When it comes to selling your services, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to close a sale as quickly as possible and thinking that high-pressure tactics will make the prospect want to “buy” from you.  But this high-pressure approach can often backfire because it puts the prospect in a defensive posture. To avoid losing the sale, here are three tips to follow to convert prospects into clients.

First, remember you are here to help and protect them, not “sell” them anything.  Too many times, practitioners get too technical and explain the resolution process in technical terms and basically talk themselves out of the sale. That’s how you lose the prospect! You want to focus on the benefits, not the features, of hiring a tax resolution specialist to resolve their IRS back tax issue. Talk about protecting them from garnishments and levies. Illustrate the potential results and the peace of mind you’ll provide for them and their family.

You want to know what is important to them in resolving the tax debt and why.  Imagine their immediate problem is that the IRS levied their bank account, but maybe their underlying concern is that they won’t be able to pay for their daughter’s wedding.  Or their relationship with their spouse has gone sour. Knowing this information can help you tailor your consultation to meet their needs and it also builds trust.  By understanding the real pain of your clients, you are allowing THEM to make the decision to retain your service.  And then it becomes an obvious decision for your prospects to hire you. Stay away from technical jargon and sell the benefits, not the features.

Secondly, you need to develop your consultation and interview process.  You need to develop a robust consultation script, to convert as many qualified leads as possible.  This means that you need the right person to answer your phones as your intake specialist.  Someone you can train that’s knowledgeable about your services and who makes a good first impression. This person needs to be friendly, motivated and teachable.

In order to be successful, they need a checklist and script to guide them through the intake process.  After the intake specialist has qualified the prospect, they need to transfer them to you or someone on your team to take them through the formal consultation process. You are much more likely to get retained if you can take them through the consultation process, right then and there, as opposed to scheduling the consultation for a future date.

My third tip is to use testimonials or what I like to call “success stories” in your marketing and sales processes. Now, you might be thinking, “Mike, what does a testimonial have to do with closing a sale?” One of the reasons that people do not hire you is because they don’t trust you. They wonder, “Can you really help someone like me?”

The key to answering this is by having relatable testimonials that speak to various tax problems that different types of taxpayers have.  While your testimonials should be used on Yelp,
Google My Business, direct mail, on your website… basically everywhere, it’s also helpful for you to know a few of them by heart so that you can naturally incorporate them into the conversation.

If your target demographic are independent contractors like realtors or truck drivers, tell them the results from one of your past realtor or truck driver clients and how you helped them, “You know Joe, just last week I resolved a case that was very similar to yours.  He was also a realtor like you…” This reassures your prospect that you have helped people exactly like him/or her.

Converting prospects into paying clients requires a strategic approach that focuses on helping the prospect, developing an intake and consultation process, and utilizing testimonials both in your marketing and in your sales conversations. 

By shifting your focus to helping your prospect instead of trying to sell them something, you build trust and alleviate the pressure to make a sale. Creating a strong consultation process that includes a knowledgeable and friendly intake specialist and a system to track leads for follow up purposes, will improve your conversion rate.  Finally, using testimonials that speak to relatable tax problems can provide reassurance to prospects that you have the expertise to help them.  By implementing these three tips you will increase your chances of converting prospects into clients.

If you want to learn more about the lucrative opportunity in tax resolution, then click here to register for my Free Online Training where you can learn how to build and grow your own tax resolution practice. This training will show you how to find and attract tax resolution prospects, retain clients, and the most common resolution strategies. This breakthrough training has helped over 6,000 CPAs, EAs, and Attorneys build 6 to 7 figure tax resolution businesses from scratch! Don’t miss this opportunity and register today!