how thinking about your grandmother could be the answer.
by w. michael hsu
client advisory services and the progression of the “virtual” cfo have gained incredible popularity, or at least attention, in the accounting profession. but the fact is, many firms are doing it wrong and setting themselves up for failure. i should know, it nearly happened to my firm.
more w. michael hsu: seven principles to work less and achieve more | how do firm leaders learn? | when it comes to pricing, it’s about ‘can’t afford not to’ | your client base is global |
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flashback to about 13 years ago. it was the middle of the night, and everyone was asleep. the aicpa had just featured me at one of their major industry events in vegas for firing 50 percent of my clients. while i’ve enjoyed the publicity, i’m now sitting in my room wondering if i should have done that.
they say you can only connect the dots. looking back and firing 50 percent of my clients to focus on the work i really wanted to do with the clients that would best support our new service offerings was indeed the right move to make. i just wished someone would’ve told me what was next.
in short, i really needed to know about “what to do” after the “what not to do” and “what kind of clients to get” after the “what kind of clients to get rid of.” basically, i was lost. with 50 percent less revenue and no idea what my next move was, i did not know what my next move was. in fact, it wasn’t until years later that i learned the first thing that would’ve helped me to win over more (and better) clients.
the secret, while it may sound trite, is that each engagement starts with the client and ends with you. moreover, nobody else really cares about the bank reconciliations, financial forecasting, or the profit and loss statements you’ve put together. you and the other 650,000+ active cpas are essentially selling the same thing.
and the clients? they only care about what problems you can solve for them and how much it may cost for you to do that. to do that successfully, you have to listen. you have to listen to the client’s business problem and learn to see past the lies that they tell you. yes, they lie. not because they wanted to but because they unconsciously thought it would be best for them.
example: “i am looking for a cfo to help me do some financial forecasting.” that’s a lie. “i am looking for a bookkeeper to help me with my very easy bookkeeping tasks.” that’s an even bigger lie. in reality, your client probably has no idea what they are looking for.
they googled their problems and came up with something that sounded intelligent. so, they came to you and said, “i am looking for the best and cheapest cas that you can offer,” but we all know they didn’t go to bed thinking that.
instead, they probably went to bed stressing about, “i have a board meeting tomorrow, and i have no idea what to tell them when they ask me about how the company is doing financially,” or “i wish i could spend more time with my family instead of dealing with this quickbooks @+*~!.”
so, we should do the same. instead of jumping at the opportunity to offer the “best and cheapest cas” you’ve got, slow down and ask, “why?” what problems are you trying to solve? what solutions have you tried before that didn’t work? what did you go to bed stressing about last night?
after all, in our world, cas stands for client advisory service – so advise! understand the person sitting across from you and their problems so that we can help them with their business off the bat.
i can tell you, eight times out of 10, within 15 minutes of a client call, that my firm deepsky and our cas services are not the best course of action for the client to take, so i tell the truth. i then spend the next 20-30 minutes helping them chart out better options, make a few introduction calls, and in many cases, make a friend.
if you are worried about turning away business, i can tell you that i have earned more than $1 million in referral business through these relationships and even more when the same client comes back to me for other services when they are a better fit.
to build a wildly successful cas or cfo services practice and reputation, you first have to understand your clients and treat them like your grandma. think about it, would you sell your grandma something that’s not best for her?
once you know what’s best for your clients, you then have to understand who you are, what you do, and who you serve. resist the temptation to be everything for anyone because then, you are nothing to everyone.