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Given the hours of thought and work that goes into writing a book of any sort, it’s always good to get feedback from someone who’s taken the time to read the results of your efforts. When that feedback comes from someone as highly regarded within the accounting profession as ICPA’s very own Tony Margaritelli… and it’s positive feedback… then I think I’m allowed to be ever so slightly proud. In the December 2018 edition of his member’s magazine, Tony gave his views:

“….. His book is subtitled ‘Improving Sales Effectiveness for Small Businesses’, so initially you may well think it’s of no use to accountants. But you’d be wrong. Accountants in practice need clients to survive – that’s a given. They don’t appear by magic at all, and this little book will help accountants no end. Most of us are not salesmen; we studied accountancy and most likely have a natural dislike of hyperbole and salesmen simply because of our background. The only sale techniques we learned were what we picked up at our boss’s knee, as it were, and we had drummed into us from an early stage that ‘sales is vanity, profit is vanity’. Referrals are how we get our work – we don’t have to have a sales pitch because our client has done that for us – and most of us frankly aren’t very good at it, as a quick glance at most websites will confirm.

If only salesmen read this book it will be a shame, because this book will help everyone who deals in services as well as products, as Phil points out. It covers so much, from working out who we are trying to sell our services to, to holding that initial meeting or making that first phone call through to negotiations and handling objections. It even covers CRM systems and hiring sales people. I especially like the chapter on writing quotes and proposals, which gives a great and logical layout to follow. I learnt a lot from it, and I think accountants will find something in it to help”.

“It’s All About The Value” is available on Amazon in printed and eBook formats. I hope you find it as useful and insightful as Tony did.

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