21 October 2022
TOPIC: Questions To Ask Potential Clients.
This is one of many guides that teaches you how to grow your accounting practice. If you like guides like this, feel free to follow us on social media and subscribe to our email list to get updates on when a new blog drops!
This blog lists seven questions to ask potential clients when meeting them for the first time. If you are having difficulty coming up with meaningful questions to ask clients to sell them your services, this blog is for you!
Do This Before You Ask Questions
One of the best qualities anyone who offers a service or product can have is the ability to listen.
Before we can convince someone to buy our solution, we must first understand their problem and how large the problem may seem to the customer.
Ultimately, sales is about offering your services to better someone else’s life. This is true whether you’re an accountant, doctor, coach, graphic designer, etc.
So when you are asking clients these questions, listen to what they have to say and take notes if needed.
Question #1: What’s the problem?
Out of all questions to ask potential clients, this is probably the most important one. You first want to find out what problem your potential client is facing.
Every doctor asks their patients about their problems before prescribing a prescription.
Except when asking this question, you are the doctor.
Many potential clients you encounter in accounting do not know the solution to their problems and are looking for your guidance.
This question tells you what problem your client is facing and gives you a better idea of what service to offer.
Question #2: What Motivated You To Booking a Call With Me?
Some potential clients you get in accounting reach out to you because they just opened a business and are looking for an accountant.
These are what I like to call “smart clients.” They are proactive and try to avoid having any tax issues.
These potential clients don’t have a problem yet. It’s like you’re selling life insurance to a child.
The client is too early in their business to have any tax issues. Instead, they are trying to protect themselves and their business by reaching out to you.
So instead of asking them what problem they currently have, you can ask them what motivated them to call you in the first place.
Question #3: Are You Looking For Yourself Or Your Business?
If you’re an accountant who only works for business owners, this is a good question. Right away, your potential client will tell you if they have a business or not.
This will help you save time and only speak to clients within your target market.
It only took you about 2 mins to ask this question instead of 30 mins of talking and wasting each other’s time.
Question #4: Who Besides You Is Worried About This?
Many accountants who work with businesses forget that businesses can have more than one owner.
If possible, speaking to all the decision-makers at once is much more efficient.
When you ask this question, it allows the person you’re talking to bring up everyone else who is involved in the business.
Naturally, if it’s a huge problem, all the decision-makers will be concerned about it.
You can save a lot of time by asking who is involved in the business and figuring out their relationship to the business.
Perhaps the person you’re talking to wants nothing to do with this meeting and isn’t the decision-maker at all.
Perhaps he was just told to be there to listen on the decision-maker’s behalf.
If that’s the case, it might be better to reschedule for a time when the decision-maker is available so that you are speaking to the right person.
Question #5: Have You Worked With Other Accountants Before? (What Have You Tried Already?)
If the client is coming to you with a problem, they likely have tried reaching out to other accountants already.
This is your chance to find out what different solutions they tried and discover why those solutions didn’t work for them.
This question also reminds the client how big the problem is and why they are talking to you in the first place.
Question #6: What Are Your Top 3 Criteria When Choosing An Accountant?
This is probably the most straightforward of all questions to ask potential clients.
This question helps weed out clients who aren’t a good fit for you, allowing you to focus on working with more compatible clients.
Some potential clients you meet are looking for cheap H&R block-like services.
If you’re not working for cheap, those are the clients you probably don’t want to work with.
If the client tells you one of their biggest criteria is finding cheap accountants, that’s a red flag.
Fortunately, you asked this question early in the conversation to avoid wasting more of each other’s time.
The serious buyer will give you an in-depth response to this question.
Once again, this is an opportunity for you to take notes and write down things that your potential client values the most.
Question #7: Are You Looking For X, Y, Or Z?
This question allows you to list different avenues that you can take to help the client reach a solution.
Suppose you’re an accountant with multiple packages that can solve the same problem. In that case, this is a perfect question to ask.
It lets you figure out which package is right for the client you’re speaking to and makes the conversation flow more smoothly.
Want To Learn More?
In this blog post, we gave you questions to ask potential clients to help you easily navigate your first client call.
However, there are some things you can do before
hopping on a call with a client to help your 1st client call be more successful.
One of those things includes creating your own ideal client profile.
Lucky for you, we created a blog that shows accountants how to create their ideal client profile.
Creating your ideal client can improve your marketing efforts and help your business grow dramatically!
To start reading, click the link below.