How clients pick an Accountant

23 October 2016

The secret to gaining ‘Instant Trust & Rapport’

Your potential client sets an appointment for their initial consultation. Nervous, they arrive at your office, sit down, and begin to explain their problem.

Now, this potential client can describe this problem to 100 different Accountants. The problem remains the same. So why does this person choose you? Or rather, how do they make the decision to not choose one of the other 99 firms?

• Your academic credentials?
• The size of your office?
• If the free coffee was tasty?
• If the chairs were soft?
• The testimonials on your website?
• The pictures on your wall?
• If your suit appeared expensive?
• Your commanding voice?
• The courtesy of reception?
• The graphics of your ad?
• Your all-knowing nodding when they talk?
• Your description of your fees?
• The payment plan?

Unless we understand how prospects make their final decision, we will continue to miss potential business and fees.

Let’s just take a look at the first criteria potential clients use to choose who should represent them.

#1. Rapport.

Before the client begins to describe their problem, they sense if there is immediate rapport - or distance - between you and them. They want to know that you understand and see the world, and their problem, from the same viewpoint. If they feel you see their issues differently from them, they will be skeptical of all of your conversation.

A good example is when a leader of a political party speaks. If you are a member of that party, you naturally accept what the leader says as true. The leader has the same viewpoint as you. If you are a member of a different political party, then you will be skeptical and reject what the speaker says, because you have a different viewpoint.

So how do we let our potential client know that we have similar viewpoints?

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