You might also be interested in
Replies (16)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
Not sure I understand
Sorry Mark, don't really understand what a Challenger is and how you differentiate that role from the others, it all seems a bit narrow to me, ie a sole practitioner who is a challenger may win lots of new clients but then be unable to hang on to them (because a lot of what an accountant does is still boring and unchallenging).
I can understand it from a sales rep's point of view, after all their role is to sell for others to manage/do but unless you have the classic seller, manager, doer set up of a 3 partner/director firm then we all have to try and be a mix, don't we?
I'm also worried about winning business for the sake of it, or for the top line, ie just to make up big numbers. How you recognise success these days is more expansive than that, well it is for me.
More please
Mark
I am very interested in this area, many thanks for your research and time.
I was always told to use my ears and mouth in the proportions they were given to me!!!! (old boss)
I now have my own practice and thus have my own style, and funnily enough, only this morning, commented that I should be in sales!
Jennifer
Too Woolly For Me
So much management theory goes over my head. Why? Because it is largely clothed in gobbledegook that mere mortals like myself struggle to understand and there is no clear set of instructions for dimwits like myself to follow.
No, I don't think I'm a dimwit or stupid.
But a lot articles like this (coupled with AVN's aggressive approaches to training) leave me feeling backed into a corner, with the assumption that if what I'm doing isn't anything like what is proposed I must be doing it wrong.
Mark - if you are going to pass on what you consider pearls of wisdom, then please strip them of the massive egotism of management speak and explain in detail what it is we need to do. And if you aren't sure yourself what those details are, then is it wise to write nerdy articles like this?
I would rather you stuck to what you know, which is far superior than this tosh. Sorry to be so rude.
Poor attention span
If I'm not engaged within the first three lines of an article I tend to switch off.
'Oh look, Krill'
Maybe its an age thing...
@Moonbeam :)
I thought challenger
was a space shuttle that flew briefly then exploded spectacularly!
an apt analogy I thought.
Are Challenging Accountants more successful?
The Challenger Sale – Taking control of the Customer conversation, was released in 2009, by what is now the Corporate Executive Board (CEB).
As the results were so surprising, the book has created a vast array of comment in the sales world since release. It’s a must read book for any aspiring salesperson.
Indeed the book has its own LinkedIn group, with over 2,500 members.
To “challenge your client”, is not a new tactic, uncovered by the CEB. Many individuals and alternative sales methodologies have long since suggested this approach – when it is appropriate.
With over 6,000 surveys undertaken, there is research, which the CEB base their conclusions on– the Challenger is the most effective sales model, and sales teams should adapt to this method of selling.
The CEB research is based on many sales teams of multi-national companies – Thomson Reuters - Markets Business Unit are credited in the book. These are businesses selling complex solutions, over a long sales cycle and to a complicated decision making unit. Is this representative of the sales process that many Accounting Web readers face – then absolutely not.
Is it fair to compare the accountancy profession with the world of complex sales models – NO.
Does the profession need to understand sales and demonstrate sales capabilities more effectively – Yes. Would I like to see more sales topics discussed on Accounting Web – Yes. However, I would suggest that it’s not best to start with The Challenger Sale.
Dermot Hamblin
Professionally sold to the profession since 1996.
In Re Challengers
I very much like the idea of accountants as challengers. I am not an accountant, but a lawyer that has had accounting firms as clients for nearly twenty years. As a lawyer, my clients want me to have a point of view, even if it challenges their own. That is why they engaged me – to benefit from my accumulated experience perspective - to challenge theirs. I believe the same can be said for accountants. Second, in the US, accountants, and auditors in particular, are required by professional standards and regulator practice rules (i.e. the SEC Rules of Practice) to apply a professional and healthy skepticism to their work; namely, challenge their clients. I suspect the ICAEW and the FAS feel the same way. In fact, in the US, accountants get into serious legal trouble when they fail to challenge their clients. (See my article on SEC Enforcement Under Rule 102.) I believe clients respect accountants and lawyers who have a well-reasoned perspective and have the courage to share it - in a positive way - verses the milquetoast approach; and the clients/prospects are more interested in hiring and retaining them.
Madness
If a client says something wrong I disagree (challenge them).
If a client says something right I agree.
It's madness just to have an attitude for the sake of it.
Maybe a lot of us have misunderstood then
What do you think accountants do now and what do "challengers" do differently?
Are you suggesting that most accountants are "yes-people"?
Mark, I have a challenging
question for you. As the government have taken one P off a pint do we now have to ask for an Int?
I view what you call "challenging" Accountants as "Accountants" and anyone else as number crunchers (no dis to number crunchers). In this day and age you have to be "challenging" to get anywhere.
However, when you start talking about sales in the same breath as Accountancy in any way shape or form, then you are heading for the same road the banks took and look where they are (mind you I wouldn't mind being paid £18m bonus).