How to Sell CAS - Discovery Call

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Welcome back to part two of a four-part series on how to sell CAS.

1. Pre-sales call

2. Discovery call

3. Post discovery call 

4. The evolution of my selling process

In this issue, we will discuss the discovery call. We are going to cover #3-8 in the Tweet below.

Ask Questions

Before I jump on a call with a prospect, I have a decent amount of information about their business. I get this information from my pre-screening process that I discussed in this issue. This information allows me to jump into more meaty questions.

I let the conversation drive the questions, but I always have a handful of go-to questions. My go-tos are the following:

• Tell me about your business.

• What is the ultimate goal of the business? For example, maintain a lifestyle, sell for $X in X years, transition the business to insiders or family in X years, give $X back to the community in X years, etc.

• What is holding you back financially from achieving this goal?

  • Is there a timeframe for achieving this goal?

  • How high is it on your priority list?

  • What value do you attach to this goal?

  • What happens if you do not achieve this goal?

• Why are we meeting now?

• What do you hope to accomplish by engaging us or someone similar?

• What other questions do you have for me?

Post your favorite question in the Tweet below 👇.

Here are some excellent reminders for additional questions to ask from Action Selling that sits on my desk:

The key here is to bite your tongue and listen. The prospect will tell you everything you need to know if you give them a chance to speak. According to Action Selling, two-thirds of the selling occurs during this part.

Lastly, DO NOT GIVE ADVICE here. You simply are asking questions, taking notes, and listening. Giving advice is what you are going to sell later.

Confirm What I Heard

As I take notes, I star what I believe to be key points. These are items that, if I can solve them, will give the prospect the highest return on investment.

Once I have enough information, I'll repeat to the prospect what I heard. This seems simple, but it shows you are a good listener, and people will change their answers.

People have ideas in their minds that can be difficult to communicate clearly. Confirming what you heard will help the prospect clarify their vision.

Sell Me

I spend very little time here. I typically go one of two ways. Relate my experience to what they are trying to solve. Or, talk about how I am different from other providers they are considering or used unsuccessfully in the past.

For instance, I typically compete for a prospect with either an accounting firm or another fractional CFO firm. When going against an accounting firm, I explain to prospects that my model is ten clients to CFO versus an accounting firm model is 100+ clients to partner and all the benefits that come with having fewer clients.

The key here is tying yourself back to what you heard. I only recall one prospect asking if I was a CPA over the years because few care about your credentials. Instead, they care about your results. So on your next discovery call, listen to what aspects of you are essential to the prospect.

Sell My Solution

This step is where confirming what you heard is essential. Tying your solution to the problem the prospect is trying to solve will make selling much easier.

For example, a prospect tells me they can never get timely responses from their current accountant, so I explain my virtual check-ins. Virtual check-ins are recurring meetings for 15-30 minutes that allow my clients set times to get their questions answered consistently.

In this step, you are selling them the vacation, as Alex Hormozi calls it.

For example, bookkeeping gives near real-time data to make business decisions on. This allows business owners to make quick changes in their business, creating more profit and adding more business value.

This one will take some time to practice. It is also where a niche can come in handy because businesses in a niche will have similar problems.

I would do the following to figure out how your solution solves problems.

• List out your top 3-5 clients

• Ask yourself: what are their top issues?

• How did you solve them?

An even better approach would be to meet with these clients and discuss it in person—more on this in the next issue.

Ask If They Are Ready

A study in Action Selling found that 64% of salespeople fail to ask for a commitment. Remember, a commitment could be as simple as scheduling the next call. My commitment is to sell an assessment.

This usually happens in one or two ways for me. The prospect asks what the investment is, or I'll ask the following questions.

• Do you have enough information to determine if we are a good fit for you?

  • Where would you like to go from here?

  • Time frame?

  • Budget? This one can be difficult to ask in person. That is why I include it in my pre-screening form. I will leave this an open question if the budget exceeds their expectations.

Once I get through explaining the investment or going over the questions, I typically have a sense of whether or not the prospect has any hesitations. That leads to the next step in the process.

Before we move to the next step, I want to highlight a vital piece. You must present your investment in person or virtually with cameras on. No, flipping a proposal into the dark hole, also known as email. That is a recipe for endless FUs. Plus, you need to be able to read body language to proceed to the next steps.

Address Concerns

I ask, "What questions and concerns do you have?" when I sense hesitation. If you sense the prospect's uncertainty, you need to complete a step from above or change your commitment objective.

This is another reason to meet in person or virtually. Most prospects will ghost you rather than address a concern because it is the easy out. However, by asking the question above, you address the elephant in the room, which is typically price.

One way to combat price is a guarantee. I offer a money-back guarantee on my assessment if the value does not exceed the investment. I have never had anyone ask for their money back, but people have told me no.

Getting nos is okay. You should have more nos than yeses if you are pricing correctly.

Once I overcome this step and get a verbal commitment, I do the following:

• Tell the prospect I look forward to helping their business grow profitably.

• Walk them through the next steps in my process.

• Book the initial meeting.

The steps above help prevent buyer remorse because I have them thinking about the benefits of the purchase and the next steps.

Once off the call, I send them my engagement letter in Ignition, which collects my payment upfront.

In the next issue, we will revisit wins and losses from the above process because you will never be perfect. I always miss steps and have been doing this for almost five years.

Choose Your Own Adventure 🚶‍♂️🗺

Guru Cache 👂📚👀

👀 5 Tips to Sell Accounting Services by Dream Firms

📚 5 Steps to a Successful & Authentic Sale for Accounting Firms by Jetpack Workflow

Client Cache 🗣

📈📚 Increasing your price is the most effective way to grow your company profitably and have more profit with fewer customers. Easy said than done, right? Read how Disney accomplished more profit with fewer visitors by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, Luke Templin!

P.S. There are 3 ways I can help you grow your CAS offerings when you are ready:

1. Automate your CAS offering with what entrepreneurs actually want

2. Mini courses on CAS

3. Book a 1-hour CAS consulting call