smart? so what? what’s in it for your clients?

merely “smart” doesn’t cut it in the post-information age. accountants and financial managers must do more. here’s what you need to do to stay relevant.

by rick telberg

smart doesn’t count for much anymore. everybody’s smart. to google is to know. in 0.29 seconds you can find more than you need to know about irs form 2106-ez.

but who really needs to know about irs form 2106-ez?

people with un-reimbursed business expenses, that’s who. but that’s easy. you can look it up faster than you can think it up. in a certain sense, everybody knows it.

but not everybody knows that the tax client who just sat down at your desk could use a little advice about the difference between what his company pays for mileage and what the mileage actually costs. in other words, the web may have all the answers, but it doesn’t have all the questions.
what we’re talking about here, in broadly strategic terms, is the end of the information age.

if you think you’re smart just because you can juggle 6,234 emails, 10,123 pop-ups, 147 phone calls, and 32 interruptions a day – and 17 magazines a month ? you’re still living in the post-industrial, knowledge-worker-driven, information age.

i have news for you: the information age is, like, so 10 minutes ago, man!

today you’re living in the recommendation age.

think about it: now that everyone can gain access to the same data and the same information from many of the same or equivalent sources, and do it simultaneously, the “information” has lost its value.

what matters today? knowledge, experience, and ultimately, wisdom. that’s what you bring to the table as a true professional. you know the right questions to ask, the right data to mine, and the right answer for the situation. you give advice. you affect events, the course of action, the plan. you mold minds. in fact, you really get paid to help your clients make up their minds.

welcome to the recommendation age. you’re not alone. you’ll see signs of it all around you. in society at large, people make decisions on which hmo to choose based on who has the most charming celebrity spokesperson. in politics, voters rely on proxies to ferret out “facts” and opinions ? and all too often, and sadly, let others decide who’s elected. in economics, mundane, repetitive tasks have been shipped off to boiler rooms, and the leaders of the corporation are the ones with creativity, persuasive abilities, social skills, vision and leadership.

it’s pleasantly, wickedly ironic that while smart may lie in the answers, wisdom resides in the questions. when clients come to you for advice, they don’t really come looking for answers. they come looking for questions. if they need to know every last word of tax law, they can click into the complete text of the u.s. tax code on-line (www.fourmilab.ch/ustax/ustax.html). we’re pretty sure they want you to spare them.

what clients really want is someone wise enough to ask whether their company’s mileage reimbursement has kept up with the price of gas. it’s an obvious question, really, once you’ve thought of it, but clients don’t. it’s not their job.

the real question is this: how do you use your professional wisdom – as opposed to mere smarts – to attract and retain clients, improve organizations, and build value?

and the answer is:
— entice potential clients and co-workers with questions they haven’t thought of. let them come to you for the answers.
— reinforce your relationship with them by asking the unasked, that is, by demonstrating that they need you to be asking these questions and, of course, answering them.
— plan your meetings around the questions you’ll ask, not the information you have.
— keep track of the questions they can’t answer. you’re the one who’ll have answers. the burden’s on you, not them.
— look for the missing links – the connections between things that most people don’t see – hurricane katrina and the price of gas in bangor, maine, for example. therein lies your value.
— listen to their questions. their questions may reveal not only what your clients need to know but what they don’t know they don’t know. in other words, think of their questions as a kind of answer.
— their most important questions are the ones seeking recommendation. the client is really seeking your professional experience, your judgment, the insight that lets you find the right bit of information in the endless volumes of information available at the flick of the mouse.

this way, when your clients surf the web, it’ll be for their next vacation, thanks to the money you save them.

(first published by the aicpa)

posted on december 5, 2005