Knowing the expectations of a business prospect is part of the qualification phase in B2B lead generation. It not only tells you if you can meet up with them but also what you can do to help them understand the value your accounting services. That's why the sooner you discover these expectations, the sooner you can qualify your accounting leads.For example, suppose your accounting services offer compliance consulting (particularly for taxes). Generating accounting leads for this particular kind of service will naturally have a related set of expectations.
What's interesting is that these expectations can easily reveal themselves depending on the kind of questions they ask. These could be asked by your prospect at any point in the sales process but they all require the things they want from compliance consulting.
- Why should we trust you? - Obviously the most important first step in marketing: establishing trust. Furthermore, it's not only to be gained but also maintained. Do it right and that trust will eventually translate into loyalty. On the other hand, that loyalty can only be continuously earned if you market only quality service and integrity. That's one of the most basic but still most important expectations.
- Why do we need this? - This is a test of your expertise. Many B2B customers these days actually have enough capacity and information resources to really prove themselves a match. That's a call to higher quality but it's also another call to market that quality when you have it. They're looking for someone who can do things better than what they already know, so of course your accounting leads should alert your salespeople to present that proof.
- Will this get us in trouble? - This question sounds pretty loaded but if that's the case, then so is the entire subject on taxes. But then again, that's what compliance consulting is for isn't it? Its primary function is to assure their business clients that their tax reports are accurate and well within the requirements of government regulations. It's their way of testing expertise and awareness of bad business practices. If they didn't at least suspend their disbelief and expect that you could do this, they wouldn't even ask this question.
- How much will this cost? - And of course, you can't forget that when times are hard, taxes can make them harder. Questions like this will always indicate a budget which is a common measure of quality in lead generation. Prospects who ask questions like this expect your service to be affordable without a negative effect on quality and integrity.
