Most new Fractional CFOs spend a crazy amount of time and energy obsessing over their sales presentations. 

✅ The PowerPoint slides
✅ Which KPIs to focus on
✅ What price point will the customer pay
✅ How they'll answer every possible objection

This is a flawed approach, and it's killing your sales conversions.

While I understand why people put so much time and attention into these topics, these are NOT the questions and ideas you should obsess over. 

The reason is simple: 
Your prospective clients are selfish (just like you and me).

Contrary to what you might think, buying decisions (even B2B) are based on emotions, not logic. And the reality is that all buyers have internal, emotional drivers that lead them to make buying decisions. 

I've learned that you must identify and address five key emotional drivers for each buyer if you want to maximize your close rate: goals, dreams, aspirations, fears, and uncertainties.

If you can tap into these drivers for prospective clients and show them how your services can address each, you'll have a new client (usually regardless of price!).

If you don't, it won't matter how pretty your slides are or how advanced your AI-driven financial forecasting model is.

Let's break down each of the five emotional drivers so you can obsessively address them in your sales process.

Goals

Your prospective clients have goals (even if they say they don't).

There's an important distinction to make here. Your prospects have business goals (revenue, profit, cash, team, expansion, etc.), but they also have personal goals (taking more money home, paying off their house, putting in a pool, working fewer hours, etc.).

During the sales call, your job is to suss out the business and personal goals to the maximum extent possible.

Admittedly, this isn't an easy task because business owners usually struggle to articulate their goals. But no one said sales would be easy. 

For example, my firm aims to hit $1.75MM this year at a 20% NPM. Those business goals will help me achieve my personal goals of paying off debt and get me closer to starting my third company.

You better believe that my Fractional CFO knows those goals and is laser-focused on helping me achieve them (yes, both of my companies have a Fractional CFO—and it isn't me!).

Dreams

When I think of a prospect's goals, I think of things that are more grounded, maybe even tactical. 

But beyond goals are dreams. Dreams hit a little differently than goals. Dreams are the things your prospect thinks about that are further into the future; they are a bit more grand than a goal. 

Dreams are the things that your prospect discusses with their spouse and gets them giddy. Their dreams are why they keep getting out of bed and dealing with the dumpster fires at work.

For example, my wife and I share the dream of her starting her own company. She wants to own, operate, and manage a portfolio of multi-family homes (think apartments). We also dream of being able to travel internationally with our son a few times every year.

We know we've got some work to do and some miles to go before we can make those dreams a reality. 

I need my Fractional CFO to understand our dreams so he can help make sure we're doing what we need to do today to realize those dreams tomorrow.

Aspirations

As human beings, we typically have three primary types of aspirations: 

➡️ We aspire to be a particular type of person. Some examples might include being healthy, full of energy, just, level-headed, or full of life. 

➡️ We aspire to relate and be relatable. We want to feel like we're part of a community. We also aspire to have others see us and hear us. Some aspire to feel cared for and to take care of others. 

➡️ We aspire to create. Most of us want to bring value to the world in some way, shape, or form. We want to take the gifts we have been blessed with and use them to make others better.

Just think about why you started your Fractional CFO firm. I'm willing to bet you had (and still have) an aspiration to create an impact for small business owners and for your family. 

Think about what a powerful driver that is for you. 

Now imagine if you could discover what that driver is for your potential clients and show them how your Fractional CFO services could help them unlock their ambitions.

Way more potent than an upgraded PowerPoint isn't it?

Fears

Fear is a powerful force. 

Example:

I don't generally like running. 
Come after me with a knife, and I'm more than happy to run! 

Business is full of opportunities for fear. 

Fears of: 

😨 Running out of cash 
😨 Missing payroll (again)
😨 A key employee quitting
😨 Taking on too much debt
😨 The business going under for whatever reason

These are the things that keep business owners up at night. 

The good news is that these are the exact things a Fractional CFO can help solve! 

If you can get a prospect to open up and share some of their fears during the sales process, you've struck gold. Tie your services back to those fears and explain how YOU are the answer to their fears.

Uncertainties

Just like fears, the life of an entrepreneur is filled with uncertainty. 

Some examples of uncertainties include:

👉 When to hire
👉 How much to save for taxes
👉 When to purchase the new building
👉 How much they can pay themselves
👉 If they should buy, lease, or rent equipment
👉 How much of a bonus they can pay their team

For ANY business owner, a million and one decisions need to be made on any given day.

And, as the business grows, those decisions have more considerable consequences. Those decisions have many more zeros at the end of them.

For many of us, our reaction to uncertainty is to freeze. We become a deer in the headlights. Most of the time, this is just as deadly as taking the wrong action. 

As Fractional CFOs, we have a unique opportunity to bring clarity and confidence to that uncertainty. Just think about how far a good cash flow forecast can go toward addressing most of the uncertainties I listed above! 

Conclusion

I want to challenge you to relentlessly think about how you can uncover your prospects' goals, dreams, aspirations, fears, and uncertainties. 

Think about the questions and follow-up questions you could ask to get them to open up about them. 

This is where your clients really need your help. 

If you can't hit on one or more of these, your fancy charts, graphs, and pricing options won't even matter.

I hope this blog served you well today! 

Your Coach,
Michael King