With the increased focus on marketing and business development, firms are emphasizing the need for more activity with networking, websites, social media and the like. However, it’s no secret that success for accountants is related to the quality of the relationship with the client. The quality of the relationship is driven by the value created with the client, which comes from a deep understanding of the client and the ability of the CPA to collaborate and co-create the client’s personal and business success.

To improve new and existing client development, firms should focus on building quality relationships. Any marketing or business development activity that doesn’t directly support an individual prospect’s or client’s success is not building a quality relationship. Firms that integrate marketing, business development and service take the lead and can help clients with all their needs and wants, directly or indirectly. These firms are best positioned to maximize their success and that of the client/prospect.

How well does your firm take the lead on each client’s success?

Accountants are supposed to be the expert who knows everything. To be anything less might make the CPA/firm less valuable or seen by the client as not needed – the client can get by without us. But in today’s hyper-competitive complex environment, where change is constant and knowledge fleeting, who can really know everything? Business and high net-worth clients very much need and want a professional who first, cares and demonstrates it by listening, and then helps with what they know. Not just with simple surveys, periodic “check-ins,” dinners or tickets to a game – they want an advisor who proactively works with them and really gets to know both their business and them personally. Clients want an advisor who can and will help them work through complexity and focus on what’s critical for their personal and business success.

In looking at your clients, how many do you really know? How much do you really care?

For this business owner, the benchmark service offering was just more of the same.  The CPA knew very little about the client’s business, investing in client time only when he delivered this business owner’s tax return.  While the CPA was discussing the benchmarking service, all the business owner could think about was “you don’t even understand my business. I don’t want to be compared to other businesses in the same industry because my business is different.”

As it was, the business owner saw the offering as another opportunity for the CPA to treat him like all the other clients in the same industry, not recognizing that the business owner had a very different business model and strategy, not to mention different personal and business aspirations and interests.  This is what the business owner wished his CPA understood.

General industry knowledge supports traditional service offerings, but for value-added advisory services a more holistic and detailed knowledge is required and expected by CPA clients – no matter what type of client.  This  knowledge comes from planned, continuous client engagement efforts throughout the year.  And though the quantity of client contacts is important, the quality of the contacts determines if value is created. How does your firm do on really getting to know your clients?  What opportunities would open up for you and your clients if you had an effective way to really get to know them?

The Challenge

One of the biggest challenges for CPAs is fulfilling all the wants and needs of current clients.  CPAs have traditionally pushed cross-selling and have relied on clients to identify needs and wants for services through tactical, non-targeted marketing.  And while some clients may know their CPA well enough to seek guidance, the majority don’t, as revealed by various research efforts.  One such client survey showed 70% weren’t aware that their CPA provided a certain service and 80% wished their CPA would provide a service the CPA in fact did offer.   Research also reveals clients know more about what they don’t like about their CPA, than what they want from their CPA.

The opportunity

With such a huge opportunity to provide more services that clients want, why does this demand go unmet?  We’d suggest the nature of the relationship leaves much opportunity for improvement.  CPAs operating as transactional service providers, providing one or two traditional services, aren’t able to develop a deep and knowledgeable relationship with clients.  Meeting clients once or twice a year for traditional service discussions isn’t enough to gain knowledge and build a relationship that’s a win-win for the long-term.   Clients want more value-added business and personal advisory services and the levels of engagement that naturally come with them.  Only by truly understanding clients’ business and personal success criteria through a consistent, proactive approach can CPAs gain their clients’ trust and respect and be in a position to offer services the client wants and needs – traditional and non-traditional.

No matter what the times, organic growth always offers a great, win-win opportunity for you and your clients.  How has your firm stepped-up to the challenge and opportunity?

Invest approximately 1-2 hours of your time to take a high-level view to get clear on where your firm is now and how you might achieve success.  This is a complimentary session, with no obligation. You’ll leave refreshed with an initial action plan and a full record of the session.

