Wednesday mornings at 745am I’m not far away…I’m at my desk for my BANG online networking group meeting (I’ve come to love those 5 minute commutes down the stairs, don’t you?)
(I love networking. Maybe you’ve heard me say it before. Well, I’m saying it again).
Sometimes we kick around a few ideas along with all the introductions.
A few weeks ago, I asked “What do you expect out of your accountant or your bookkeeper?”
I got a ton of great answers — some of which I’ll talk about in some other emails/posts (so stick around). But you know what nobody said?
“I want technical expertise”.
It was assumed that any CPA would have it.
I’m willing to wager that we all assume that any professional has it (whether they have a set of letters after their names or not!) That they are an expert at the “technical” stuff in what they do.
Don’t you assume that:
- Your real estate agent knows how to fill in a listing form or an offer sheet?
- A coach knows how to coach
- The IT guy knows how to turn a computer
And so on…
But you know what was underlying all the comments I heard?
“I want my accountant or my bookkeeper to take care of me. I want that same feeling I get from a bowl of tomato soup (with crackers), a grilled cheese sandwich, and warm blankie on a frosty day”.
In other words: The warm and fuzzies.
This begs (at least for me) two questions:
- Why do so many of us sell like Dragnets’s Joe Friday (“Just the facts, ma’am”)? Why do we emphasize those technical skills?
- How do you get your clients to feel warm and fuzzy about you?
I honestly don’t know about #1. It’s certainly “the thing” for accountants and bookkeepers (maybe because we’re taught that we need to talk about our businesses like we’ve got a stick up our wazoos in order to be “professional”).
(If you’re reading this you know that doesn’t apply to me!)
But I’m pretty sure that the answer to #2 is to sell — and service — like a human.
I heard a podcast panelist say “Know, like, and trust is a two-way street. Sure, your potential client needs to know, like, and trust YOU before doing business with you. But you need to know, like, and trust your clients too.”
If I like my clients — they’ll know it.
If I know my clients, I can better be able to help them make their business better.
Do you give your clients that warm and fuzzy feeling? Or are you Joe Friday?
PS All the em dashes in this post were inserted by me. No AI. But that’s a conversation for another day
PPS Yes, I know Joe Friday never actually said “Just the fact’s ma’am”.
PPPS Did you know that “warm and fuzzies” dates back to the late 1960s?
