The Discovery Call Script For Accountancy Businesses

In order to give a bit of context about the Discovery Call and the script, I need to start by talking a little bit about the Sales System in an accountancy businesses.

The Sales System as we know it is where you turn a prospect into a client OR upgrade existing clients into buying more from you.

It's the one system that is nearly always overlooked and certainly always disliked.

It’s disliked because we have negative association with selling due to experiences we’ve had in the past.

So let's just outline how a typical accountancy business runs their Sales System, so you can see the fundamental flaws and the opportunities for massive improvement.

Typically, somebody registers their interest in your services. Then you may call them or reply to the email and you may even ask them a few questions, but essentially you arrange a meeting to discuss their requirements.

Then in around a week’s time, you have an hour-long meeting where you learn more about their business and perhaps even deliver a presentation.

You may have some standard questions, which you ask…or you may not.

You may also have some sort of pricing tool which can give them a good indication of costs there and then…or you may not.

You then promise to send them a proposal outlining costs which you then email to them over the next few days.

You then spend time producing the proposal and a letter of engagement which outlines the costs and scope of the work you plan to do for them.

You send them through…with your fingers crossed.

At an undetermined time in the future, you or a member of your team then calls to see if they want to go ahead, which they either do or they don’t.

If they do, we sign them up.

If they don’t, well not to worry. We won’t chase them because we’re not sales people and we don’t want to be seen as pestering them.

You’ll probably give them a nudge at some point… probably.

And that’s it.

That’s the normal process and it seems reasonable enough, right? Wrong.

If your process sounds familiar to this, then you are creating yourself a whole world of pain further down the line.

But not to worry. We can create a solid Sales System to iron out all these issues. Starting with a simple upgrade in your Discovery Call script.

The Discovery Call

The Discovery Call is a 15-minute call and it's done over the phone, just after the prospect has registered their interest in your services.

It will establish you as the authority, discover critical pieces of information about the prospect and their business and, if a good fit, arrange the proposal meeting.

This will be done by your admin staff, which we call the Client Coordinator. You need to develop a clear script, then train those members of staff in how to deliver it efficiently.

Now, you might not use scripts in your business currently. You might think that training your staff in how to follow scripts is too granular. You might be more of a freestyle kind of business.

Well, all I can share is my real world experiences in using scripts and training teams to stick to them and to evolve them and… THEY WORK.

They create scalability, consistency, wow and free you up from being involved in the process. Some of the most successful accountancy business owners I have ever spoken to devote half a day every week to staff training, of which role-playing based around scripts plays a key part.

So let's get to it.

THE SCRIPT

So let’s say James from Company X Limited has booked onto a Discovery call via a web form on your website…and Amy, your Client Coordinator, is calling them to deliver the Discovery Call.

It should go a little something like this:

Hi James,

My name is Amy and I’m the Client Coordinator here at My Accountancy Place.

Thank you for arranging a Discovery Call with us.

This is an opportunity for us to learn more about your business, understand what’s working well, the challenges you’re facing and how we can help you to overcome those challenges.

I will then answer any questions you have and if we think we’re a good fit for each other, I can arrange a Proposal Meeting with one of our Senior Accountants.

How does that sound?

Great. Firstly, I need to get a feel for the size of your business so that if we do choose to move forwards with a Proposal Meeting, I can arrange that with the accountant who will be able to best serve you.

A. So what prompted you to reach out to us?

B. What’s working well in your business?

C. What challenges are you facing?

D. What is your annual revenue?

E. How many employees do you have?

F. What current accounting software do you currently use?

G. On a scale of 1-10. How would you rate your current accountancy function?

H. What would make it a 10? (this is an amazing question because it arms you with the precise information you need to convert this prospect into a client)

I. When is your year-end?

J. What questions can I answers of yours?

[ANSWER QUESTIONS]

Fantastic, so l believe we could certainly help you with those challenges and help you to grow your business in the way you’ve described.

The best accountant to help you to achieve your goals would be Paul Bell because he has a lot of experience with helping businesses of your size to achieve the goals you’ve described here.

So the next step would be for me to arrange a Proposal Meeting with him if that works with you. This is where Paul would be able to go deeper into your business and your challenges and give you some real value during that meeting.

This wouldn’t be a big sales pitch. We actually make it a valuable experience for you by showing you how you can take your accountancy function to a 10, and outlining the blueprint for making that work.

We will then show you what that would look like if you wanted us to provide that function from an investment point of view and we will actually produce an instant proposal for you.

If you’re happy with that proposal and you want to proceed, you will be able to sign-up there and then. But there will be no pressure to do that.

In order to make that meeting the best use of your time, there’s just one video I’d like to send you to watch BEFORE that meeting. This outlines how we work and would save us from having to talk about ourselves during the meeting. That way we can focus all of our attention on you and impacting your business from the outset.

Does that sound good?

[ARRANGE MEETING]

So I’m now going to send you confirmation of your meeting with a link to the video.

If you have any questions at all, then please call me back.

Thank you and we look forward to meeting with you soon.

This is the type of script you may deliver on your call. You of course need to put it into your own style and so here are just a few pointers…

• Avoid being pulled on price during that call. You could give a ‘from’ price to ward off time wasters, but we really want to be able to establish the value during the Proposal Meeting. Your fees may be double what they’re currently paying, and if you haven’t had chance to communicate the value of your service to them, you could be losing potential clients.
• Don't allow them to ask questions at the start. This hands control back to them. They can ask their questions at the end…if appropriate. If they are insistent on asking their questions, then I would write them down, acknowledge that you WILL answer them, and then proceed with your call as scripted.
• We ask “What would make it a 10?” question, because this arms you with all the information they need to nail the deal. It also prevents you from taking about things which are irrelevant to the client.
• We sell them on the idea of watching the video BEFORE the meeting. This is a critical component of the whole process, as you’ll see. With some clients, we’ve even gone to the extent of telling them that if they don’t watch the video, then we’d have to rearrange the meeting, as it would be a waste of their time. This is a judgment call but very effective in establishing authority.
• The principle in play here is that if they’re not prepared to watch a 10 or 20 minute video, what chance do you have of them reconciling their accounts or signing up for the package that you’re going to want to sell to them.

So there you have it. The perfect discovery call for your accountancy business that will allow you to establish yourself as the authority early on in the Sales System, discover critical pieces of information about the prospect and their business and, if a good fit, arrange the Proposal Meeting.

The next stage in The Sales System is the Priming Phase.

This is a game changer. It comes after the discovery call and systemises your confirmation emails, a priming video, and a final reminder. It is just the next step in WOWing you prospect and priming them to become a client.

The GoProposal Community are ALREADY smashing discovery calls out the park, here's some feedback from them below:

Get the FULL blueprint for The Sales System for your accountancy firm in my book, Selling To Serve.