72. TOP Sales MISTAKES (Growth Killers!)

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The lifetime value of a fractional CFO client can easily exceed half a million dollars. That's why it breaks my heart to see so many new fractional CFOs making the same five big mistakes. When it comes to sales calls, even one of these mistakes can be the difference between landing a client and losing them forever. Over the last seven years of running my own firm, I've made these mistakes countless times, and it's cost me millions of dollars. Today, I'm gonna break down each of these five mistakes and I'm gonna show you how you can forever. Let's dive in. For most fractional CFOs, the hardest part about scaling their firm is getting new leads. That's why it's so important that you get really good at converting leads into clients if you want to grow. So let's dive straight into it. The first mistake that I see so many new fractional CFOs making on sales calls is they're not prepared. Now, you've probably been on a sales call before where the other person wasn't prepared, so you know what it's like. It normally looks something like this. Hey, Mike, thank you so much for getting on the call today. I appreciate your time. If you could. Could you just like, remind me again what is it that you do? Gosh, it's such a face palm Mom. Because it's obvious that they're not prepared. And if you're anything like me, you have no interest in moving forward with them. So don't be that salesperson. What I like to do is start by going to the company's about us page. I'm looking for anything I can to give me insights about the mission, the vision, the goals of the company or the team. The other thing that I like to do is to visit the state's Secretary of State website so I can find out how long they've been in business and what kind of entity they have. Then when I get on the sales call, I'm able to start with something like this. Hey, Mike, thanks so much for getting on the call today. I can see that you've been in business for the last seven years. You started the business with your partner first, you know, congratulations on making it seven years in business. That's awesome. Tell me, how did you get into starting your business and how did you get to where you're at today? That little bit of due diligence shows that you're better than 90% of the other people that are out there. And it really signals to the person that You're a professional and you're prepared, and it starts things off on the perfect footing. The second mistake that so many fractional CFOs make on sales calls is they fail to identify what the lead's goals, dreams, aspirations, fears and uncertainties are. What you have to remember is even with business decisions, people tend to make decisions based on emotions rather than logic. And one of the greatest ways to get to the heart of those emotions is to figure out what those five things are for them. I like to start with goals and so asking questions about, like, what are you hoping to accomplish with your business? What is your exit strategy? Normally those kind of questions will start to reveal what their goals are and what you're really wanting to get to. What the real gold is is get them to explain how those business goals connect with their purp personal lives. So what you're looking for is things like this. I really need to get our profits up so that we can pay for our oldest son to go to college next year. Or maybe they say something like this, like, what we really want to do is be able to get the business on solid enough financial footing that we can hand it off to our daughter over the next three years, and we know that she's set up for success in the business. Those things are total gold. Because what you want to do is as you walk through the sales process and you go through what it is you do as a fractional cfo, you want to be able to tie what you're doing back to those goals. When you're able to do that, the client ends up feeling like you're connected with them and that you understand them. And that's going to increase the likelihood of them moving forward with you exponentially. But don't stop with the goals. Once you've figured out what their goals are, I want you to peel the onion back just a little bit further and ask them about their fears and their uncertainties. Fears and uncertainties are gold because those are huge drivers to take action. People want those fears and uncertainties to go away. And so I'll ask them questions like this, Bill, when it comes to your business, what keeps you up at night? That thing that really kind of scares the shit out of you? And normally they'll give answers that look something like this. They'll say, you know, a few years ago, cash got really tight in the business and there was a couple of pay periods where we didn't think we were going to be able to make payroll. And I'm always terrified that we're going to have that happen again. And so I'm scared to make decisions with spending or another one. I hear a lot of times is, you know, for the last three years, when tax time comes around, we're completely blindsided, and we're a quarter into the year, we've got these plans and strategies in place and they get completely derailed because we get these massive tax bills and it sucks up all of our cash. And I'm always scared that we're going to run into that again. Or another one that you might hear is, you know, we laid out all of these goals, we've got these plans in place, and I'm never sure how much cash is going to be needed for us to be able to do those plans successfully or if those plans are going to be profitable. I don't know how to think through those things. When you get into your conversation about cash flow forecasting and projections and strategies and goal setting, you can tie it back to those specific examples they gave you. And so a great example of that might be, Bill, you know, one of the reasons that I love doing cash flow forecasting is because it's like a crystal ball for you. You're able to look weeks or months or years into the future and understand very clearly how much cash you're going to need on hand to be able to do those things. And so what we're able to do is we're able to make sure that there's always enough cash in the bank to cover payroll so you'll never have to worry about missing payroll again. Clients absolutely eat this stuff up because they've never had this kind of visibility before. So the thing I want to encourage you is whether it's the goals or the fears or the uncertainties, as you start talking about your services, tie those back to the specific things that the client unlocked for you earlier in the call. The third mistake that I see fractional CFOs making on sales calls is they fail to tell their story before they tell about their services. You want to tell your story before you talk about your services. And the reason for that is fractional CFOs are really based on trust and relatability. You know, you're asking a client to, like, completely pull the curtain back and show you everything about their business. And a lot of those things are very vulnerable. They're scary for a lot of people, and they don't want to disclose those to just anybody. So it's so important that they feel like they can trust