How to Sell CAS - Feedback Loop

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✋Welcome to The CAS Cache, a newsletter designed to help accounting firms grow their CAS offerings. Each issue will feature my insights on a topic.

In addition, perspectives from gurus on the topic that I am listening to 👂, reading 📚, or watching 👀 and one thing I am talking 🗣 to my clients about in my firm newsletter. Please feel free to R&D (rip off and duplicate) the Client Cache.

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Welcome back to part three 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

We will discuss what to do after the discovery call in this issue. We will cover #9 in the Tweet below and Voice of Customers ("VOC").

Replay

Replaying your sales process will improve your selling and pricing. In addition, taking a team approach will accelerate the process. A team will give you different perspectives you would otherwise not think about.

Having a team to bounce ideas off of is one aspect I miss about firm life, but I have figured out ways around it. Bouncing ideas off people in my communities is my go-to now.

For instance, I posted a unique client request on Twitter and got this back from Chad Davis:

I have never considered doing what Chad suggested, but it is brilliant. Unfortunately, the client said no to my proposal, but now I know a fractional integrator willing to do this type of arrangement in the future.

I also constantly ask myself what went right or wrong during a sales process. I make improvements when I see fit. For instance, I stopped doing assessments for a few months.

It only took a few sales calls and ghosted FUs to realize I needed to put them back in place. The first time I did, I did an assessment that resulted in me not doing any recurring work for the prospect. Without an assessment, the prospect and I would have been frustrated working together long-term.

Plus, you need to celebrate your wins. So I buy myself a bottle of whisk(e)y for each new client. And my may favorite liquor store so happened to have these bad boys for tasting when I closed a $10k+/month client.

Remember, do not boil the ocean. Replaying the CAS sales process could be as simple as adding or removing a couple of questions on an intake form. And to celebrate your wins.

Voice of Customers (“VOCs”)

We all have in our heads what we think our clients want. But, have you ever asked? VOCs gather client feedback to offer better and potentially new services. In addition, they can lead to additional work.

Ideally, you want someone not performing the work to perform VOCs. Clients will be more open and honest about the person performing the work when they are not doing the VOC. However, this can be challenging as the person that performed the work will feel vulnerable, especially partners.

Side note, VOCs is an excellent service for your consulting packages. I include "buyer interviews" in my pricing assessment package. You will learn a ton about attaching value to your service by offering this service to clients.

During these VOCs, you are asking open-ended questions. These questions determine how to improve the client experience from sales to recurring work. I am also trying to understand what is essential to the client and the value they attach to it. Here are two of my fifteen go-to questions:

1. What made you decide to engage {insert your client name}?

2. Do you remember why you chose to work with {insert your client name} in the first place?

The rest of my questions can be found here.

Pitbull says it best in Feel This Moment:

These VOCs will not only help you better understand how to serve your clients and future clients. They are also going to lead to additional work.

These two steps are designed for constant improvement. But remember, you will never be perfect. I am constantly improving and modifying. So, in the next issue, I will walk you through how I started selling to where I am today.

Choose Your Own Adventure 🚶‍♂️🗺

Guru Cache 👂📚👀

📚 The Woodard Report: Accountants Can Take These 3 Steps To Customize the Client Experience

📚 Hubspot: 12 Voice of the Customer Methodologies To Generate a Gold Mine of Customer Feedback

Client Cache 🗣

🧠👀 Everyone loves the family and friends discount, except your business. Check out how Jason Staats doubled his profitability by eliminating this mindset 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 daily financial digest on autopilot

2. Mini-courses on CAS

3. Book a 1-hour CAS consulting call