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Accounting firms face a number of challenges when building out new service lines, from identifying demand to aligning sales teams and securing partner buy-in. Effective business development is crucial in overcoming these challenges and central to any change management process during the creation and optimization of new service lines. Access to accurate, timely client insights are a key part of streamlining the business development process. According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, 76% of leaders said having access to quality data played an important role in business performance, specifically as it relates to the ability to introduce new services.
Implementing a robust change management process is crucial for overcoming buyer persona challenges and aligning sales teams. Introhive helps streamline business development efforts during this change management process by providing deep client insights technology that drives successful transformation. This support ensures that firms can navigate the complexities of growth with a structured approach, enhancing the effectiveness of their business development strategies.
Table of contents
1. Using data to overcome buyer persona challenges
Expanding into new service lines can be challenging, especially when aligning your salespeople with the right buyers. This issue is particularly tough when your sales team specializes in one area but needs to connect with buyers of other advisory services. For example, Mark Burnette, Advisory Services Practice Leader at LBMC, highlighted in the AAM Summit presentation “Building a Service Line BD Practice,” that his salespeople struggled initially when building out the sales function for their new cybersecurity practice. They lacked the right connections to reach other advisory service buyers and had to work hard to establish key relationships and build credibility, working their way up and down the ladder.
Introhive’s relationship mapping capabilities can help sales teams overcome these challenges. By providing a visual map of ‘who knows who’ and how well, it helps your team quickly identify and connect with the right buyers. This minimizes the time it takes to engage the right stakeholders.
Relationship mapping also helps identify coworkers who can provide warm introductions, ensuring your salespeople are not approaching new buyers cold. Having trusted connections facilitates smoother and more effective selling. By leveraging warm introductions, your sales team can build credibility and establish relationships faster, ultimately driving better sales outcomes.
2. Aligning sales teams with buyer types through data insights
Aligning your sales teams with different buyer types is crucial for the success of new service lines. Each service line targets unique buyer personas, each with specific needs and purchasing behaviors. As both Burnette and Ben Sappington, Senior Business Development Executive at Moss Adams highlighted during that same AAM presentation, it’s essential to align salespeople to their specific buyer types for effective selling. For example, salespeople who excel at selling financial advisory services may need different skills and knowledge to sell IT consulting services.
Pre-meeting digests
Introhive’s pre-meeting digests play a key role in this alignment process. These briefs outline companywide engagements, relationship insights, latest news, invitee information, and more, enabling you to have relevant, high-value conversations. This preparation allows your salespeople and partners to tailor their pitches and conversations to meet the unique needs of each buyer type, making interactions more relevant and compelling.
Company digests
Company digests are another tool Introhive provides, offering client news and announcements, CRM information, and firm-wide interactions (historical and forward looking). These digests foster collaboration by providing sales teams with a shared understanding of your client base. Salespeople can use this information to align their strategies for a consistent approach across different service lines. This improves the effectiveness of individual sales interactions and also enhances the overall coherence of your firm’s business development efforts. Given that cross-selling can increase your revenue by 20% and your profitability by 30%, this alignment is even more essential when ensuring new service line success.
3. Leveraging industry expertise and relationship intelligence
Hiring individuals who specialize by industry can give your firm a significant advantage when expanding service lines. These professionals bring a wealth of industry-specific knowledge and a network of established relationships, which helps to align your firm’s solutions with each industry’s unique challenges and needs. Their deep understanding of industry dynamics allows them to tailor approaches and solutions effectively, fostering stronger client relationships and enhancing your business development efforts.
Relationship intelligence amplifies the value of hiring industry specialists. By integrating their network into your firm’s broader relationship ecosystem, these professionals can leverage existing connections to open doors and facilitate introductions. Introhive’s relationship mapping capabilities show you these networks clearly, helping you make the most of the expertise and connections new hires bring.
4. Balancing billing with business development using automation and analytics
In professional services firms, partners often juggle billing responsibilities with driving new business. Ensuring profitability through billable hours while also nurturing client relationships and seeking new opportunities is a balancing act that requires dedicated time for business development, despite immediate billing demands. To achieve long-term growth and success in a competitive landscape you need to find ways to encourage and monitor core ‘activator’ behaviors and drive proactive business development behaviors across your sales team.
Enhancing time management and client engagement
Introhive’s platform enhances time management, client engagement, and revenue generation for fee earners by providing essential tools and insights while eliminating data entry tasks. This frees up more time for business development activities, a crucial part of the change management process when building out new service lines. By integrating seamlessly with existing workflows such as Outlook and Salesforce, Introhive offers valuable client insights, including the latest news, relevant CRM data, historical and upcoming firm-wide interactions, and other pertinent information.
This streamlined process allows professionals to focus on strategic prospecting, building relationships, and delivering services. For instance, Introhive’s pre-meeting briefs equip activators with relevant client information, enabling them to engage more effectively. Additionally, Introhive’s relationship mapping capabilities provide visibility into a firm’s network, encouraging professionals to leverage these connections for growth. By analyzing and visualizing the breadth of relationships, Introhive empowers your team to identify and capitalize on opportunities, driving revenue growth and solidifying client relationships. This integration of technology and insights is a key component of an effective change management process focused on sales enablement.
5. The role of data in sales coaching
Effective sales coaching is a critical component of driving business development. An efficient and effective coaching program can increase business win rates by 28%. This significant boost in performance underscores the importance of investing in coaching initiatives as part of your change management process. Good data is the foundation of effective sales coaching. By providing accurate and comprehensive client insights, Introhive’s platform enables coaches to offer targeted and actionable feedback to their teams.
Introhive supports sales coaching by delivering detailed analytics and performance metrics. Coaches can use this data to identify areas of improvement, track progress, and tailor their coaching strategies to meet individual needs.
Introducing Introhive’s platform into the change management process for business development success
CLA’s adoption of Introhive’s platform during their digital transformation and sales enablement initiative is a great example of using Introhive’s platform for sales coaching and development. They integrated relationship data into daily workflows, making it a natural part of their professionals’ routines, streamlining tasks and schedules effectively.
Most importantly, CLA can now identify and replicate the behavior of top performers across their team as part of their roadmap of success when bringing on new hires who may not have had sales experience in the past. By showcasing the tactics of high-performers, other team members can learn and apply these strategies, boosting overall success rates and fostering a growth-focused culture.
Your next steps
Accounting firms can streamline their business development efforts for new service lines by leveraging an effective change management process. From overcoming buyer persona challenges to aligning sales teams and creating efficiencies, Introhive provides the necessary tools and insights to navigate these complexities. By implementing these strategies, firms can successfully grow their service lines and achieve sustainable growth.
Boost your business development and expand new service lines with Introhive’s platform. Our platform and insights help you navigate challenges, align sales teams, and achieve partner buy-in. Book a demo to discover how Introhive can transform your firm and drive sustainable growth today.
