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Which Stance Is Your Firm Taking?

 

As an accountant, clients of the information age can be approached with one of two mindsets; Open for change or closed for business. The chosen mindset will dictate the success of creating or maintaining a successful accounting firm over the next 1 – 5 years.

Despite the clear signs presenting themselves in today’s market, some firms are still choosing not to be open for change.

The present tense is displaying clear necessities which clients are beginning to yearn for. The early adopters within the accounting industry are making moves on these opportunities and they are taking the lead (in YOY growth) with force!

If you have not yet positioned your firm for the future, that’s okay; that’s why this article was written.

Think of the following as a join the dots exercise. You know, the ones your kids would have been occupied with at pre-school or maybe even the doctor’s office?

Picture this, the future client is a kid joining the dots and your firm is the piece of paper the dots are printed on. The future client knows the image which they are trying to create, but unless it is mapped out clearly on the piece of paper, that kid is going to give up before they even get started.

Picture this, the future client is a kid joining the dots and your firm is the piece of paper the dots are printed on. The future client knows the image which they are trying to create, but unless it is mapped out clearly on that piece of paper, the future client is going to give up before they even get started.

When the client can join all of the dots correctly, and with ease, you’ve got yourself a future client.

Here are the dots..

 

What Future Accounting Clients Seek

 

Software Experience

Clients are seeking accountants with experience in the relevant software that their business employs. The type of accounting software that the firm is an expert in should be displayed on your website, in your social media feeds and any other promotional materials.

Business Advisory Roles

Do you advise or comply? Clients are looking for an Accountant who advises on the business and does not simply confine them to compliance every financial year. The new style of advisory is not just business structure advice and strategic planning either; it’s systems, software, automation as well structuring and planning.

Varied Client Base

Do you have a client base that varies in size? Clients are looking for an accountant who can handle their business when it’s small and continue to provide sound advice while it grows.

Market Sector Knowledge

Are you an expert or a generalist? Clients are looking for an accountant who has detailed knowledge or experience dealing with their industry. For the perception of industry knowledge to occur, sound knowledge of the industry should be evident on your website in a variety of different formats. Going one step further, be proavtive and post this in your newsfeed too.

Ability to Grow A Business and Be A Lifelong Partner

Have you proven to be a crucial figure in the growth of past businesses? Are you still a part of that business or were you able to create a successful exit plan? Clients are looking for someone who has the capacity and know how to look after them in the long term.

Certification

Are you CPA or CA? Assuming you’re not a book keeper, you will be. Make that badge stand out because it’s one thing that your client will be looking for. Certainly, at the very least, pin the badge to your LinkedIn profile.

Someone Who Presents Well On Social Media

Do you display an outgoing and client centric attitude on your social media? Be it LinkedIn or Facebook, your business, and clients, should share the spotlight in your life. Display enthusiasm for the results you get for clients, passion for the work that you do and recommendations from past and existing clients all play a role in your client’s perception.

Someone Who Is Well Connected

If you can’t do it, do you know someone who can? Accountants have always been the trusted advisors in business and more often than not, the first point of contact. If you can’t advise on a particular subject matter, do you have a reliable source who can? Once again, at the very least, this should be evident on your LinkedIn profile with your existing contacts. You can also display associations on your website and social media.

A Proactive Personality

Clients are looking for someone who is going to help them make money and save money, not someone to sit back and enjoy the wave of compliance and book keeping while it’s still strong.

Going forward, what steps do you propose for your client to succeed, even before they have the opportunity to ask? Knowing what they need even before they ask is key for future clients.

Tech Savvy

Business of today is practically ruled by technology. Clients are looking for someone who understands technology and uses technology. They might even be looking for someone who engages them with technology. This can be displayed in your processes (CRM), software and marketing messages.

 

What Future Accounting Clients Don’t Seek

 

Business Location

Clients are not looking for a convenient business location. With the transparency of the web, clients no longer need to physically see your practice. They simply need to see tangible results.

An Hourly Rate Accountant

Clients are not looking for an accountant who only charges an hourly rate. Fixed fee accounting is rising in popularity for both the accountant’s convenience and the client’s convenience.

The Cheapest Accountant

Are you cheap? Does that mean your advice is cheap? Clients are not looking at price tags when they seek out an accountant, they are seeking out value! What value do you provide and how is that communicated to the client? This is especially true for business clients on a growth path.

Old School Practices

The only place old school is still cool is at a 90’s rock concert.

