151. Major Shift In How I Sell in 2025

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Over the last six months, I've closed nearly a dozen new fractional CFO clients, bringing in about a million dollars in annual recurring revenue. And I've handled the vast majority of those sales meetings in person. Why in the world am I doing sales meetings in person? In today's episode, I'm going to explain what changed in my firm last year that led me to doing in person sales meetings in the first place. And I'm going to uncover five completely unexpected benefits from in person sales meetings that will help you dec if they should be part of your sales strategy. Let's dive in. Welcome to the CFO Report. My name is Michael King, and I've been running my own fractional CFO firm, KFE Solutions, for nearly nine years. I know firsthand how hard it is to start and scale a fractional CFO firm. And so my mission with these videos is to make it just a little bit easier for you. So last week, I took two days out of my time to hop on a plane to Montana to try to close a new fractional CFO client. It's not cheap. The actual dollar cost is about $1,200. But the opportunity cost of my time to be gone for two full days is. And to be honest with you, a year ago, I wouldn't have even considered traveling for a sales meeting like this. After all, for the first eight years of my firm's existence, I did nearly 100% of my sales meetings via Zoom, just like you probably do. And to be honest, fairly decent at it. So what changed? Well, last year, one of my business mentors challenged me to tweak our business model so that each CFO on our team could handle a $1 million book of business. This was important because it would give us the margins that we needed to hit some of our longer term goals. But in order to do that, we would have to raise our price. And in order to do that, we would have to start working with larger clients that could afford the higher rates. Now, no problem, I'm here for that all day long. But as we started moving up market to work with bigger clients that could afford those higher rates, I started to run into some problems. First, the larger businesses were much more complex and had bigger problems, which meant I really needed to make sure that my team and our scope of work could be able to help them achieve their goals. I was putting our firm's reputation on the line, which meant there was a ton at stake for my firm. Second, the larger companies had more at stake themselves, which with the decision to work with a fractional cfo. And the risk wasn't necessarily just based on our fee. It was based on what was on the line relative to the goals that they were trying to hit. If we couldn't deliver, it could end up costing them millions of dollars in lost profits. So working with larger clients came with increased risk for us and for the clients that we were trying to serve. Because of that risk, I had to make sure we weren't getting in over our heads. And I also had to instill trust and confidence in the buyers before they would even consider pulling the trigger to work with us. So then the question becomes, how am I gonna overcome those two really big and really expensive risks? So I spent a lot of time asking myself, how am I going to de risk this potential buying situation for us and our potential clients? And so one day I get this idea. I'm like, hey, maybe it would make sense for me to sit down together in person with our prospects, like across the physical table from one another, have a cup of coffee and go through the sales process face to face to make sure that the relationship would make sense for both of us. And I knew because of math that.

If I was able to land these.

