The Important Distinction Between Selling and Diagnosing CPAs
Today I want to talk about the important distinction between selling a CPA versus diagnosing a CPA. It's a huge distinction, and most advisors unfortunately try to sell. That's because it's what we're taught to do with prospects - we sell them on an idea, an investment strategy, a product.
But with CPAs, attorneys, enrolled agents, any type of good affiliate strategic partnership, you don't want to sell them. You want to diagnose them.
Why This Matters: A Real Example
I just got an email within the last half hour from a long-time member asking me to look at an email exchange between him and a potential new CPA. The advisor thought this CPA was a great fit - runs a successful business, works with a lot of business owners. He was excited about it.
Here's the problem: The CPA's message to the advisor consistently through 4-5 email exchanges was:
- "I'm okay"
- "I don't really want to work that much harder"
- "I make decent money as it is right now"
- "I'm probably gonna retire in the next 2-3 years"
- "Bottom line is this probably isn't for me"
The advisor had very good comebacks to each of these points:
- We could help increase the multiple of your firm
- We could help reduce the number of clients you work with
- Bring more value to each client
- Reduce clients while increasing revenue
- Look at the benefit to the client
All these were very good points. The problem was the CPA wasn't hearing any of it because they're not motivated.
The Core Issue
If you're selling to the CPA, you're making very good points, coming back with good talking points to overcome their objections. The problem is you should have been diagnosing the situation.
The very first email back from that CPA should have set off alarm bells, saying "not worth my investment of time and energy into this relationship." Even if you convince them to meet with you in a Zoom meeting or lunch next week and get them super fired up, that's going to be very short-lived.
I can guarantee you at some point, if they're not the right fit, if they don't have the desire on their own, it will end up just wasting your time and energy - a month down the road, six months down the road, a year down the road. You'll get to some point and realize they don't have the desire.
The Key Principle
You can:
- Inject skills
- Hire staff
- Address time problems
You CANNOT give someone desire. They need to bring that to the relationship.
The Right Approach
- Sell, convince, motivate, lead clients? Fine.
- But DIAGNOSE CPAs, accountants, attorneys.
You need to ask the questions to determine whether or not they are a good fit for you. It is much better to have 30, 40, 50 meetings with accountants to figure out whether or not they are the right fit, to ultimately just boil it down to one or two good relationships. That's much better than having five meetings but then trying to force each of those meetings like a round peg into a square hole.
The Takeaway
I'd encourage you:
- Do more activity
- Focus on diagnosing the situation
- Let go of any attachment to yes/no/maybe
What matters is:
- Did I do a good job of diagnosing their situation?
- Where are they?
- Where are they trying to go?
- What's standing in their way?
- Can I help address the issues standing in their way?
If so, great - let's move forward to the next step.
