Your clients are more likely to stay with you if they feel they are getting great value for the fees they pay you. The challenge comes when you and your client have different views as to what 'value' means in this context. Accountants often assume that great value means their fees are
Many management consultants would argue that if your practice fails to grow it will stagnate. Is that true actually? I think it depends on what one means by ‘grow’. Grow the client base? Turnover? Profits? Range of services? Efficiency? I prefer the word ‘evolve’ as I’ll explain below. Many years ago I was headhunted
How many of your clients only do things at the last minute? Too many, I’d bet. You’re not alone though as “Clients’ last minute-itus” is a common complaint I hear from accountants all over the UK. The question then is how to avoid this? First we need to be clear as to the cause
In an ideal world, you would simply tell people that you are an accountant and your ideal prospects would then find you and ask to become your clients. Life isn’t like that. Even when these people do find out about your practice you need to have a process which brings them onboard
We all know the old adage “if you don’t ask, you don’t get“. So it is perhaps unsurprising that some people ask if we will reduce our fees. This even happens occasionally when accountants approach me for my NED-style mentoring support services. Fortunately it's very rare. But it has happened. A little
I have long encouraged accountants, who can do so, to focus their marketing messages, website messages, social media and Linkedin activity on their target audience. I have also been attempting to practice what I preach. This leads to non-accountants asking what the heck do I mean now I reference “NED-style mentoring” everywhere? And also
Not all of my clients want to discuss profitability issues with me. So I don’t always know how profitable they are. If it doesn’t come up during our conversations then I assume they are happy enough with their current level of profitability. Or perhaps they are embarrassed because they are less profitable
A popular approach to getting your attention (and often your money) is to tell you that there is ‘one thing’ you must do to achieve your ambitions and succeed. I see this all over the place, in blogs, articles, videos and social media posts. Those who suggest there is just 'one thing'
I first wrote about this in 2012 when I explained that I don't believe that accountants’ clients really want 'added value'. Heresy? No. It's just I'm not a big fan of buzzwords. I believe it's more helpful to think about what anyone means when they say they want 'added value'. Typically accountants'
When I was asked what are the most common marketing challenges that accountants face, I quickly listed the following: 1 Not enough time Time to set objectives. Time to plan. Time to consider options. Time to brief anyone to help. Time to try to do it myself. Time to test. Time to
Many of the accountants who take up the opportunity to book a call with me start with variations on the same question: How can I attract new clients? How can I grow my practice? What can I do to get more clients? I need more clients, what should I do? I never
It occurs to me that some accountants keen to do more advisory work might find it easier if they change their mindset. I suggest that the first and primary way to develop the advisory side of your practice is to be clear as to why you want to do it. If your
In my experience many accountants have more potential to succeed than they themselves believe. They are better accountants than they are prepared to admit. And they deserve to be more successful than they have so far managed to be. Could this be true of you too? Equally there are plenty of accountants
We know, don’t we, that good communication is important in business. In my view, one of the most fundamental pieces of communication is how we talk about what we do.There are many challenges to be overcome here. We want to avoid sounding just like everyone else in the same field. We want our
Most established accountants running their own firms claim to get most of their new clients via referrals. I see at least three potential flaws with this perception. Firstly, it’s rarely based on empirical evidence. Often it is simply an easy answer to the question: 'Where do most of your new clients come
Imagine being in pain and going to your doctor for some help. Within moments of your arrival the doctor starts telling you, very enthusiastically, how similar your pain is to their previous patient, what is wrong with you and what medicine you need to take. How would you feel if that happened?
In the past I believe that a majority of established accountants ran their offices from commercial premises. But is that still true or even necessary? The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly to support those who are happy with their current choice. And secondly to encourage those who are unsure to
You are not alone if you get frustrated by some of your clients. In fact, it's very rare for me to hear from accountants who love ALL of their clients. If you do, this isn't the blog post for you. It's more for those who have one or more clients who are
Before setting out those marketing distractions that I believe accountants should avoid I need to offer some context. Over 20 years ago, the start of the century(!) was when I began presenting talks to accountants about practice related matters. I quickly learned to avoid any mention of the M-word as, back then,
Not everyone wants to follow the widely promoted advice that you will benefit more from advertising, marketing, networking and referrals if you focus your attention on trying to reach a specific group of people. The idea being that we can then let everyone else continue trying to be all things to all
Every now and then I hear about general practice firms of accountants that want to boost their abilities to help clients with more complex tax maters. And a couple of my newer mentoring clients have also asked for my thoughts here. This has been a challenge for as long as I can
Do you assume you know what (new) callers will want from you? Are you able to distinguish real prospective clients without devoting too much time to the others? Do you operate like other professionals or by reference to wishful thinking? These are key challenges for all of us. We want to encourage
I have never ‘swiped’ someone’s profile picture, as online dating didn’t exist when I met my wife in the 1980s. The whole concept of swiping is quite alien to me. I was curious though, so a while back, I asked a single friend to show me how the ‘swipe left’ and ‘swipe
You have probably heard the suggestion that it’s important to help people get to 'know, like and trust' you. Only then will they buy from you. Only then will they even consider becoming your client. This idea originated in the book ‘Endless Referrals’, written by Bob Burg, who said: “All things being
I am frequently surprised when apparently successful accountants tell me that they know they should start being active on social media. And that they want to beef up their marketing activity. Both such aspirations typically reflect a belief in the mystical power of generic marketing and the hype surrounding social media activity.
