Pre-Qualifying Sales Leads

How should you go about pre-qualifying sales leads? And why should you do that in the first place? Co-hosts Hannah Robinson and Melissa Honan share their thoughts and experiences of the good, the bad, and the ugly of attracting and working with clients.

• Hannah thinks that narrowing down who’s going to be a good client for you is key, especially when you’re starting out.
• Melissa strongly recommends against trying to close every single person out of desperation like she did when she started out.
• Melissa explains how her bookkeeping for painters business has a funnel that, in addition to painters, attracts other professionals like plumbers and roofers. She wouldn’t have but her husband Daniel took the lead in making sure the business only served painters and would send others away.
• Melissa talks about the red flags potential clients will say when you ask the right questions during a discovery call – but also if you don’t ask them. The biggest red flag, says Melissa, is when a potential client says they have had countless bookkeepers and start talking badly about them.
• Hannah shares her belief that having certain clients pre-qualified to be a good fit is something that requires a level of patience and it isn’t an easy thing to do.
• Melissa discusses how it took her a long time to think about longevity. At first, she was focused on growth, growth, growth, so she could pay people but that approach can lead to a short-sighted sales funnel.
• In her business, Melissa uses a form but she has found the best qualifying strategy to be having an actual call with the potential client. She discloses that her sales role is the last thing she would outsource.
• When it comes to finding prospects, Melissa and her team try to be everywhere painters are. One way they do that is through partnerships with business coaches who specialize in their industry.
• For Hannah, pre-qualifying your clients ensures that your retention rate is the best it can be and it helps you maintain the relationship. However, she stresses, it isn’t just all about you but it’s about whether that person is a good fit for you too.
• Melissa goes over the types of potential clients, including the types she breaks down into two categories, as well as an exercise they use to qualify a certain type of prospect.
• For Melissa, one of the biggest frustrations with the bookkeepers she works with are clients that don't respond to them and then also don't care.
• Melissa discusses scenarios in which she doesn’t want to work with a particular client, and shares some recent changes in her business.

Mentioned in this episode:

Quickbooks

success@ilovebookkeeping.com