“clients want you to be proactive.”
by rob nixon
unbeknownst to those who work in accounting practices, the favorite word (and often it seems the firm’s mantra and culture) is to “wait.”
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here is some dialogue you may have heard before:
“why can’t we get that job out?” “i have sent the client an email and i am now waiting for them to send the missing bank statement in.”
“why is your productivity so low?” “i was waiting for the graduate to finish his/her part of the work.”
“when can we grow the revenue?” “we’ll have to wait until the government changes the rules and we can then write to our clients and tell them we need to do …”
“why haven’t we sold more budget and cash flow forecasts?” “we’ve been waiting for the banks to tell the clients that they need one.”
“what have you been doing all day?” “i have been waiting for the phone to ring, the email to ping, the client to come in and the team member to complain about being paid so poorly.”
reactive accountants wait, wait and wait.
it was once said that some people make things happen, some people wait for things to happen and some people wonder what happened. which one are you? what is the culture of your firm?
this waiting mentality creates “order taker” mentality: constantly on the back foot, dealing with client issues (putting out fires) and never getting on the front foot and being proactive.
clients want you to be proactive. they do not know what they do not know. they want advice. they want help. they want someone to tell them what to do.
among other things, you are the expert on finance, cash flow management and structuring – not your client. if you see an opportunity where your client could use your services then you owe it to them to tell them. if you do not promote all of your services then you are doing your clients a complete disservice.
if you continue down the order taker route for compliance then you are basically a history writer, primarily writing up the past. if you continue down this track then you will be a slave to the government and a post office for the taxation department.
do your clients want you to be a history writer who waits for history to happen? i think not. do you want to be a history writer?
by way of actions, many accountants say yes, that’s it – history writing and waiting is for me.
they assume that they know what the client wants so they just give them what they ask for. accountants constantly prejudge what the clients want and never give them what they really need. i think prejudging is one of the most arrogant actions possible.
no doubt you’ve heard the term “ready, aim, fire.” the challenge with the accountants’ mentality is that without coaching you will spend most of the time getting ready. most accountants spend their whole life getting “ready” (the spreadsheet or the system will never be right), they rarely aim and hardly ever fire.
by getting ready they wait. you have a disclaimer on everything (i suppose that means you don’t even think the numbers are right) so what have you got to lose? start aiming and start firing.
instead of waiting to write up your clients’ history…help them to make history.