Sales management for tax practices.

• Author: Wolff, Michael S.

Fundamental as it may seem, managing sales is one of the more elusive elements of tax practice management. Given the fact that "sales" is such a relatively new word in accounting, it is not surprising that "sales management" is new to the management scene as well.

As a result, most accounting firms are woefully unaware of sales fundamentals, such as, What exactly should they sell? To whom? At what cost? With what return on investment?

Many firms are just beginning to accept the need for sales management. Although recently, in fact, many others have stepped up their efforts by putting in place a sales management system that helps focus on the most productive tax offerings (i.e., products), estimate with a high degree of accuracy the revenue each product will generate, specify the investment required to achieve revenue objectives, monitor the sales performance of the professional staff and, in general, take the mystery out of this essential business function.

Products

Long gone are the days when busy executives would entertain a drop-by visit from the tax accountant. It is hard work to fill up seminars. Even the old standby, "no obligation tax diagnosis," finds fewer and fewer takers these days.

What does open doors at the right level are tax products. While defining a "tax product" is difficult, good tax products have most of the following attributes:

[] Deliverable: Invariably, the best tax products are those that finish off with a deliverable--like a report, an opinion letter, a set of amended returns and so forth.

[] Priceable: Good tax products carry set prices, allowing the client to instantly weigh costs and benefits.

[] Promotable: The cleverest idea is not a good product unless it can be described quickly and tantalizingly in sales literature and in direct sales activities like teleprospecting.

[] Targeted: The highest possible sales impact is achieved when a highly specific idea is applied to a highly focused audience. It is far more productive to develop ideas that apply to user groups of 200 companies (or fewer) than it is to conduct mass marketing campaigns.

[] Positioned: "Me too" does not cut it these days. A successful product must be unique, or faster, or better, or differentiated in some other way. Otherwise, it will be just another commodity that competes well only when prices are slashed.

The Sales Process

As anyone in a professional sales organization knows, once a product exists, it is time to move it to market as...