In this episode of the CFO project podcast, we discuss how to sell.

Welcome to the CFO project podcast. Today we're talking all about how to sell to help me with the discussion. I've invited Tom Griffiths, a fellow CFO and a member of the CFO project, and he is the founder of synergy CFO solutions. Tom. Welcome to the show.

Pleasure to be here, Adam. Thank you for having me.

So I think, I think what it really comes down to is kind of understanding what we're what we're trying to do in the sales process, what the sales process is about. Sales has got a often, often a negative connotation, especially with finance. People who are often quite introverted don't really like speaking to people, and that's sort of trying to sell someone and understand their emotions is is a bit daunting.

So I think it all starts with with understanding, or perhaps changing one's perspective on the sales process. And so

the way I think of sales is, what we're really trying to do is discover whether we can help someone and if we can help someone, then is positioning our services as something that can help them solve their problems.

And so the general way I go about, you know, running my calls, you can call themselves goals, discovery calls, financial assessment, whatever you want to call it, that whole process.

The goal really is to first find out where the prospect is. What are they doing now? What have they tried so far? Why do they want to be?

What are their goals and then what is stopping them from getting there?

And you can dive into each one of those aspects in more detail. Fundamentally, what you're trying to do is create a bridge between where they are now and where they want to get to, and have them tell you that they can't get there on their own.

And then understand why you are going.

Exactly.

Absolutely. I completely agree, so? So if we again think of sales from a different perspective, the purpose of it is to work out if we can help them. And then if we can help them. It is our duty to make sure that we help them. And if we don't, we just because we're too afraid to, you know, learn how to, get over objections or learn how to ask difficult questions.

Then we're doing them and ourselves a disservice. At the end of the day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's it. That's exactly right.

Everybody listening. If you haven't already, sign up for our five minute weekly email with practical tips for accountants and bookkeepers to escape the accountants trap. Go to the CFO project.com/newsletter.

So I think it's. It's being able to understand some of what somebody is really saying. I think that's perhaps where it's a little bit more difficult for finance people is that they will that logical people typically and they will take something that someone says at face value. If somebody says I'm not interested, then they will assume that means that person's not interested.

But that's often just a smokescreen. It's not really what they're saying. What? You know, you've obviously got to dive a bit deeper to uncover what they're really saying, but usually it means I'm unsure and therefore I'm not doing this right now.

Yeah, well, they may mean what they say in that moment in time. I need to speak to my husband or wife. Now's not the right time. I'm too busy. I don't have the money. I can't afford this. I'm not sure. Let me think about it. Those. Those are all objections and in that very moment, the prospect that the person you're speaking to may believe what they're saying.

But really, we've got to go a level deeper to uncover what's really going on. And this is this is why you get into objection handling. And so you can quite literally say, okay, so when you say you're not sure, what do you mean by that? Exactly. And then they'll tell you, they will tell you, you don't you don't leave anything up to your own interpretation.

You ask the question and get them to tell you.

Exactly. Yeah. An open ended questions.

So you could say you could literally say, oh, okay. What what does that look like? Or what do you mean by that? And then they'll just go into more detail. You don't you don't need to say it in a confrontational way, because if you say it in a confrontational way, then the barriers go up for the other person, for the prospect.

That's why, yeah, they're on the defense. And then they just want to get off the call and you've lost the sale end and the end of the. Yeah. So you can quite literally ask them to explain what they mean by that, and then they will tell you and then you can understand whether the objection that they're telling you about is genuine.

And makes sense, or whether you need to probe it further and say, okay, so, you know, if you did have the money right now, would this be something you'd want to do? And that that's a yeah, go on. So basically what we're doing there is we're isolating the objection. So for example, if they say I don't have the money right now because I've got an upcoming tax bill, you can say, okay, so what does that look like?

And they say, I've got a 30 grand tax bill to pay next week. Oh okay. So if you did have the money right now, would this be something you'd want to move forward with? And then they say yes or no. And if they say no and they come up with another excuse or reason not to, then you know that the real reason wasn't the tax bill in the first place.

There's something else going on. There's more uncertainty.

Hey there, Adam Levine with the CFO project podcast. Are you an employed accountant or bookkeeper that would like to start an advisory service on the side? Well, we have a free training for you called Side Hustle CFO, where we'll show you how to start a business on the side, offering CFO and advisory services to small business owners. We conduct this training every Friday at 3 p.m. eastern and 12 p.m. Pacific.

Go to the CFO project.com and click on Free trainings to register.

Yeah. So I don't know the answer to that question, but but what we can, safely assume is that uncertainty is either uncertainty about you as the as the sales person or the CFO, uncertainty about the service and generally that. Yeah, those those are the main things. But the way we're going to where we're going to uncover it is by asking and having them tell us.

And then when they tell us, we can go back to the point in the process where we explain our service. For example, I'm not sure this is going to work for me. That's clearly we don't know if that's about the service or if it's about us as a person. So we said, okay, which which part are you unsure about?

Which part do you think you know might not work for you? And then they literally tell you they tell you exactly which part doesn't make sense to them.

And they'll say, I don't know. You know, the bit about the monthly meetings, I don't really understand kind of how well that works. And you say, okay, like, well, let's go back to the bit where I explain the monthly meetings, not explain through it again.

