how cas fills both.
by hitendra patil
client accounting services: the definitive success guide
what some clients feel is an absolute need, other clients may feel it is not. people may need to book an uber or lyft ride, but some of them may want a premium ride.
more: clients’ new expectations | 8 ways to create your cas practice | the big money in cas for small firms | what cas is and isn’t | do you value your cas value? | the mindset you need for client accounting services
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some of your client accounting services will be the premium ride your clients will want. for some clients, your premium services will be the need. (you want such clients.)
it is in your best interest to make more of your clients need your premium services. turn their wants into needs. in other words, when you provide services that help your clients make better business decisions, manage their business operations better because of better professional accounting, you are contributing to their enhanced success and growth. with more success and growth, they can see your impact and also become capable of paying you more for your premium services.
i can’t afford your services.
doesn’t that sound familiar?
i would bet that all accountants have heard this, multiple times, from their prospects. and invariably, it would have dampened their spirits.
when they say, “i can’t afford your services,” what they are really saying is, “i don’t understand your value to me.” they are subtly telling you that you didn’t do a good job of communicating your value (provided, of course, that you did your homework to figure out if it’s a reasonably good fit for their needs and wants).
from an accountant’s perspective, such (prospects) people do not really understand the value of professional accounting itself, not necessarily that of accountants. they have pre-defined how much they will pay. and someone needs to make them understand the value of professional accounting services. that someone better be you, not your competitor.
so, it is not a negative when your prospect says he/she can’t afford your services. it is a positive.
it is positive because they have wants. they just do not know what the real value of fulfilling those wants is. it is not about what they will/can pay for it. it is about what they will get – as an outcome – when they pay for fulfilling those wants. classically, they are thinking, “what’s in it for me?” and they aren’t able to figure that out themselves.
that is a big opportunity for you.
show them the life they will have when their wants are met.
have you read an old story about david ogilvy, the man credited with establishing the dominance of the advertising field in the 1950s and ’60s? if not, here is the gist. if yes, let me refresh it for you.
in late april in new york, the air was beginning to become warm, and there was a serene period before the city would face the sapping heat of the summer. one morning, while walking to his workplace, ogilvy saw a beggar with a sign around his neck.
i am blind
the poor man frequently held the cup up to his ear and rattled it because he was unable to tell how much money was in it by looking at the cup. the beggar didn’t hear much noise most of the day. ogilvy decided to help the beggar and dropped a contribution into the cup. the beggar thanked him. ogilvy explained to him what work he does and asked for permission to modify the sign around the man’s neck. the beggar consented, and ogilvy added a few words to the sign.
in the evening on his way home, ogilvy was pleased to see the beggar’s cup overflowing. the beggar was astounded by his success and was very curious to know what ogilvy did to the sign. he asked what words ogilvy added.
it is spring and
i am blind
by using a principle in advertising – the “contrast principle” – ogilvy was able to create empathy in the passersby, who would have otherwise simply ignored the blind man. with the new words, people passing by felt the contrast – that they can enjoy the spring colors, but the poor blind man cannot.
when a prospect tells you he/she cannot afford your services, you have an opportunity to use the contrast principle to your advantage.
it is a real opportunity because the want exists. you do not need any educating/marketing/selling effort to convince them about it. you just need to show them the picture. they already know the “before” – you show them the “after,” i.e., what can happen after your cas offering fulfills their wants. create a contrast. they will themselves recognize the value of having their wants fulfilled.
and you know the impact of your services that fulfill your clients’ wants. it is a measurable impact. it should not be difficult for you to create that contrast in the minds of your prospects/clients.
so, what are the wants of your clients/prospects?
do you have clients to whom you provide advisory/consulting services? or provide some insights when you deliver periodic financial statements? most likely, these are your “a” clients, and they pay you more than the average revenue you generate from each of your other “b” and “c” clients (hopefully, you don’t have any “d” clients).
if yes, think of why these “a” clients pay you higher fees for higher-value services. it is not about the time, effort and level of expertise that goes into producing such services. it is about which of the wants of clients such services fulfill. such clients recognize the impact of having their wants met and are willing to pay for it, happily.
can you identify the wants of such clients?
here are some examples. depending upon your location, your clients and services mix, your practice niche/s, your technology stack, etc., you might find your clients have different/additional wants than what i describe here. but this is to get you started on the journey of finding your clients’ wants (not just needs). caution: these examples below only scratch the surface. there are a lot of things that you can do to unlock the value and monetize it for your practice.
- write-up clients: they need you to update the books from bank statements, credit card statements, check registers, cash receipts/sales, payroll, etc. after you do so, you reconcile books with the bank. you invariably find some difference between them. your clients may or may not know why there is a difference. they want you to explain the possible reasons for the difference. this may be bank fees/charges, calculation errors, owner draw not informed to you, cash spent not recorded, and so on. they want to have the confidence, “my accountant will not miss anything.”
