client service opportunities

opportunities in common and uncommon services

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bar chartwhat 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!)

goprocpa.comexclusively 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.

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creating a cross-selling culture

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two businessmen talking at officeif you can help, why wouldn’t you?

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

part of my success in getting new business was getting additional work from existing clients.

more: when time-based pricing works | the clients that got away | upselling made painless | boosting a fixed fee substantially | creative ways to retain staff | what cpas can learn from lawyers and doctors | advising cheapskates | getting bonuses from clients | be an accountant, not a salesperson for other things | when clients don’t know
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i was always good at this, and i think it was because of my attitude of helping the client beyond what the routine services were. early on i felt queasy about mentioning that there would be an additional fee for the extra services, but after a few times, i got over that.
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cloudy forecasts call for rainmaking

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have you assessed your clients’ needs, or just provided what they asked for?

the average monthly price paid for accounting services: clients who do not receive advisory services pay their firms an average of $1,108 a month. they’d be happy to pay $564 more.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

rainmaker alert! the cloudy skies of 2020 show a good chance of precipitation.

more in surveys & research: covid impact: 17,500 tax & accounting jobs lost | cas: critical success factors for the covid age | clients want to pay you more (really!) | the forecast: partly gloomy, chance of doom | busy season benchmarks in free fall | say hello to the new 24-month busy season | accounting firms take billions in ppp payouts | the more monitors, the better | the top portable monitors for working from home

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

but praying for rain isn’t going to work. neither will a rain dance. the most effective action is often simply a matter of asking and offering.

a new survey of small and midsized businesses and their cpa firms finds that clients are generally willing to pay 50 percent or more for additional accounting-related advisory services … but only if their accounting firm offers them.

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clients want to pay you more (really!)

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new research shows opportunities to boost revenues by up to 31%.

what clients want: adding strategic advisory services to your tax prep and payroll bundle could increase fee income by more than 48 percent. (cpa.com)

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

as cpas know better than anyone, these are turbulent times. whatever the situation was, it just changed. cpas know because they are at the center of it all — the calm, analytic eye at the center of hurricane upheaval.

more in covid trends in surveys & research: the forecast: partly gloomy, chance of doom | busy season benchmarks in free fall | say hello to the new 24-month busy season | covid drives new m&a trends | re-thinking today’s firm with five global leaders | the no. 1 reason accountants fail to build advisory practices

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

so consider for a moment the desperation of the businesses that are or could be your clients. they are suffering:

  • the financial and logistical onslaught of the pandemic,
  • the ever-evolving rules on taxation,
  • the constant change in compliance,
  • the lack of time for issues not within their core business (accounting, for example),
  • the problems and insecurities of their own clients and customers, and
  • concerns about the future.

in other words, clients have more important things to do than keep track of financial matters.

and they’re willing to pay for the freedom to stick to their core business.

the trick…

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the no. 1 reason accountants fail to build advisory practices

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shift your mindset for covid-era client services. stop thinking about selling and start thinking about helping.

by ty hendrickson

what is the number one reason that accountants get stuck providing transactional services?

mindset.

now, i’m not one of those gurus that preaches mindset and how if you want something in your life, all you have to do is visualize it. that’s not the mindset i’m talking about here. i’m talking about the mentality that accountants “feel bad” for charging someone for their expertise and advice.

more: the real problems created in a remote workforce |  can you really grow without adding clients? | 4 reasons to welcome rejection |

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while this is not a new problem, it has bubbled to the surface amidst the covid-19 crisis. in the vast majority of my conversations with firm owners recently, i hear the same line over and over again, “i’ve spent so much time talking to my clients about loans and explaining their options that i’ve hardly gotten any tax work completed. now, i have to charge them $1,000 for those conversations, and i just don’t feel like i can do that because i know the financial situation they are in right now. i feel bad.”

what?!?!

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when time-based pricing works

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time is money : clock hands on $100 billswhat is most fair?

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

back in 1980, i got a pretty large client and quoted a fixed annual fee to start, which would cover the routine regular work.

more: the clients that got away | cross-selling beyond your comfort zone | a test of concentration | value pricing in uncharted waters | i am an accountant because of clients like stanley | advising cheapskates | getting bonuses from clients
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after about three months i was asked to suggest some methods of compensating highly paid managers and to present them at a meeting in two weeks. i put together a memo with a few suggestions. when i showed up for the meeting, there were four other “groups” who were given the same assignment. one was the client’s law firm, one was the personal accountant for the client’s lady friend (who later became his wife), another was an insurance agent and one was an employee benefit plan specialist.
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the seven simple steps to thrive in the covid crisis

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//www.g005e.com/2020/07/21/thriving-during-the-covid-19-crisis-and-beyond/leveraging the relationships you already have. step 1: make a list.

by anthony glomski and russ alan prince
your $5 million high-net-worth practice

the covid-19 crisis has put a lot of financial pressure on many businesses, including many accounting firms. at the same time, a percentage of professionals, such as accountants, lawyers, and wealth managers, are strategically taking action to deal with the economic pressures.

see also: the three new business models delivering significant profits for accounting firms | the 5 meetings of the (true) wealth management process | collaborative wealth management: defining the framework | protect your clients’ assets | even entrepreneurs must diversify | when clients cash out: four smart financial moves |

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the result is that they are doing well as the crisis progresses and are smartly positioned to do exceptionally well as the crisis abates.