Larger clients at the higher prices, than the cost of the trip would become a no brainer. Not just in terms of dollars and cents, but also in terms of the opportunity cost of my time. Let's look at the math. We're targeting a monthly fee of $8,500 per month per client. If we can keep a client for just two years, that's almost $250,000 in revenue and a fully burdened gross profit of over $150,000. That's a 12,400% ROI over two years. That's not bad. Now that I've done nearly a dozen of these sales meetings in person, I've found five huge benefits that come from the investment. And I think for you as a fellow firm owner, to consider these benefits so that you can decide if an in person sales strategy makes sense for you and your firm when it comes to deciding if in person sales are right for you. One of my favorite quotes from Zig Ziglar comes to mind, and it's just so applicable here. Zig said that if people like you, they'll listen to you, but if they trust you, they'll do business with you. And so if we break this quote down, I think it provides some meaningful insight into the five benefits that I've personally discovered from in person sales meetings. Benefit number one, in person. Sales meetings make you more likable. Take the sales meeting I was at just last week. We're not even five minutes into our meeting. I'm standing in the lobby of their headquarters and I'm chatting with the CEO and his operations manager. And I asked them what they studied in college. Well, it turns out they both have engineering degrees. And so I looked at them and I said, gosh, guys, it's not normal that I come into a sales meeting and I sit down with people that are even nerdier than I am. I gave them a smirk and they both laughed. And so we're just five minutes into this meeting and my likability factor is already up and to the right. So why is it that when you meet somebody face to face, your likability factor increases? Well, there's a few reasons for this. First, your body language and energy are so much more persuasive in person. When you're on a zoom call or you're sending emails, it's hard to communicate things like warmth and enthusiasm, confidence and sincerity. Plus, when you meet in person, you get the chance to give them a firm handshake. You get the chance to make eye contact. And both of those things help create an instant connection that digital interactions just can't replicate. That physical presence also makes it easier for the project to engage and listen to you. Second, you develop a stronger emotional connection because being physically present really humanizes this transaction and it makes it so much more relational. You're not just another salesperson, you're a real person that they can suddenly relate to. And don't forget, people do business with those that they feel comfortable with. And comfort is built so much faster in person. Third, you have their undivided attention and they have yours. A face to face meeting demands focus, no distractions from emails or iPhones in the notifications and the multitasking. And when your prospects have your full attention, they're so much more likely to actually hear what you're saying. And that develops the relationship faster as well.

One of the hardest parts about being a fractional CFO is figuring out how to build a scalable, profitable business model around it. Trying to figure out how to serve clients at the best price at the highest level without having to work 60, 80, or even 100 hours a week. Over the last nine years of running my firm, I've cracked that code and I've put everything that I've learned into the CFO Academy. The CFO Academy is my flagship seven week course specifically designed to show you exactly How I Run My Fractional CFO Firm this is the no kidding behind the scenes processes, checklists and tools that my firm uses literally every day. The CFO Academy is broken down into seven playbooks where I cover everything from sales processes to new client onboarding. I also walk you through how to prepare for monthly client calls and how we handle project work. It's literally everything you need to run a profitable, scalable, fractional CFO firm. If you're ready to start scaling your firm, charging more money and working fewer hours, then click the link below to learn more. Or you can Text Academy to 1-469-515-8087 if you have any questions. And the best part is that it comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. If you don't love it, let my team know within 30 days and we'll refund every single penny. I can't wait to see you Inside.

