Episode 3: Building a $1.5 Million Firm with no Bookkeeping Experience with Melissa Honan

Feb 15

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I interviewed Melissa Honan, the CEO of Bookkeeping for Painters and the founder of Melissa Honan Consulting. We dive into the unique sales approach she’s taken to building her firm to $1.5 million and how you can apply these same tips to create a better sales experience for you and your prospects.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Melissa leveraged her prior sales experience in building her firm to $1.5 million
Creating a personable sales approach for clients
Suggested ways to utilize sales tactics to convert clients
Conversations to have for higher conversions without talking about services
How to educate prospects and bring value
Creating unique touch points in your sales process

Resources mentioned in this episode:

👥 Sales & Marketing Tips for Bookkeepers Facebook Group

📝 Melissa’s One-on-One Coaching Application

💻 How to Increase Client Prices Mini Course

💻 Bookkeeper Launch

Listen to the Full Episode here 👇🏼

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Scaling your business can not only feel overwhelming— it can feel damn near DAUNTING if you don’t have the techniques you need to sell comfortably.

That’s where Melissa Honan comes in. As the CEO of Bookkeeping for Painters, she and her team serve over 130 clients at $1.5 million in annual recurring revenue.

Melissa might be an introvert, but she still manages to be a major boss! With 15 years of sales management experience, she can give you proven tools to teach ANYONE how to sell confidently.

In this blog and podcast, we’re sharing our favorite sales tips you need to confidently sell your bookkeeping or accounting services! Including….

Creating a personable sales approach for clients
How to educate prospects and bring value
Conversations to have for higher conversions without talking about services

Creating a Personable Sales Approach For Clients

Sales is really just making people understand what they need. And that might mean needing to tweak how we present what they need to them. Coming from a sales position in retail herself, Melissa knows more than anyone how to explain bookkeeping in a way so that people can understand it.

Asking a bland list of questions on a discovery call is such BS selling.

You won’t sell to your full potential that way because you’re not making an authentic connection. You limit your conversation to being completely surface-level, and sales need to be a conversation.

So what should that conversation sound like?

Melissa says she frames a conversation that focuses only on the person, their business, and what they need help with. That’s going to get you so much further than transactional sales that are made from a list and no heart.

(Sometimes these conversations lead to you asking yourself if you even want to help this client. And that’s totally okay too, because if you don’t feel you align from the first conversation, you have to trust your gut there.)

Part of that connection building, especially with bookkeeping, is remembering not to talk down to your clients. Don’t use all of those industry acronyms, don’t come across as condescending or talk “above them.” Melissa’s goal is to take any pain point someone has had in their experience with bookkeeping and accounting, and showcase how she can be the opposite.

(Does the idea of selling from a conversation and not a questions list scare the crap out of you? Melissa’s one-on-one coaching application might be a great resource to turn to. She focuses on helping you find out how to get in touch with your clients in a way that allows you to focus on what works best for YOU.)

How To Educate Prospects And Bring Value on the Sales Call

If sales is educating, which we think it is, how do you educate someone about their needs in a way that brings value and converts to sales?

Do we want to have clients that bring in a lot of money and have a high budget? OF COURSE. But that isn’t the first thing you ask when you consider if you are a great fit or align with a client.

She doesn’t even discuss the budget at the beginning of a call. In fact, Melissa suggests ALWAYS working at the pace of the client when it comes to selling.

If that client needs three meetings to sell, she takes those three meetings.

Because in one call, you might not be able to:

Build a relationship
Assess their pain points
Answer their questions
Get answers to your questions
Go through your offers
Go through your process
Close them
Send them a proposal

If you focus on getting all those things done in one call and one call only, your close rates will be much lower than they could be if you’re taking the time to hear and make suggestions that meet the client’s deepest need.

So if a client needs multiple phone calls to build trust with you, or emails back and forth to feel comfortable together— THAT’S OKAY!

I fully agree that building a relationship with each client is vital. You establish that relationship to get them to sign. But what about how to maintain that relationship by straight up asking how they feel about your work? Using their feedback as data can make sure you’re still in alignment, providing what they need for their current pain points.

You can read about how to send out a client survey (setting it up and then coasting totally on autopilot) here.

Conversations To Have For Higher Conversions Without Talking About Services

So many of us go into a discovery call with the goal of landing a client. That’s what we know, have been told, and think is best practice.

In doing that, when you hear the client’s budget is currently $100 a month towards their bookkeeping or accounting, you find yourself sometimes mentally checking out.

Talking money right up front can put the brakes on a potential relationship that aligns you and your client. So instead of starting with the question “what’s your budget” Melissa suggests creating a conversation.

Let that conversation focus on what the client is paying for, their pain points, and their expectations. Let that lead you into what you can provide for the client to help them INVEST in their business.

When you transition your thought process from “this is what I charge” to “this is what your problem is, here is the solution and the value in the solution”--- you show what’s in it for them. Help your client reframe their train of thought that this is not a budget but an investment to help them reach their goals.

Ready to confidently take on more sales calls yet? Or, if you’re trying to earn more WITHOUT taking on more clients, Melissa’s increasing client prices program might be a great fit for you. She focuses on helping you find out how to get in touch with your clients in a way that allows you to focus on what works best for YOU.

About our guest:

Melissa Honan is the CEO of Bookkeeping For Painters, a bookkeeping & tax firm that works exclusively with painting businesses. Under her leadership, Bookkeeping For Painters serves over 130 clients at $1.5 million in annual recurring revenue.

In addition to her role at Bookkeeping for Painters, Melissa is a Business Sales & Marketing Coach for bookkeeping business owners that want to scale their businesses to 6- or 7-figures. An introvert herself, Melissa has 15 years of sales management experience with proven tools and techniques to teach anyone how to sell comfortably and confidently.

Connect with Melissa Honan:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialmelissahonan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissahonanconsulting

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissahonan/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tipsforbookkeepers Email: melissa@honanconsultinggroup.com

Website: https://melissahonan.com/

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