Contact us today to take control of your future!

Research from a number of organizations including Gallup and Towers Perrin continues to reveal just how poor employee engagement is in companies.  Given that people represent the only asset that can be developed to increase productivity, innovation, growth and profitability, seems like an opportunity for all organizations.

Gallup’s research has revealed that:

• Less than 3 out of 10 employees are actively engaged in moving the company forward.
• Slightly more than 5 of 10 employees are “checked out”, or just going through the motions of their job with no passion.
• About 2 out of 10 are actively disengaged with their work, spending their time acting out their unhappiness by undermining the efforts of their engaged co-workers.

A March/April 2006 article in the Ivy Business Journal offered the 10 C’s of employee engagement – how leaders can engage employees’ hearts, heads and hands. 

• Connect – given that employee engagement is a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with their boss, leaders must show they value each of their employees by connecting and showing they care. (Though important, this is more than employee-focused initiatives like profit sharing and work-life balance.)
• Career – leaders should provide challenging and meaningful work and career opportunities.  This also includes giving employees the knowledge and skills they need to be successful.
• Clarity – leaders must communicate a clear vision.  Success in life and organizations is to a great extent determined by what individuals want to achieve and the clarity of their goals.
• Convey – leaders must clarify their expectations about employees and provide meaningful, daily feedback. This allows employees to understand how they are doing on a daily basis so they can improve and help the organization succeed.
• Congratulate – employees mostly receive feedback when performance is poor.  Look for opportunities to coach and recognize strong performance to accentuate the positives and reinforce internal motivation.

Which of these C’s, if you practiced more, would increase your employee engagement?  Remember the Gallup research, more than 3 out of 10 employees are disengaged or actively disengaged in their jobs.  How would you and your firm benefit?

Customer engagement, according to Gallup is, “how to drive success by effectively managing the moments when customers interact with employees.”  While partnering with many of the world’s best organizations, Gallup observed that these organizations make engagement a priority by focusing on:

- ways to enhance emotional attachment.  Your most profitable customers have strong emotional bonds with your organization and these bonds must be honored and strengthened.

- ways to move beyond traditional customer satisfaction. This only leads to mediocrity and poor business results

- every interaction with each customer. Each customer relationship must be measured and managed.

- ways to make it clear that everyone is responsible for delivering the customer experience.

An other area of Gallup’s research is with employee engagement.  Organizations that score above Gallup’s database median in both customer and employee engagement significantly outperform those organizations in the bottom half on both measures.

How would you rate your organizations performance with client engagement and managing the customer experience?

For more information on Gallup’s research, visit www.gallup.com.

We may well see conditions change positively as rapidly as they have deteriorated.   However, it seems clear that three factors still apply:

1.  Periods of change represent times of huge opportunity and without doubt we are in times of major change.

2.  The strategic decisions made or not made by firms now will impact them for years to come. In previous recessions those firms who generated sound strategic plans flourished once the upturn came.

3.  The key factors underpinning success become even more critical in difficult times.

The key approach is to avoid panicking and knee-jerk reactions and, at this of all times, take a high-level strategic perspective.  Avoiding panicking is not the same as avoiding taking prompt and decisive action. The important thing is for such prompt actions to be directed from a strategic perspective.

The 7 Key Factors driving business success haven’t changed. They are:

1.  The quality, innovation and sustainability of the firm’s Strategic Business Model.

2.  The opportunities for top line revenue growth.

3.  The firms sustainable profitability.

4.  The quality of the decision making and key performance management.

5.  The quality of the people in the business.

6.  The value and opportunities for growth represented by the firm’s products and services.

7.  The firm’s risk profile.

A significant number of firms will grow in these recessionary times. Others will survive and flourish because of very sound strategic decisions and actions taken now, so they are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the inevitable upturn, whenever it is.

Source: Adapted from “The HWL Recession and Downturn Positioning Guide”.