John:  I have a sales question for you.  So you know I’m pretty good at closing deals but I’m very slow because I give the prospect a lot of free information before I sign them up because I just don’t get for myself, and I think my problem is I keep comparing consumers to how I would be the consumer which is wrong because there’s very different kinds of consumers and prospects.  But I don’t get how I can get someone to buy transcript analysis when we don’t even know potentially what their problem is.  So I have this fear on this side of my head where I’m selling them something that maybe they don’t really need because maybe they don’t really have a problem.  But on the other hand I feel like if we get some people to sign up for transcript analysis then they’re more invested, so then it’s easier to get them to sign on for other services that they might actually need.  But my question is should we try to sell transcript analysis upfront more often because right now I’m just providing it for free and then only trying to get them to do a deal once we see what their problem is.

Michael:  Yeah.  You kind of answered your own question, John.  So look, I’m a big believer in, and you’ve heard me talk about this before, and my mentality and I actually had this put on a yellow sticky on my computer and there were two things,

1. Nobody walks
2. Everybody’s a liar.

That was my mentality.  So if they came into my office they were in my office for a reason. They don’t come to a tax resolution specialist because it’s sunny outside and they’re having a great day.  They know they have a problem or are about to have a problem.  So the first thing you have to do, I mean if you’re not selling the case all in one bundle, and by the way I advocate doing that.  Once you get experience you can sell the investigation, you can sell the compliance, and you can sell the resolution in that one meeting.  But when you’re starting off at the beginning you do it in two phases or two stages.  So if they’re in your office John, they have a problem.  They don’t know what it is and you don’t know what it is and the only way to find out is to do a detailed transcript analysis, which you’re going to print off on really nice paper and logo letterhead because you have either Pit Bull or Tax Help Software and you’re going to give them the report and also the $1,500 transcript fee includes taking them through a 433A, a mini-433A so you can figure out what options are available to them.  You want to evaluate all collection alternatives.  The only way you can do that is to take them through a 433A.  So that’s what the $1,500 covers.  It covers the transcript analysis and investigation and the evaluation of alternatives.

John:  Wow, the way you just said it on the phone I would want to send you $1,500 right now.

Michael:  Right.  And that’s how, and you know what? You got to think of this as a business man, you cannot think of this business as an accountant.  Get that out of your head right now.  This is not accounting, this is not tax, this is a business and the more you look at the tax resolution business as a businessman and not an accountant the much more successful you will be.