Benefit Number two Trust is built faster in person and so your prospect is much more likely to actually do business with you. I don't know why it is, but it's so much easier to trust somebody when you've met them in real life versus somebody that's just behind a screen. Maybe it's because all the stories about catfishing and fraud and all those other horrible things that go along with doing business in 2025, it's harder to fake those things when you're actually in person and so that trust develops so much faster. Face to face interactions allow your prospect to read your sincerity. They allow them to kind of feel that confidence and that expertise that you bring in ways that Zoom meetings just can't replicate. I've also found that because trust built faster in person, buyers are much more prone to share their true objections with you compared to over zoom. Listen, I think it's important to understand that objections are inevitable in sales, but they're so much easier to handle in person because you get the chance to see the prospect's body language and their reactions. And those are very powerful tools when you're trying to overcome those objections. Also, direct conversations eliminate so many of the misunderstandings that can happen over zoom and definitely over email. And I think it's important to remember that people buy on emotion and they justify with logic those emotional connections. Just so much easier to create when you're in person versus over zoom. The third benefit that I found to in person sales meetings is the bigger the deal, the more in person matters. And when it comes to high ticket sales like fractional CFO services where the stakes are high Right. Bigger contracts, bigger prices, longer term relationships, premium pricing. All of those things come into play and trust becomes even more critical. If you're selling a thousand dollars a month service, then I think zoom might make a lot more sense for you. But if you're selling a fractional CFO Service, that's a 100,000 dol thousand dollars solution, your prospects will hesitate unless they see you, unless they trust you, and unless they truly believe in you. In face to face interactions, they're going to just help get bring all of those things home. But they also help kind of justify and validate the premium price point that you're bringing to the table because they reinforce your credibility and your level of professionalism and honestly, your level of seriousness. Clearly you're a professional, clearly you're serious if you're willing to hop on a plane and fly to freaking Montana just to spend a couple hours in a sales meeting. And for me anyway, if an in person sales meeting closes more high value deals, then even a single extra closed deal will more than cover the cost of the travel, the opportunity cost of your time, and all the expenses that go along with those in person meetings. The fourth benefit to in person sales meetings is that meeting in person gives you a competitive advantage in a very digital world. The reality Is, most fractional CFOs, and honestly vendors in general, default to virtual selling because it's so much cheaper and it's so much easier. And so when you're willing to show up in person, you immediately differentiate yourself and signal that you're serious about earning their business prospects, appreciate the effort and the investment that you're willing to put forth in order to win their business. Plus putting in the work to meet them face to face subconsciously increases the perceived value that you and your firm bring to the table. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine if you were getting on the phone with a vendor who is trying to win your firm's business and they offered to fly out and meet you in person to make sure that their service was a good fit for you and for them. What would you think? If you're anything like me, just the fact that somebody makes an offer like that immediately signals to me that they're serious and can probably deliver on what it is they're selling. One of the questions I get asked so often from other fractional CFOs is, oh my gosh, Michael, how do I differentiate myself? How can I stand out from all the other fractional CFOs out there that are offering CFO services? Well, here's your answer. This is a great way to differentiate yourself because I can tell you firsthand, almost nobody else in our industry is putting this level of effort forth to land clients. If you want to stand out, be willing to do the things that others aren't willing to do. Scaling a fractional CFO firm is hard work, especially when you think about all the different tech platforms that are out there that claim to make your life easier. Most of them end up not working as promised and you spend more time on them than they're worth. After running my own fractional CFO firm for the past eight years, I have found one platform that has been consistently delivering for us for years and years.

And that is G Accon. G Accon is one of those platforms.

That works quietly in the background, day in and day out. In fact, Giacon saves my firm well over 40 hours a month every single month.

But how does it do that? Well, G Accon is a data connector.

That links accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online, Sage, FreshBooks and Xero to Google Sheets. This data connector allows you to fully automate your custom reporting, consolidate reports, and even get live currency exchange rates. Best of all, it eliminates the manual work like repetitively copying and pasting data. You know, the kind of work that nobody really wants to do, but super prone to errors.

Yes, G Accon does all of that.

For you automatically, anytime you need it. If you want to scale your firm without adding a ton of additional technology or labor expenses, you need to check out G Accon. Get 30% off G Accon for the first three months by clicking the link in the description below and start saving time and money with G Accon today. The fifth benefit that I found to in person sales meetings is that in person meetings increase the long term relationship value of your client. Even if a deal doesn't close immediately, an in person sales meeting is going to create a lasting impression. It's a big deal, partly because nobody else is doing it, but also because the prospect is so much more likely to remember you. They're more likely to take your calls later, they're more likely to respond to your emails when you follow up later, and they're likely to refer others to you even if they don't do business with you. I can also tell you that over time, stronger relationships lead to repeat business, better referrals and bigger opportunities down the road. And if you do close the prospect, the incremental insights and information that you're going to get during that in person sales meeting compared to a zoom are going to help you onboard significantly faster and more meaningfully. Why is that? Like I said earlier, the trust increases faster, the likability factor increases faster. And so during that sales meeting they're going to uncover much deeper, much more meaningful things like their challenges, their goals, the things that they're struggling with, the things that they're trying to accomplish in their business. All of those things are incredibly valuable insights that are going to help you during your onboarding process and create a much longer lasting relationship with the client. I've learned time and time again that the better job you do at onboarding, the greater the lifetime value that any given client is going to bring.

All right my friends, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening to this episode. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week. I'll see you then.