All too often when speaking with partners in professional services firms, they feel that in order to grow their fees they need to sign up new clients.

Whilst this is certainly one route to take, quite often they are missing a trick by not looking closer to home for that fee growth, i.e. their existing clients.

Trying to attract new clients is a lot more expensive, takes a lot longer and can result in you attracting clients which don’t always meet your ‘perfect client’ criteria.

So why don’t professional services firms focus on cross-selling more often? There are several reasons. Below we give some of these and ways in which you can overcome them.

1. You assume that your clients know everything you do. If they need something they will ask you.
Never assume! Clients won’t always remember the different services you provide, you have to keep reminding them. Use a range of communications – conversations, newsletters, mailings, emails, social media, seminars etc. Quite often their reason for using additional services from you is due to your marketing being ‘in the right place at the right time’. To improve this strike rate, implement a programme of keeping in touch with clients throughout the year, using different communication channels.

2. You don’t listen properly.
Sometimes your aim for the conversation is to capture the information you need to finish their accounts or an assignment you are doing for them. In doing so you are only listening out for the information you need to complete your tasks. You are not actively listening to what they are saying and therefore fail to spot opportunities to further help them.  Ask open questions to get the client talking, e.g. How are things? What key opportunities and threats is your business currently facing? And then shut up and let the client do the talking. When they are talking, make notes to remind you of their issues and also how you could help them. Then have the conversation.

 3. You forget to mention other services that you could help them with.
Don’t leave it to chance to mention other services when you meet with clients, add a reminder to the agenda or your personal notes. Remember, you’re not starting the conversation with the intention of signing them up for a new service there and then. You’re simply starting the conversation to find out what matters most to your clients, and where appropriate, letting them know that you can help them.

 4. Only 1 or 2 people in the firm are proactive at cross-selling.
Chances are that the main reason for this is due to a lack of confidence from other staff (and partners) to discuss other services the firm offers. To overcome this, carry out a staff survey which gets everyone to identify which services they think the firm offers, but also how confident they are to talk about these services. By the end of the exercise, you will be able to identify if staff need any training and support for your services, along with any additional training on how to communicate with clients and spot opportunities.

5. You’re not being as proactive as you think you are.
How often do you evaluate your clients’ financial records to identify if there is anything they could do to save tax, improve profits or reduce costs? The argument to that is “We don’t have the time” to do that. However, the counter-argument should be “So, how come you make time to go and see (several) potential clients, but not spend time with your existing ones?

Cross-selling to existing clients should be the easiest form of selling. So why do people ignore the potential fee growth which is right under their noses?