Episode 36: Why You Need a Selling Mindset (In Demand Accountant Part 7)

In Episode 36, Sam covers the final attribute of the In Demand Accountant, and that is the selling mindset. Sam explores what a selling mindset is, why you need it and how you can go about cultivating it.

Sam shares her story and how she’s developed the selling mindset over her career, the main reasons accountants have not had to learn to sell before now and why we now need to learn this as an industry gain forwards.

Same then explores the common mindset blocks to selling and how to overcome them, and the six things you ned to focus on in order to develop your selling mindset.

Listen to an excerpt

What we cover in this episode

• What the word ‘selling’ actually means

• Sam’s story and how she’s developed a selling mindset over her career

• The main reasons accountants have not had to learn to sell before now

• Why we now need to learn this as an industry going forward

• The common mindset blocks to selling and how to overcome them

• The importance of understanding the client’s experience of a product or service in building your selling mindset

• The six things you need to focus on to develop your selling mindset

• The mistake to look out for when offering out-of-scope services to your regular tax clients

• Valuing what you do and why it’s the first step

• The power of discipline and routine in developing these new selling skills

• The need for practice and preparation in cultivating the selling mindset

• Using curiosity and reflection as a skill to build into your selling mindset

• Why the follow up is a crucial step in the selling mindset

Quotes

“I think that the selling mindset is what actually makes our every day and what we do as accountants more profitable and comfortable, and that's one of the main reasons we need to develop it.”

“It's not just about a moment in time in a transaction, it's how we approach everything that we're doing in life. And we will excel at selling, if we really work on our mindset around selling.”

“The reason that we've never had to learn to sell before or it's not a big deal for us is that one of the steps in the sales process is of course education and actually creating the need and connecting back to a want in your clients. Now, of course, the legislation does that for us: the Australian Tax Legislation and all the compliance legislations that wrap around that. The clients know that they have to come in every year and have our their the tax done otherwise they will go to jail. So that we haven't had to do that education process.”

“You can't sell anything and you should never sell anything if you don't value what you do and you don't think you can help somebody.”

“Selling, like anything that you do, has some attributes around discipline and routine, a lot of preparation and practice in how you actually do it. And a lot of curiosity and looking back on how you can do it better.”

“The first step in follow up that you really need to do is actually when you have a meeting with a client and you have or telephone call, grab their contact details.”

“It’s actually human to sell and that selling is not about making the hard sale. It's about getting people to understand what you do and connecting it to what they want, and then giving them the choice if they want to go ahead or not.”

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