Prospecting for Quality Clients with Ben Day - Encore Presentation

Ben had graduated with his degree in 2017 and worked part-time for a local music guy, which was great until music turned out to be not very lucrative. After getting hooked by a Facebook ad, Ben decided to check out a great course that helped him launch his bookkeeping business.

[3:00] 99% of what Ben focuses on is real estate. Oklahoma has a growing real estate market so it made a lot of sense to niche down.

[5:20] Ben spent around 6 hours per day networking and connecting with various professionals in the market, specifically meetup.com, and that time evolved into those people asking Ben to help them with their books.

[7:00] Take it slow, ask questions, engage and offer value before you ask for money.

[8:05] Ben formed his business in a way that facilitated a freedom lifestyle. He found that building a virtual business is more of a challenge but is totally worth it.

[10:20] Fear setting is one of the major challenges that Ben has overcome in growing his business. Every day he finds new fears around talking to people and seeing what he can do to conquer them.

[11:45] Understanding when to upgrade the conversation after offering value is a particularly tricky subject.

[12:10] Fear is the number one impediment in not getting the life that you want.

[12:50] Ben considers himself an introvert but has learned how to turn it on when necessary. There is nothing easy or attractive to the process, you walk up to someone, shake their hand and say something. Then you rinse and repeat that process.

[14:50] Nothing makes you feel quite like a rockstar than providing value to someone and them saying “this is the best thing I’ve ever had, I’m going to tell everyone about you.” Knowing you’re doing a good job does wonders for your business.

[16:20] Ben’s business is a one-man show other than his marketing and web design. He also has coaches and mentors that help him out as well. Entrepreneurship is incredibly lonely and having good people around you is vital.

[18:10] Entrepreneurs wear too many hats and are afraid of taking time off, and that feeling becomes very real when they begin to scale.

[20:30] Ben’s challenge is in pre-qualifying leads. There is a huge difference between telling someone how to do something and being paid to do it for them.

[21:50] Conversations and communication is where most things fall apart. Real estate is especially tricky for this because of differing definitions of the term “transaction”.

[23:50] When you don’t have to take on more clients to cover your costs, you can be more selective about the clients you work with.

[24:40] There are four components to scale, there is Strategy, Team, Execution, and Profitability.

[27:00] Make your prospects work to see you. Once you have clients, you want new clients to vet themselves for you. Marketing is more about repelling the people you don’t want than it is attracting the people you do want.

[29:30] List out all of the things you want to know before talking with someone. What does your perfect client look like? Most of us are people pleasers, you need to make your clients work for it so you don’t waste their time or yours.

[32:25] Creating a qualifying funnel is a great way to establish authority in your niche as well as filter your prospects down to the right people.

[36:30] Bookkeeping is a relationship business, it’s not about numbers. During the interview process, you should emulate as much as possible what the workflow will be like. Never give someone a proposal after speaking with them only once, there should be a few conversations before that point.

[41:45] One of the keys to financial statements is getting them in a timely manner. Any homework you give to a prospective client should be completed quickly.

[43:15] You have to think about who your ideal client is. Most of the time we think we know who we want to serve but you have to get very detailed about that. Be slow to take on new clients. Do you have one or two clients that you like a lot? What traits about those clients make them a pleasure to work with?

[46:30] Without being explicit about your price, you can list a minimum amount on your qualifying page that will filter out the wrong kinds of clients.

[47:45] You have to deliver value in advance. Take the information a potential client has given you and tell them how to run their business more effectively. If you put enough value into the marketplace, you will get value in return. Take the pressure off and deliver the value before you give them the proposal.

[50:15] Know what you’re going to charge them once that’s done and put it on the table then be silent. Let them decide. The more decision points you give your client, the more friction they encounter.

[52:40] Stick with your pricing and never budge. If you’re working with friends and family, double it.

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