Having to do something suggests one of the worst of all four-letter words in a client's or prospective client's mind: w-o-r-k. In practice, then, if your message is "Save $12,000 by engaging a review instead of an audit," you've created an imperative. Fine. Imperatives certainly are more powerful and more vigorous than the same message weakened into what might be called a sideline comment -- "You'll save $12,000." But it's incomplete. If we could tack on a component, our target prospective client swallows whole: the resulting benefit -- "That $12,000 stays in your pocket."

 

Selling results and benefits both enhances and rescues. Some of the danger words we often can't avoid, such as earn, learn or read -- each of which can suggest w-o-r-k -- are stripped of that danger when we quickly add the result of earning or learning or reading, especially if the result strongly implies benefit.

 

We can avoid the circumstance altogether. Instead of saying or writing, "Read what other clients say," which suggests work, we can create a bypass with "Look at what other clients say." Looking is easy; reading isn't so easy. Instead of saying or writing, "Learn how to lower percentage points of your administrative expenses," which suggests work, we can create a bypass with "Discover how to knock points off your administrative expenses." Discovering is easy; learning isn't so easy.

 

All too often, one-to-one accounting salesmanship becomes tentative. The most common manifestation of the "Tentativitis Syndrome" is a lapse into the conditional when enablement is available as a sales argument. Positive statements or questions give way to "What if ..." statements or questions.

 

Are you wondering if it's possible to creative a positive question? Wonder no more. We often see semi-salesworthy questions such as "How would you like to cut your IT expenditures by 15 percent?" The same opening, with the turbo effect of enablement: "How would you like to be able to cut your IT expenditures by 15 percent?"

 

The obvious benefit of adding to be able: Whatever services we are selling provide enablement. What if you were to go a step further and drop "How" and reword: "Would you like to be able to cut your IT expenditures by 15 percent?" Salesmanship disappears. The question is milder and weaker, lacking leadership, because replacing "How would" with "Would" drains out the sales psychology. We no longer have a sales argument, instead, we have an unimproved question to which our prospective client can easily answer, "No."

 

Another tip about the use of imperatives. The degree of imperative can increase as the text of a communication to those who aren't captive readers or listeners progresses. This point can be helpful in structuring a phone call or an e-mail to prospective clients who don't know you. As an opener, "I think you'll be interested in this news" is less abrasive than "You'll be interested in this news" or "You should be interested in this news."

 

The benefit to you? You've moved toward that optimum relationship, rapport, instead of maintaining an arm's length distance. In one-to-one marketing, which is what all accounting services marketing should be, an arm around the shoulder is worth one hand holding a gun.