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when covid ‘got real’

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tax season turns into ‘advisory season,’ and a whole new niche is born.

^ click to play

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

gabrielle luoma, long one of the profession’s leading innovators, says the future under covid-19 belongs to the quick and the smart, in this exclusive video interview with 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. firms will need to deploy new services to attract new clients who may have not realized that they needed a firm like yours but now do.

more covid conversations: the covid outlook with darren root and joel hughes: a long, slow climb back to recovery | steven sacks: covid crisis management | jean caragher: how to fight ‘fear’ and ‘insecurity’ | sarah dobek: learning how to operate in the new normal | august aquila: what comes next? | jody grunden: covid and client communications | andrew argue: on a mission | martin bissett: covid slams u.k. accountants, too | bill reeb: separating the winners and losers |

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

^ play or download the podcast version

in this conversation, luoma talks about what’s going on in the business, what’s going on with tax season, and what the future holds for cpa firms and the clients of cpa firms.

speaking from her base in tucson, ariz., the ceo of mod ventures is bringing some of her dna to regional powerhouse beach fleischman through a joint venture.

we started by asking about “when it got real?”

she responds, “we truly are affected by the whole world. we have clients in new york. things changed for them rather quickly. and when they started changing, we started realizing, ‘oh, my goodness, we’re going to have to really buckle down.’ in arizona, we started seeing shutdowns mid-march. that’s when things really got real for us because then we started seeing that the businesses that we work with on a regular basis – we’re outsourced accounting, so we work with clients weekly, – we knew that we could be in trouble. we started working really hard on transitioning, and seeing what we needed to do to help our clients quickly.”

for pro members-only: get the transcript:

[pro member bonus]
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the clients that got away

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businesswoman at desk smiling as she talks to manlearning the hard way how to manage perceptions.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

when i started out i lost clients. very few, but still losses.

more: cross-selling beyond your comfort zone | how auditing is like a pirouette | ¿que es bookkeeping? | underpaying others hurts you, too | when the kids don’t want to take over | large clients we landed from quickbooks consulting
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

some couldn’t be helped, such as a bank wanting a larger, more established, and better-capitalized firm. but some, early on, could have been retained, and that is what i want to talk about today.
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the three new business models delivering significant profits for accounting firms

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businessman sitting on stacks of paper currencyhow to upgrade your practice with successful, wealthy clients.

by anthony glomski and russ alan prince
your $5 million high-net-worth practice

competition for high-quality accounting clients is intense, and the current environment is making it harder for many accounting firms to excel.

see also: the 5 meetings of the (true) wealth management process | collaborative wealth management: defining the framework | protect your clients’ assets | even entrepreneurs must diversify | when clients cash out: four smart financial moves |

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if you’re ready to serve successful business owners and wealthy individuals, then there are three practice models you should consider. each of the three models shares specific characteristics that make them especially attractive, including:

  • high demand from accomplished prospects
  • high fee structures which these clients pay
  • high margins
  • high realization rates
  • high probability of needing the expertise of various accountants at the firm

because all three practice models are relationship-based, many accountants are already well-positioned to provide new, high-caliber advisory services these highly coveted clients.

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cross-selling beyond your comfort zone

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three people having discussion at table over document and water glassesbenefit your clients and yourself.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

in my practice i have always tried to generate additional revenue from existing clients.

more: how auditing is like a pirouette | upselling made painless | boosting a fixed fee substantially | creative ways to retain staff | what cpas can learn from lawyers and doctors | my top 10(ish) regrets | my ‘brand’ is the exciting history of accounting | what’s your negotiating style?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

it was much easier than searching for new clients. it was also fun because i had an attentive audience when i spoke, and it gave me the satisfaction of helping a client.
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how auditing is like a pirouette

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ballet dancer performing a pirouettethe key: focus.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

an auditor’s mindset distinguishes a great accountant from an average one.

more: upselling made painless | a test of concentration | staff may surprise you with leadership | when pushing the pencil pays off | i used to hate quickbooks | why we ‘kill’ to get partnership returns out quickly
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the mindset involves really looking at items and not just checking them off. believe it or not, i developed this by watching ballet.
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