In this episode of the CFO project podcast, we talk about how to sell without selling.

Welcome to the CFO project podcast. Today we're talking all about selling CFO advisory services, tax services, bookkeeping services, all without being or feeling like a sales person. To help me with the discussion, I've invited Michelle Weinstein Michelle is the founder of the Abutted accountant.com and the Abandoned Accountant podcast.

She is a self-proclaimed pitch queen. And Michelle, welcome to the show.

Yeah. So you've been on the podcast before and you're essentially an expert at selling. You specifically help accountants, bookkeepers, financial professionals sell. So let's talk about selling because it's something that a lot of accountants, bookkeepers are not necessarily it's not their favorite part of what they do. Yeah. So let's start you starting off. Why is that? Why is it so difficult for financial professionals to sell?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You brought up several good points here. I think I wanted to ask you about. You said that, you know, a lot of accountants want to do the work they like. They're more comfortable in the work. Do you think. Do you feel that if they do, you feel like that's sort of an excuse? Like, in other words, do accountants, if they if they were more confident in their sales skills, they could sell higher value, you know, services that they would do it more and they sort of hide behind.

Just, I just want to do the work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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I think that's something that. That sounds. That sounds daunting, because, I mean, I agree with it. Sounds. It's sounds like something that a lot of people don't want to take on. But we all have to remember whether we own a restaurant, a manufacturing company, CFO firm. It almost doesn't matter if you own a business. Your job is is to sell.

But I think a lot of people like, like you said, have this sort of negative perception of sales. Like you're almost like the used car salesman type where you're forcing something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. Right.

Totally.

Yeah.

Right, right. I agree I get a lot of accountants all the time. Say well there's no way because we recommend that you charge at least 1500 for per month per client. For CFO advisor services, we get a lot of people that say there's absolutely no way my clients can afford this. They can barely afford the $200 hour for $10 I'm charging for bookkeeping.

It's like, well, you need better clients. You need different clients. It's I mean, it's.

Right.

Yeah.

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sales to me should be approached or thought of as I'm helping somebody. If I believe in my service or product so much, then why wouldn't I want to tell somebody about it? Like. Like it's my duty to tell somebody about this product, for this product, if it will help them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's almost like two things have to be true. You have to believe or know that this service or product that you're selling is, is going to help them. If it's not, you shouldn't be selling the product in the first place. Which is why I think used car salesmen get that bad rep. Rep. But you.

So you have to believe that it will help the person. At the same time, you have to charge for your value. It's kind of what you're saying, because you could believe that it will help them. And if you charge a dollar a month, that will still be true. It'll help them. But you are going to not make any money at this, and then that'll be,

Oh my goodness.

Totally.

Totally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It does.

Yeah. I agree with you.

You said that business owners are. Excuse me? Accountants have this fear of rejection in a sense. And that is the almost like the root causes to why they they don't want to charge. Because they don't want to hear the word no. Why is it why is that?

And how could somebody overcome that?

Okay.

Yeah. That is true.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Totally.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm a big believer that that you need. You need confidence in order to sell. But to get confidence, you have to take action to build that skill. Take action to build confidence. Once you're confident, then you'll continue and you'll be competent at selling. It's like this the confidence component loop. It all starts with taking action, starting with the system that you're talking about, then building confidence.

Yeah, totally. It.

Now? Yeah.

Right. Without implementation and without accountability and feedback and coaching. I mean, the highest performer athletes almost every single one have a coach, and they're probably the people that don't even need the coach because they're high performing athletes. But they have one because they want to be the best and they want to be good. And they know that they don't know it all.

Yeah.

Totally. Yeah. And we all we have to remember that that in our line of work, whether you're selling bookkeeping services, accounting services, CFO services, tax rep, whatever, we are selling a service, which means our time and our employees time is finite. We have a capacity issue. And so if we have a finite capacity, a finite amount of clients that we could take on, then we might as well earn as much as we can from each client.

Like, like, why wouldn't you do that? If it's your business?

Right.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

I agree 100%. Well, on that note, Michelle, thank you so much for being on the show. Is a fantastic conversation, as always. Where can people find you?

The abundant Qualcomm.

Love it. Michelle, thank you so much. And everybody listening or watching, make sure you check out Michelle's link. We'll put that in the show notes if it also 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. See you next time on the CFO project podcast.