 

Action plan

If any element of the above article resonated with you, I invite you to take action. Start by selecting one category a week for the next 10 weeks and work on it. Work on this category by reviewing, planning or implementing how to make a change inside your accounting firm. This could involve 30 minutes of reflection, putting in place your very own action plan, or it could be as simple as placing the Xero, MYOB, CPA or CA logos on your social media cover photos. Whatever it is, incremental improvements each week will amount to large success over the long term.

 

For more information, Chris Evans can be reached via LinkedIn.

My Experience As An Accountant

People ask me: “Why This Industry? Why Help Accountants?”

Well, plain and simply, it’s where my white collar life started.

My professional career started as an accountant in the mid-tier firm, Grant Thornton.

I came across some truly talented professionals and had some wonderful experiences, but plain and simply, accounting wasn’t going to be for me in the long term.

I was in two mind sets about what to do next. I still loved the numbers side of accounting and spent every itching hour of the day glued to Business Insider or the Financial Review and followed every detail of my favorite ASX listed companies.

Would I pursue a career in finance or economics, where my tertiary qualifications would naturally position me? Or would I split from my identity as a finance guy and focus on my passion which originally stemmed from behavioral economics; the behaviors of markets (aka people).

I’m sure by now it’s of no surprise to you.. my accounting career and I went in separate directions.

Call it a mid-life crisis. If you can call it that at only 22years of age (I certainly hope not), but I decided to pursue passion over what some would call ‘a more sensible idea’.

My future career stemmed in the furthest possible route from accounting as possible – Sales & Marketing. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy being an accountant, but frankly, it wasn’t for me.

Marketing Was For Me

Marketing had been engraved in my DNA from earlier experiences in life.

The family business was retail and the shop was located in a country town; a harsh environment when things aren’t healthy within the local economy. This taught me, you have to be more than a shop front to survive in the information age. Clear value propositions and effective communication was the only way you could survive.

With my new lease on life, I spent some time in some very tough sales oriented environments, some finance related, others far from it.

It was a steep learning curve going from a job that required productive results by spending 87% of my time not speaking to a single soul and knocking out tax returns, to transitioning into an environment where I would soon rely on my people skills and understanding of human behavior to produce results.

Despite the challenge this posed, it was one which I thoroughly enjoyed and felt at home within.

After some time in sales and marketing, my desire and yearn to be involved in business development, and not just my own business development, but that of others, began to weigh heavily on me. I saw an opportunity to help businesses and that’s what I set out to do.

Just like many SMB’s, without the correct guidance, can under utilise their accounting information, I saw way too many businesses in Australia that underutilised their marketing capabilities.

With this in mind, it was time to begin working with businesses in an advisory role again; This time I would be advising on marketing with a particular focus on digital methods.

Content May Be King, But Context Is God

When conducting my business plan and deciding on a niche, the first industry that came to mind was of course accounting, but I knew the accounting industry was not going anywhere too fast and robots were not yet to take over, despite all of the fear being drummed into the industry.

So, I took a detour and began helping a number of dental practices to improve their online marketing. Now I know what you’re thinking. Why dentists?

I thought this article was about why you chose accounting.

Don’t worry, it is, but as they say, content may be king, but context is god.

Allow me to explain.

Dentists are one of the most feared people on the planet, literally! There are even phobias named after them. They may as well have a snake hidden in their armpit for some people.Think about it, people will allow themselves to be knocked the ‘F’ out just to get their teeth attended to by the dentist.

If a dentist isn’t able to sell themselves online, they may as well walk away. That, and there is a so called ‘patient shortage’ so the need to induce demand with my services was more applicable than ever.

What Accountants Fear

Anyway, back to accounting. The reason why now is the right time for me to reintroduce myself to the accounting industry, this time as a marketing expert rather than a taxation expert, is because I have been paying close attention to the direction of the accounting industry and, well, the marketing still stinks.

Many accountants fear the word SALES and don’t like to sell nor be conceived to be selling. However, all accountants know that it is the lifeblood of their business, that is, if they would like to grow.

What many accountants don’t understand is their ability to leverage digital methods to do the selling for them. With digital methods continually advancing the sales process the part that requires a person to sell is becoming shorter and the majority of the convincing can now be done online.

With this in mind, and the welcoming of a number of accounting clients to Chris Evans Digital, we are now opening up ‘officially’ to the accounting industry.

What does this mean for you?

It simply means that there will now be an option in the market to visit for advice on firm growth via new clients.

If this is something you might be interested in then I can’t promise that I am definitely able to help you in your unique circumstances, but I am certainly open to having a chat to see whether I may be able to help. If you would like to get in touch, my LinkedIn profile can be found by clicking here.