients to choose to stay with us

It costs more to attract a new client than to retain anexisting one and our competitors are hungry

We want our clients to use us for other services

They will when they feel were fantastic and theywont if they feel were just ok or worse

Clients talk about their experiences They are usually the #1 source of new business for a

CPA firm and they can also be our most significantsource of negative publicity if they arent satisfied


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Why Focus on Client

Relationships? Our lives are better when we do Our days are filled with positive interactions instead

of apologies

We make a bigger difference for others when we gothe extra mile

We feel better about ourselves it literally raises OURself-esteem

We can charge more for exceptional service whichtranslates to all of our bottom lines


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Be Proactive

Many clients say, I wish my CPAwould reach out to me just to check inand I wish my CPA would think

proactively and not just give me adviceafter-the-fact

Building your relationships with yourclients will give you the information to

respond to both of these frequent clientrequests


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Its hard to convince a client thatyou care about his or her business

when it is evident that you dontknow whats going on it.

David H. MaisterTrue Professionalism


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Gain Client Intelligence

During Meetings To further understand what issues yourclients are facing, conduct a surveyduring your meetings

It will position you as someone who caresand acts as an advisor rather than just atactical service provider

If you dont get to meet personally with

each client or talk over the phone,consider an online or paper survey forthem


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During Meetings When meeting with your clients, spend a few

minutes asking about:

Their issues and their plans for the upcoming year

Industry trends, cycles, politics, opportunities Read their trade journals and attend their conferences or

events (its a great place to network, too!)

What keeps them up at night?

Do you know what their top challenges are theeconomy, managing costs, employee turnover,generating additional top-line revenue, etc.?


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Saying No

Sometimes, we have to say no to a client Due to resource or timing constraints

What theyre requesting is not a service you provide or anarea of expertise

Be prepared so you can say no and still add value byproviding alternatives: Introduce your client to an alliance

Make suggestions about other ways they could solve a

problem or meet their objectives Show them what they could do internally to address the

issue


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During Meetings Be genuinely interested Remember what they tell you, which will require

that you have a process in place to do so

To ensure your understanding of the clientsobjectives, you need to apply active listeningtechniques Use phrases such as I see and I understand Confirm understanding by stating what you heard

back to them Put your understanding in writing!


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During Meetings Each client owner can conduct a short survey and we will supply a sample during yourupcoming client meetings that can:

Enable you to update constant data (be sure tocapture email addresses!) Provide you information about the clients

existing situation Give you an opportunity to ask questions about

potential plans or needs for the upcoming yearand identify potential interest in additionalservices

Gather satisfaction feedback


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Follow-Up

Be sure to put a process in place tofollow up on the information gained

from meetings and surveys Prioritize any uncovered opportunities

Track outcomes and ensure each

opportunity is acted upon Identify owners and by-when dates forfollow-up on surveys and add them toyour pipeline


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Internal Networking to Uncover

Cross-Selling Opportunities


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Poll #2

Do you have a formal cross-sellingprocess in your firm that all client

owners participate in? Yes

No

Not sure


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Cross-Selling

Success Strategies Soliciting client feedback is the perfect time touncover new opportunities to serve clients It requires that you foster a sales and marketing

culture that values business development and theexpansion of services provided to existing clients

This is often viewed as not necessary because of theannuity nature of the accounting profession

Make a commitment to internal trust-building

the client service owners must be comfortableenough with each other to make the introductions

Develop a formal process on how to refer, qualifyor move forward referrals in the process


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Internal Networking

Spend time on internal relationships

Meet with other client owners to discuss potentialmethods for cross selling and identify

opportunities client by client Check in on a regular basis schedule follow-up

meetings to determine progress

Ask for the referrals

Provide regular and proactive status on the progress ofany shared engagements to build trust and confidence


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Internal Networking

Present at departmental meetings Involve yourself in firm social functions and

community activities

Meet with each client owner to complete anin-depth analysis of the potential upsidewith each client Start with the top 20% of your clients What more can you do for each client that will

make a bigger difference?


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Internal Networking

Complete a Cross-Selling Matrix using datafrom your internal databases and informationfrom client owners

One person on your team may be able to populatethe initial spreadsheet

You may want a separate spreadsheet for eachpartner or manager


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Cross-Selling Matrix

Client Name FS Auditsand

ReviewsInternal

Control

Doc/Report

TaxCompliance Multi-StateLocal Tax

Planning

InternationalTax Planning CostSegregation EstatePlanning

Client ABC

Client BCD

Client CDE

Client DEF

Client EFG


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Cross-SellingSales Activities

Mark those services the client is using inblack

Those that they are not a candidate for inred

Those they may be a candidate for in thefuture in yellow

Those that they may be a candidate for now

in green


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Cross-SellingSales Activities Establish a plan to reach out to each of the

clients (over time) with green in their row and the client services owner should dictate

the approach A personal introduction or meeting from theclient service owner is ideal

Invite your client to meet (sound familiar?) withboth client service owners to explore how a

particular service could assist them in achievingtheir objectives or solve or minimize a problem Track the last contact date in the spreadsheet


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Cross-SellingSales Activities

Enter those clients who are qualified tothen be prospects for those services

into a sales pipeline Manage them as you would any other

prospect opportunity methodically!

