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Getting Conversations
How do I start to get conversations with CPAs for the “market research” approach? I have not had success on LinkedIn sending messages and am not sure whether or not cold calling is the best approach.
Thanks
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5 Replies
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You know I talked to my coach about this same thing. I was bemoaning, not being able to reach enough MSPs (not saying you are bemoaning, but I certainly was. Whinging, actually. I was whinging.) He told me I wasn’t trying hard enough.
He asked me how many people I had reached out to the previous day – I said something like 10. He said well, 10 is not enough, why not 40 or 50? He explained that the last time he did this, he reached out to 300 people a week because that’s what it took.
I realized that I wasn’t doing enough. I was doing work, but it wasn’t transformative work. It was more like doing enough to say that I did it without actually getting the results.
I don’t know your situation; maybe you are reaching 300 with the perfect outreach. But ask yourself, are you? Could you do more?
Here are other things you can do:
1. Go to rootworks. Tell them that you are doing research to understand better the IT needs of accountants so that you can serve them better. Ask if there is a way to talk to some members, and be ready to join.
2. Talk to your network. Go through your A list and your B list. Does anybody know an accountant?3. Expand your network by going to networking meetings. Tell everyone you want to talk to accountants to learn more about their IT needs and how you can better serve them.
4. Use Sales Navigator to build a list and reach out to 30 every day.
5. Ask your accountant clients if they know any other accountants you should talk to.
6. Reach out to the AICPA and ask someone there whom you should talk to.
Anybody else have other ideas?
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I know this thread is over a year old, but I have done some level of outreach to CPAs and the results were very minimal. We called on close to 200 CPAs and only one appointment, which was a no-show. Most fell into voicemail but some said they were busy and a couple may have hung up. It is interesting given that we said we were just looking to do research and not sell them anything. There was still resistance even to that. Engagement from LinkedIn was very minimal.
To your point it may not have been enough, We have since built the list organically to 400 contacts, and I am looking at buying a list of about 1100 CPA partners/decision makers, giving us potentially a pool of 1500 contacts.
With that said, we are now in early January and CPA firms are focused on getting ready for tax season. What would be the best approach now? Do we need to go in another direction? CPAs seem to be difficult to reach, even during the off season.
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Happy New Year David!
Have you been implementing the Dream 100 strategy completely? Cold calls and LinkedIn outreaches may not be enough. You may need to include some more ‘human’ touches like snail mail or in-person office visits.Here’s the article if you need a quick refresher for the new year: https://sgmcommunity.com/forums/topic/getting-conversations/#post-16554
I’m also going to tag @jeff and see if there’s anything else he could suggest for CPAs since that’s what your question was specifically asked for. I just wanted to give you my two cents!
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Thanks Jeff for the input.
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Thank you Carla. I was going to implement the Dream 100 then my old Thrivers group and Joe told me to start cold calling to get some quick hits. I need a little more clarity on the recommended direction.
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