what do your clients want that your competition doesn’t offer?
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
virtually every cpa firm faces two common challenges:
- get the work done.
- find more work.
more: three hidden surprises in ppp loan forgiveness | cloudy forecasts call for rainmaking |the forecast: partly gloomy, chance of doom | busy season benchmarks in free fall | say hello to the new 24-month busy season | maybe the pandemic isn’t all bad | covid drives new m&a trends | re-thinking today’s firm with five global leaders| clients want to pay you more (really!)
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
or, to put it another way:
- satisfy clients.
- find more clients.
clients – the users of accounting services – share two characteristics:
- they are willing to pay for what they value.
- they are not in the accounting business.
or, to put it another way:
- they want bang for their buck.
- they have something else to do besides juggle numbers.
a new cpa.com study, “business model trends for accounting advisory services,” lays out a simple but interesting matrix that brings together cpa firm challenges and the services clients value.
the matrix divides accounting firm services that are the “most common” offerings, and the “most uncommon” offerings. it then breaks them down into higher value and lower value, as perceived by clients.
the most common highly valued services are
- financial reporting (offered by 52 percent of firms)
- advisory/consulting (offered by 59 percent of firms)
- tax preparation (offered by 60 percent of firms)
if your firm isn’t providing these services, they would be the ideal services to offer new and existing clients – but only if you can compete against the many other firms that offer them.
the most common lower value services are
- bookkeeping (offered by 66 percent of firms)
- financial closures/statements (offered by 50 percent of firms)
while these services won’t be especially attractive to any given business client (or especially lucrative to cpa firms), the number of firms offering such services is relatively large. in that these services aren’t highly valued, competing against other firms may not be worth the effort.
certain uncommon services are highly valued by clients who need them. the most valued uncommon services are
- forensic accounting (offered by only 8 percent)
- accounts payable/bill payment (offered by 36 percent)
- data analytics (offered by only 14 percent)
- technology services (offered by only 14 percent)
note the paradox. though highly valued, these services are not widely offered.
the study identified five services that are not commonly offered, quite likely because they are not highly valued. these uncommon low-value services are
- cash flow analysis (offered by 24 percent)
- benefits administration (offered by a mere 3 percent)
- lean processes (offered by a mere 5 percent)
- outsourced/virtual cfo (offered by 26 percent)
- payroll (offered by 42 percent)
the easy answer
should your firm seek new business by offering common or uncommon services? and which of the highly valued services will be of high value to your firm?
yes, there is an easy answer.
half of the answer is: assess existing and potential clients for what they need … and what they don’t know they need.
these are the services that alleviate the typical challenges that businesses deal with – but none of the services are highly valued by all businesses.
for example, companies with little extra time would benefit from data analytics and technology services that automate and increase the efficiency of achieving financial insight. other companies might want to get back to their core purpose by outsourcing payroll or accounts payable.
the other half of the answer is to assess what other cpa firms are commonly offering and rarely offering.
the whole answer is in the center of the matrix – that sweet spot where you can offer the services most highly valued by specific companies, and the services least commonly offered by your competition.
that’s where your firm finds the rain that makes firms grow.