At the last TaxTech meeting, the topic of sales was discussed. The participants also debated branding strategies and determined which platform a company could use to reach the right target audience through content marketing.

How do you convince potential customers that they have a need?

And what needs to be done to ensure they remain satisfied in the long term? And how do I actually reach my target audience? Paul devotes 30 % of his time to sales, but says that the marketing team consists of eight people. He is thus demonstrating that the focus is much more on marketing. He also notes that he needs to concentrate more on sales, but that partnerships won’t develop through cold calling. These can only be built through long-term marketing initiatives and market positioning. Furthermore, in his view, it is important to hand over responsibility to the marketing team so that it can operate independently. The team must be clear about the objectives to be achieved. This enables it to develop and launch campaigns on its own. In this way, it automatically becomes a pre-sales team rather than simply ticking off tasks.

„People I’ve inspired have ended up buying something from me.“ – Kai Schwender.

Cold calling is about bringing people together and building relationships. I’m selling myself and the relationship. If the buyer feels positive about it and needs the product, they’ll buy it.

Is cold calling effective? And what about call centre agencies?

Bastian shares his experiences: he first contacted his potential customers by telephone, then visited them in person. Before that, they’d spent half a year having call centre agents make calls and had made several adjustments. But this didn’t achieve anything. Kai can only confirm this. At the end of the day, he spent more time coaching the call centre staff than the student workers. He was very dissatisfied with this experience.

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When the market perceives the product differently from how it actually is

Tax advisers often misinterpret the word „digital“. They often think they are digital simply because they send emails. Many do not understand what it means to eliminate media discontinuities. Paul explains that added value is the biggest selling point. Many firms scan case files, but this is merely a stopgap solution, not a way of eliminating media discontinuities. Another way of looking at it is to see oneself as a partner. The client should understand what digital accounting has to offer. It is also important not to forget that clients are trained so they can see the full range of possibilities offered by the tools.

Before the pandemic, Philip knew every law firm personally. His first question during face-to-face meetings was: „Have you had a look at the product offered by kanzlei.land yet?“ The clients shared their thoughts, and Philip incorporated the points they raised into a presentation. By the end of the round of meetings, one thing became clear: it is important not to spin a yarn, to come across as authentic, to really connect with the client and to understand the problems they are facing. Nurturing relationships is the key for salespeople; that is why it is called Customer Relationship Management.

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