Artificial Intelligence, or AI, might be able to help introverts sell with less social discomfort and higher effectiveness, offering help for a challenge many accounting and law firm partners suffer with.
And just in time, too: This rise and adoption of AI-empowered marketing and sales tools in professional services firms comes as private equity investments in professional service firms make revenue growth more important than ever.
While the professional services industry remains highly fragmented — one of the telltale signs private equity investors generally look for — the growth model is dependent on a very few rainmakers at any given firm. That means growing revenue is potentially difficult, unpredictable and slow to change.
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Further complicating the picture, rainmakers are generally both doers and sellers. It’s generally not practical to shift a rainmaker to 100% selling — and at least in the accounting realm, client-switching costs can be very real and a significant deterrent to sales growth.
AI can bolster introverts
The doer-seller model presents unique challenges because many partners are introverts who avoid marketing and sales because they don’t like it and aren’t trained in it — and therefore not good at it.
Professionals who elevate their game and become great rainmakers are the exception rather than the rule, and the level of social interaction and fear of rejection that sales activities require keeps them on the sidelines. They may practice their craft and even be world-class experts in their focus area, but if they’re not engaging in the activities and conversations that will drive new client revenue, they’re not fueling revenue growth.
To offset this gap, firms have tried providing incentives, penalties, education and mandatory goals to change behavior. Over the past two decades, professional services firms invested in CRM systems and training, hoping they might improve the sales performance of their doer-sellers.
But most such initiatives have failed. The active use of the platforms didn’t stick, and the technology required professionals to deal with raw data to try to spot sales opportunities.
Even when an opening bubbled to the surface, the final step would always be a self-esteem-risking phone call to a prospect who may or may not have a need. And often those calls would lead to an awkward interaction and rejection between the prospect and the professional. Human nature won out, the calls didn’t get made and, too often, neither did the sales.
How AI does its thing
Enter AI. The key insight that can drive success rates in professional services sales is understanding what a client or prospect is likely to need before they’re fully aware that they need it. And then, of course, being able to make a compelling case that the firm can deliver it. Emerging AI platforms can examine client activity and recognize patterns that lead to new needs and new services.
By doing that, AI can help remove much of the guesswork involved in sales — and much of the rejection. The more a traditional nonrainmaker can get to a yes, the more likely they are to make those calls and inquiries. Closing the gap between the “rainmakers” and the other 90% of partners at a firm can have an enormous and multiplying effect on the firm’s sales activities and growth.
It’s no secret in professional services firms that many partners feel that respect flows from being the smartest person in the room. That appearance, the logic goes, maintains client confidence and keeps the work flowing. As a result, many professionals are hesitant to discuss services clients might need that aren’t in the professional’s bailiwick — and if they’re not talking, they’re not selling.
By monitoring and processing troves of firm and client billing data, AI’s pattern-recognition capabilities can surface the markers of new service needs — whether an acquisition, a prominent hiring or firing, a large new contract or any other event that leads to additional business activity. It can generate customized recommendations for likely new service needs and even link to quick training on how to recommend and explain the service needed.
The effect is to reward revenue-generating behavior, minimize rejection and keep the partner’s ability to be the smartest person in the room.
Closing the performance gap
That’s not a magic bullet, of course. AI can help close the sales performance gap between rainmakers and the rest of the partners, but the key to sustainable growth starts with developing professionals who aren’t afraid to get in front of clients and prospects.
PE firms will, of course, have to realize that not every partner will become the next great rainmaker. But pairing the new capabilities of AI tools with a growth-focused culture that encourages cross-selling still represents an enormous leap forward.
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