- bookkeeping clients: they need you to update the books on an ongoing basis, calculate and pay sales tax, process payroll, and file payroll taxes. they may want you to prepare periodic payables/receivables reports or manage them. they may want you to prepare and analyze cash flow statements.
- accounting advisory clients: the clients who are a good fit for such services (we’ll discuss how to identify the “fit” later) need you to ensure they are managing their payables and receivables well. they want you to establish better processes and controls to record their sales and purchases. they want you to reduce their working capital requirements by ensuring money comes in time from customers and protect their reputation by paying vendors in time. they want you to guide them on the impact of changing regulations onto their accounting processes, possible implications of tax law changes, etc.
- tax clients: as a strategy, you’d want your tax preparation clients to turn into clients who want tax planning/tax strategy advice. on the most basic level, your tax clients need the tax return prepared but want the satisfaction and confidence that they are not paying more than their fair share of taxes, they are paying in time, and they are not missing out anything that is legitimately due.
your clients’ wants at the human level
going above and beyond the abovementioned work that is more visible and tactile, your clients’ wants at the human, personal and individual level are your strategic drivers to define your cas offering.
what do they want at the human level?
- certainty: people generally like to be in control of their financial assets. they want the power to decide yes or no. surprises take away their ability and desire to consent or decline. therefore, if you can provide your clients with perceivable certainty, i.e., assurance that you can help them either avoid pain or gain pleasure, or both, you can expect more success.
as an accountant, you can provide certainty by providing compliance to avoid pain (e.g., being compliant to avoid irs queries/penalties). or you can deliver pleasure in gains (savings in taxes, helping them with consulting advice for better returns on their capital/investments, etc.).
- uncertainty/variety: strangely, as core as the want for certainty is, many times, humans crave uncertainty. uncertainty is the want of the unknown, change, and new stimuli. in a research, neuroscientists found that the “human brain finds unexpected pleasures more rewarding than expected ones,” thereby suggesting that surprises, if any, should result in pleasant experiences. just like certainty, if your clients experience a surprise of avoiding a loss or experience a surprising gain using your services, they will feel rewarded. example: sometimes, car rental companies surprise you by upgrading you at no additional cost to the next higher-level vehicle.
as an accountant, you can deliver unexpected pleasure to your clients by giving a paid analytical report (which offers significant business intelligence that the client can act on instantly) to which the client has not subscribed. (this can also demonstrate your additional competencies to the client and make the client aware that he/she can buy those services from you.)
- significance: the desire for significance – a belief that one’s life has meaning and importance, and hence feeling unique, relevant and exclusive or needed is a natural want for people.
as an accountant, you can make your clients feel important and needed by:
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- sending birthday/anniversary greetings;
- receiving them personally when they visit your office (versus letting the receptionist guide them to a meeting room); and/or
- calling them up for advice in the matters in which they are experts.
the key is to do this regularly to make the client feel it’s not a one-time courtesy.
- connection/love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something is one of the six core needs of human beings, so says celebrity life coach tony robbins. people crave it. they want it.
as an accountant, you need to consistently be on your client’s radar. out of sight is out of mind. you can make your processes force you to touch base with your clients at least once a month. for example:
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- a phone call;
- an email;
- personalized notes with financial statements;
- a newsletter;
- personal visit, breakfast or lunch once in a while;
- a facebook like or a nice comment on a picture;
- sharing an article through email; and/or
- endorsing a skill on linkedin, etc.
there can be several ways to increase your closeness with clients. cloud-based software can bring you many relevant alerts about each person with whom you connect, automatically, and instantly.
- growth: quest for growth drives human beings, i.e., an expansion of capacity, capability, or understanding. we simply appreciate and feel highly obliged when someone helps us achieve growth (and the principle of reciprocity gets triggered).
as an accountant, you can help your clients grow in ways that hardly any other professional services provider can. you have the most intimate knowledge of their financial lives. you also know a lot about financial benchmarks in their industries. you can easily share such knowledge periodically to help their growth. for example, if a thriving restaurant’s prime costs are never more than 65%, you could inform your client that their financing costs are higher that their peers’ costs by giving qualified referrals, etc. one important thing though: make such sharing “actionable.” many times people may not know what to do with a piece of new information.
- contribution: contribution is the sense of service and focuses on helping, giving to, and supporting others. human beings want fulfillment, and that can manifest through friendship, community, society, business networks, social groups, etc. each of these requires “contribution.”
as an accountant, you can satisfy this need of your clients by enabling them to contribute more toward what makes them feel fulfilled. it could be:
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- seeking their advice in their field of expertise;
- referring them with someone whose business or knowledge needs can be satisfied by your client;
- engaging the client in the business network that you know of; and/or
- inviting the client to deliver a speech at your quarterly clients’ meeting, etc.