More on this later


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Conduct InternalEducation

Make a commitment to intense ongoinginternal education of firm services and theideal target client for each at all levels within

the firm Demonstrate how you can integrate your firm

services work to add value to existing clientsversus just sell them something else


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Define YourClient Opportunities Consider creating a short profile on the

demographics of your ideal clients for eachservice and two or three questions a memberof your team could ask to identify otheropportunities We recommend you do this for each of the types

of clients you serve Hold a lunch-and-learn for each of your client

types to teach your team who they are, how toidentify them, and the difference youre makingfor them


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Teach Your Teamthe Benefits Teach each of your client owners about the

benefits of surveying their clients Be sure to include WIIFM for why they should

take the few minutes to do it now, including: Increased client satisfaction and retention to help

maintain their client base Uncovering opportunities to follow up on during the

slower months evening out revenue streams and theirclient workload

Shorter cycles and less effort in selling new serviceopportunities to existing clients versus selling services tostrangers to the firm

If they dont someone else will especially in thismarket!


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Role Play

Share the survey with your team and have theminput to it for each type of client they have They can help generate the two or three questions that

should be asked to uncover specific service opportunities

Take the time to role play and practice having themask the questions Sometimes people feel that asking these questions is

awkward or out of context in their meetings Even more so if they are just calling proactively to learn more

about their clients without the engagement meeting as a reason They need to practice to understand how its a natural

evolution to their meeting or phone conversation It will become second nature!


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External Existing ClientMarketing Activities

Then, develop communications plans toeducate existing clients about the firmsproducts and services

Include client profile/success stories innewsletters, web, etc.

Send letters, e-mail or other outboundcommunications featuring a particular service

Client executive briefings targeted to specificclient industries or other specialty interest groups


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External Existing ClientMarketing Activities

Follow up with teleprospecting it willgenerate leads from your other marketingactivities

You can use any direct mail or e-marketingactivities as a lead in for the call

Teleprospecting fills seminar seats, too


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Track Your Client Opportunities


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Sales Process Basics

All client prospects should be treated like you treat

your new prospects

Enter your client prospects into your pipeline

You can capture information you learn about your

clients from your survey, client meetings or other

marketing activities here to help you remember

Meet regularly to review your client prospects atleast monthly- and move them forward in the salesprocess

If youre holding regular pipeline meetings,include your current client opportunities, too


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Track Your Activity

Track and report on your activities, including:

The client owner

Rating using a percentage probability, stage in the

sales process or simple A, B, and C rating

Your contacts names and contact info

The next follow up date and last follow up date for

each contact Next follow up action Any results that come via that contact Result to close the opportunity win/loss analysis


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Sales Pipeline

ConvergenceCoaching, LLC

Sample Pipeline

Owner Prospect

Co.

Contact

Name

Lead

Source

Primary

Interest

Last

Date of

Contact

Next

Follow-

Up Date

Next

Follow

Up action

Approx.

Services

Value

Close

Proba-

bility

Est.

Close

Date

If Deal

Lost,

Why?


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Next Steps


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Poll #3

What one thing will you commit to do out of thisweb seminar? Define the services that you can offer to each of your firms

client types

Hold lunch-and-learns or other firm meetings to educateyour team about your clients and services Conduct a simple survey during each client meeting over

the next several months and following up thereafter Undertake completion of the Cross-Selling Matrix and

introducing each other to the appropriate clients

Begin using a pipeline report to track client prospectopportunities Other?


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Thank You!

Contact us at anytime!

Tamera Loerzel(952) 226-1780

[email protected]://www.linkedin.com/in/tameraloerzel

Michelle Baca(402) 933-2900

[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebacaprofile


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Resources


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ConvergenceCoachingResources

ConvergenceCoachings web siteincludes articles and tools on these

topics www.convergencecoaching.com

Visit our blog for posts on various

marketing and sales topics at: http://blog.convergencecoaching.com


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Resources

AICPA Marketing Toolkit

www.aicpa.org/cpamarketing

Association for Accounting Marketing

www.accountingmarketing.org

American Marketing Association

www.marketingpower.com

eMAP - the electronic MAP Handbook www.cpa2biz.com


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Resources

Built to Last - Successful Habits of VisionaryCompanies by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras(HarperBusiness, 2002)

Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Develop

Breakthrough Relationships by Jagdish Sheth andAndrew Sobel (Simon and Schuster, 2000) Contemporary Marketingby Louis Boone and David

Kurtz (South-Western College Publishing, 2004) Consultative Selling The Hanan Formula for High-

Margin Sales at High Levelsby Mack Hanan Good to Great by Jim Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001) Management by Bartol & Martin (McGraw-Hill 1994)


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Resources

Marketing Management by Peter Dickson (South-Western College Publishing, 1996)

PartnerShift: How to Profit from the Partnering Trendby Ed Rigsbee, CSP (Wiley, 2000)

Practitioner Making Rain: The Secrets of BuildingLifelong Client Loyaltyby Andrew Sobel (Wiley, 2003)

Rain-Making: The Professionals Guide to AttractingNew Clients by Ford Harding (Adams MediaCorporation, 1994)

Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar (tapes) Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

Solution Selling by Michael Bosworth


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www.convergencecoaching.comwww.convergencecoaching.com

Resources

Solution Selling Creating Buyers in DifficultMarketsby Michael Bosworth

Swim with the Sharks by Harvey Mackay

The Art of Partneringby Ed Rigsbee, CSP(Kendall/Hunt, 1994)

The Discipline of Market Leaders by MichaelTreacy and Fred Wiersema (Perseus BooksGroup, 1997)

True Professionalism: The Courage to CareAbout Your People, Your Clients, and YourCareerby David Maister (Free Press, 2000)

Ziglar on Sellingby Zig Ziglar

Documents

Cross Selling Web Seminar 092409.ppt