you and relate to you and the best way that you can quickly build that trust and rapport is through storytelling. And so what I would encourage you to do is, like, think through, like, what is your story? Why is it that you became a fractional cfo? Talk about your background in corporate America or as a CPA or an MBA or whatever your background is, and tell the story about how you started there and how now you have this passion for doing fractional CFO work. And really, like, don't be scared to, like, share all of that with them. And what you're trying to do is find ways to relate to them so that they can see some of themselves in you or you in them. And that really does help them breed that trust much, much faster than if you just go into talking about your cash flow forecast. What really good salespeople will do is they'll actually add in a component of vulnerability into their story. So maybe you've heard me tell this story before, but when I first got out of the military and I got into the business world, I didn't know anything about accounting or finances, much less financial strategy. And I remember, you know, at my first job, I went to the controller and I had asked her to explain what some of these financial concepts like IRR were talking about and, you know, how to read the balance sheet. And I really felt, as she was explaining those to me, that I wasn't smart enough to grasp the concepts. I really felt like a lot of that imposter syndrome. And maybe I don't have what it takes to be in business. And I talk a lot about that during my story on the sales calls, because the reality is a lot of CEOs have had those experiences before where people have talked to them about finance and accounting and they've been left feeling less than or they're not smart enough or good enough to understand it. And so I include those vulnerable pieces of my story and into the sales call again so that I can show them that I'm just like you. We're one in the same. We're cut from the same cloth. And that helps them feel much more relatable to me. And it builds trust so much faster. So tell your story before you get into your services and definitely, if you want to go to, like, take it to that next level, include some elements of vulnerability into your story because that helps with relatability and trust as well. Oh, the fourth mistake. I see this one so often, it's new. Fractional CFOs will use too much technical accounting and finance jargon on sales Calls. What you have to remember is the sales call is about them, not about you. And when you start using your language, the sales call starts to feel like it's about you and not about them. They don't know what you're talking about. They can't relate to what you're talking about. And so now all of a sudden, they feel like you're disconnected from them and their goals and what they're trying to do. They start to see this version of the future where they're working with you on a CFO call and you're talking about all of these things that they don't understand. And when they can't understand what you're talking about, they're not going to take action. When they don't take action, there's no impact. The whole thing falls ap. So while you're sitting there talking about things like the quick ratio or IRR or long term liabilities, whatever the case may be, they're sitting there thinking, like, I have no idea what she's talking about. Is this what I can expect from her on a month in and month out basis? And like, very quickly they disconnect from what you're talking about. One of the reasons that I see people doing this is because we tell ourselves this story that we have to show them that we're the expert, that we are the subject matter experts on what we're talking about. And I'm like, no, what you've got to remember is they wouldn't have gotten on the call with you if they didn't already think you were the expert on what you're talking about. You don't need to prove yourself from a technical perspective to them or they would never have been on the call with you in the first place. But what you do have to prove is that you can explain those things to them in a way that they can understand, in a way that they can leverage, in a way that they can start making smarter decisions in their business based on what you shared with them. So check your ego at the door, okay? Let it be okay to not use the finance jargon, the accounting terms and things like that. And remember, speak to them like a CEO, not like a cfo. The fifth and final mistake. Oh my gosh, this one is so brutal, it's not letting them know very clearly what the next steps are to work together. So you've spent all of this time, you got the lead in the door, you got them on a sales call, you did the preparation, you did the sales call, and then you dropped the ball at the one yard line. And the reason for that is if the client doesn't know very clearly what the next steps are and how easy it is, a lot of times they just check out. And so what you've done is you've thrown a lot of new fractional CFOE things at them. There's gonna be a little sense of overwhelm that's completely normal. This is a whole new thing for most. And so what you want to do to finish it off is to like show them that actually getting started with you is super easy. Despite all the things you just covered. The next steps are really easy. And so what I like to do is just put it in like three simple steps and it looks something like this. I'll say what I'm going to do is as soon as this call is over, I'm going to send that proposal to you that we talked about, the month to month proposal. I'm going to send that via ignition, so be on the lookout for that. Once you've digitally signed that, my team is going to send over our onboarding checklist. And remember, it's super easy to follow. It's very prioritized so you know exactly what to focus on first. Once we have that, we're going to get your onboarding call and your first CFO's call scheduled within the next couple of days. It's super simple for you. We're going to do all the heavy lifting on our end. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and ask. We'll help you through every step of the way. So I've taken like the next steps and I've made it really simple for them. Step one, ignition. Step two, onboarding checklist. Step three, we're going to schedule the next calls with you. That way they're left with this like, oh, it's really actually easy to work with Mike going forward and it doesn't leave them with that sense of overwhelm. So don't drop the ball on the one yard line. Make sure that they know how easy it is to work with you. The new fractional CFOs, they're not doing that and they end up losing a lot of leads right there at the very end. Don't be that person. If you're really serious about converting more leads into more clients, then I would love for you to check out my free training. This is the eight step sales framework that I use to convert leads to clients. I actually just used this on a call earlier this week. It worked like a charm. We have a brand new client as a result of it and I want to share that with you absolutely free. If you're Interested, go to CFO sales for framework.com and check it out today. 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.