Which part of it about that didn't make sense. And then they tell you and you uncover the objection in that moment you and then once you've explained it again, you say, okay, does that all make sense? Is there anything else about this monthly meeting that you're unsure of? And it's. No, it's all good now. Okay. So is there anything else about the whole process that you're unsure of and you just want them to tell you what they're unsure of and what was going on in their mind?

And then and then and then address it. Address it directly. Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly, exactly. And so, by not diving into these objections, or

often we'll hear objections throughout the discovery phase where we're asking them what they're doing now, you know, where they're trying to go. What's stopping them from getting there? Whether they've worked with anyone like a CFO in the past, and often they will drop little clues of the objections, they're going to drop you at the end

so you can actually identify what you're going to get and address them there.

And then so, for example, if they say early on we're having cash flow shoes, you probably know that they're going to have a problem when you drop the price later on. So you can say, okay, so how are you? How are you continuing continuing to invest in the business even though you're having cash flow issues? And they say, you know, whatever they say.

Yet you know we're not investing okay, so how are you going to get through this without investing in the business? Or if they say, oh, we're investing in this way or the other way. Oh, okay. So have you got capacity to continue investing so you can continue to move through this and say yes or no. And you can address it like way back before you even get to the pitch.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. That's it. And asking that question. Why did you agree to meet with me? Or kind of. Why we here? Well, you know what's going on in your business at the moment. Tell me about your business is essentially another way of asking what? What is the problem that you've got that you want me to help you solve?

I don't, and the whole sales process really should be geared around helping them solve the problem that they want fixed, not the problem that you think they need to fix, but the problem that they have told you that they need fixed. Doesn't matter what you think, the only thing that matters is what they think. It doesn't matter if you're right and they're wrong if if they don't think.

If they don't think so. So you want them to walk and then frame everything that you do as a solution to that problem.

Exactly. And I think what a lot of people do wrong, not just in in CFO services sales, but any kind of sales is is they they get to the end of the the pitch or they get to the end of the when it's time to pitch. And they just list off a shopping list of the things that they're going to do.

And that goes straight over the prospect's head because they don't care about any of that. All they care about, all they care about, is how you're going to help them solve the problem. And so that's all you need to focus on because the rest of it is all it's all just noise.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. I can think of one that I did, a couple of weeks ago, actually. So we got to the end of the presentation, or we got to the end of the financial assessment, and I told them what it would look like to work together. And he he said, okay,

great. How about we start? We start in a few weeks.

I said, okay, yeah, great. We can start in a few weeks. And what what's happening, you know, between now and then out of interest. And he said, what? I can't speak to my bookkeeper because you can only do your job if you have accurate numbers. Okay. Yeah. Great. And besides, you speaking to your bookkeeper so that I have accurate numbers, is there anything else you know that you need to get sorted or do before we start working together?

So I'm isolating the objection. And he said, nothing. That's it then. That's it. I said, okay, right. Because for me to do my job, all I really need is direction, accurate books. And to be frank with you, if I say every client I work with needs to have 100% accurate books, I wouldn't have any cards. So all we need, I say, yeah, I all we need is directly accurate numbers because at the moment you're not reviewing any numbers.

And so if we can implement something and you can review numbers that are 8,090% accurate, that's significantly better than reviewing no numbers. And he said, okay, wow, that's great. That's great. And I said, okay, right. Great. Is there anything else you know. Or do you want to add anything else, you know, stopping you from getting started.

And he said, well, I need to speak this guy in three businesses and they were the same business.

I need to speak to the managers to check if they'd be comfortable working. You know, with a budget. And I said, okay, what do you mean by that, exactly? I genuinely didn't know what he meant. And he said, well, we're going to need to implement a budget for the managers, and I need to know that they're comfortable doing that.

And I said, okay, well, why do you think we would need to do that? And he said, well, for you to do this, everyone needs a budget to follow. I said, okay, why? Why would I need a budget body? And he said, well, because obviously these are all numbers and we need to make sure that, you know, the managers have got numbers to follow and track and stick to and improve on.

And I said, okay, but what, you know,

a budget might be the right solution, but it also might not be the right solution. And some people are not numbers people. So that might not be the best way that we actually work with them.

And so what I suggest is that, we work together and, you know, work out the objectives and next steps for each manager, and then you can have those separate conversations with each manager to work out the best way forward.

I'm, I can't remember the exact conversation, but it was something along those lines. My point and my point is that I overcame whatever his objection was there. And then as opposed to as opposed to taking what he said at face value, which was cool. We'll start in two weeks, is when someone says, okay, that starts in two weeks.

You have no idea why they might be a smokescreen. They might not want to work with you anyway. It's just a way to get off the phone. There might be other uncertainties, and between now and two weeks time, those uncertainties are not going to resolve themselves. So your only opportunity to resolve them is there. And then on the phone, unless unless there's a logistical reason for not being able to start like finances or needing to check with a business partner as long as they are genuine.

Reasons to not move forward. And the way you would check that is by diving into them both or whatever they say in detail to check that that is just about, any, any uncertainty objection. Your only opportunity to overcome it, generally speaking, is there. And then on the call, I don't know, because I coached him then on that call and that was, yeah, for grand for them.

3700 or something. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Thanks, Adam. Pleasure to be here.