if not, undercharging might be to blame.
by martin bissett
business development on a budget
there’s an overall sameness to the majority of accounting firm websites, and typically they make a lot of promises – promises like
- we’re big enough to cope and small enough to care, or
- we are proactive, or
- we’re not just bean counters, or
- we have your best interests at heart, or
- your business is our business.
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you’ve seen all those, haven’t you? are these or similar promises on your website?
there’s nothing wrong with aspiring to meet these promises, but here’s the problem. if you are undercharging for your work, then you are probably struggling to deliver the level of service you are promising for the fee you are asking for it. so you don’t have time to go the extra mile for most of your clients.
they might come and talk to you in the first place because you claimed to be proactive, or to be all about their business, and so on. but the reality may not appear to be the same when they actually work with you. when that happens, the client will feel let down, or even misled by what they saw on your website.
of course i know that those website claims are, for the most part, put there in good faith; they are representations of what the practice really wants to stand for and deliver, so there is nothing duplicitous or deceptive in the intention. but in reality, usually because of undercharging, there just isn’t the time and level of profitability to fulfill the promises of the website.
i would encourage you to scrutinize the promises you are making on your website, and make sure the client experience lives up to those promises or even exceeds them. you only get one chance to make that first impression on a client, and if you let them down it is difficult if not impossible to regain the level of trust you had in the beginning.
business development tasks
1. ensure you are pricing new engagements profitably enough to allow you to keep your website promises regarding the quality of service and attention they will get from your firm.
2. ask one or two of your most valued, recently acquired clients what convinced them to change to your firm. consider how to use their comments to help you win future work.
3. schedule specific, non-interruptible time in your diary to scrutinize the promises you are making on your website and ensure you are delivering on those promises.