HDK Consultants Ltd, East Grinstead, West Sussex, United Kingdom, telephone 01342-328 116

Accountancy
Client-Acquisition
Seminar - reserve
your seat today

Quality-Assured Accountancy Client-Acquisition Service with exclusive territory - find out if your area is available

ADDING VALUE: How to make your Accounting service sell itself?

If there was a way to ensure that clients understand and use the information that's available from the very BASIC accounting service...

...you would have a queue of business owners behind your door, all virtually BEGGING to be accepted as your clients.

Yet they don't see it.

And chances are you've given up trying make them see after being thoroughly convinced they're NOT interested.

But that's essentially the key point to taking ownership of YOUR area and its potential for your accounting firm in terms of new clients and income.

There's no two ways about it:

The biggest problem in obtaining new clients is caused by the all-too-common LACK of understanding among business owners on the very basics of accounting and finance.

I'm talking about the owners of small-to-medium sized businesses, that sector that forms the bread and butter of accounting firms.

Most business owners simply don't understand the information they receive from their accountant. In fact, most of them don't even LOOK at the spreadsheets you deliver on their monthly accounts!

Needless to say that, when they neither look nor understand the information, they're not going to USE it either, let alone DO something about those problems (and potential opportunities) that are visible in their accounts to the accounting professional.

The accountant starts off as an idealist, eager to use his or her expertise to help businesses... but, faced with the wall of disinterest and rejection, soon cannot avoid becoming somewhat cynical about clients' willingness to utilise his knowhow.

One then settles down to delivering the ACTIONS required in performing compliance services.

But that's the wrong lesson to learn my friend.

The right one is to realise WHY clients have this problem of receiving and/or understanding financial information... and then fix THAT problem so you can sell your knowhow.

Clients WANT it but cannot take responsibility for refusing it...

Do yourself a favour and accept this fact: The overwhelming majority of business owners DO WANT to understand their finances better, do want to gain better control over financial planning... and they DO see the accounting professional as the party from whom they EXPECT HELP in this matter.

It's not a question of whether they want it. They do.

It's a question of not being able to ASK for it... and also, to a degree, HOW the information is received.

Here, it's the old adage of "ignorance is bliss" or "what you don't know won't hurt you." They HOPE everything is fine but FEAR that's not the case... and this fear stops them from ASKING.

This hope and fear also make it a dicey undertaking to DELIVER bad news to the client. Obviously no-one likes to deliver bad news as the messenger is customarily punished for bringing bad tidings...

So, they WANT it but won't ask for it... and they often react badly to you giving those news.

But from their viewpoint, when interviewed by an impartial third party, business owners consider that it is the responsibility of their accountant to keep them informed about these things in a timely manner.

The second problem we face in communicating with clients involves understanding. Do they understand what you tell them, truly? Do they have the vocabulary, the experience and expertise required to fully comprehend the importance of what you tell them?

Or do they fall prey to the human fear of "being considered unintelligent" and simply nod their head WITHOUT fully understanding what you tell them?

Well, there's a lot of that about, you know... but this problem can also be solved if you know how.

In any case, this information they want to know remains "undelivered" as far as they're concerned... and I'm sure you've heard many a client vehemently claiming "you've never told me this!" when push comes to shove.

You know that 20/20 hind vision...

Don't get me wrong. I know YOU have tried and tried to get through to them.

All too often, the client's attitude is far less receptive than what would be in his interests: "I don't know and I don't care..."

You and I know how hard it is to evoke the INTEREST of clients so they'd bother learning even the very basics of accounting.

And it's impossible to deliver understanding if they DON'T ASK even when they don't understand something.

How many times have you tried to explain some grave problem to a client only to see that closed look on his face, combined with a refusal to listen and/or BELIEVE the reality?

Oh, you've tried hard all right.

But how do THEY view this? How do business owners see this same problem from THEIR viewpoint?

"My accountant doesn't tell me anything..."

Yes, you guessed it; business owners are (almost unanimously) of the opinion that the problem is caused by their accountant!

It's the accountant whose lack of communication is at fault here according to business owners' viewpoint!

It took quite a bit of skilful probing to get business owners to come clean about it — instinctively they KNOW it's rubbish, see... so they try to hide this view.

And it's a radically DIFFERENT viewpoint from that of the accounting professional, isn't it? Obviously, it's also very different from what we THOUGHT it would be.

But, now that it's there, one has to admit that it makes sense for THEM to THINK this way.

Blaming it all on the Accountant relieves them from having to DO something about it. They can continue the existing disinterest and obliviousness because it's all YOUR fault, see?

And so it is, as seen exclusively from their viewpoint: How could THEY do anything about it when they're simply the "innocent victims"???

To digest this, you need a good sense of humour, a sizeable portion of self-restraint (and probably a couple of Alka-Seltzers).

And let's get one thing straight:

You don't have to ACCEPT their view as the truth.

In fact, you mustn't.

It ISN'T the truth.

It's only THEIR OPINION, based solely on their feelings and definitely NOT on facts.

On the other hand, the fact that they THINK this way IS TRUE. It is a fact found to be in existence. That their opinion is not truthful in itself is irrelevant for the purposes of business.

And, more to the point, you can turn this into your biggest asset ever.

KNOWING how they think, you can actually SOLVE this problem!

Let's look at the situation by combining BOTH viewpoints together:

1.	Business owners say they WANT to understand accounting so they could keep up to date about the development of their finances and handle any problems the easy way when they emerge instead of finding out a year later what they should have done 12 months ago.
2.	Accountants have tried and tried getting business owners INTERESTED in these matters with little success.

Although these two facts seem to contradict each other, they still give us the solution to this imponderable problem.

For you can OFFER them a service which includes what they want. In other words, you can include an educational element into your service and ask a good price for it.

But there's still that problem of getting through to them, right?

And here, you need specific methodology.

Methodology: How to convey understanding

Hand to heart: Have you ever felt hopeless at the prospect of having to explain something to a client?

Does it feel like fighting a losing battle?

If yes, then let me put your mind at ease: It's not your fault... and it's not the client's fault either.

The problem lies in not having the methodology to BUILD THE BASIC UNDERSTANDING before attempting to explain more advanced concepts.

Business owners CLAIM to understand the basics... but, in reality, few do. They're not lying, though... they just THINK they understand when, really, they don't.

The forgotten building block of any information delivery is ensuring that the other person understands the basics before we give him more advanced data.

If he hasn't mastered the basic principles and vocabulary of the science then he is going to get utterly LOST within seconds!

So, do you have to start educating your clients for days first so they could understand the information you deliver... and, consequently, see how extremely valuable it is for them?

Yes and no.

Yes in that you have to educate clients so they understand the basics and so they can utilise and use the information that you produce for them.

But NO, you don't have to spend days at it and you certainly don't have to do it for free.

In fact, it's time you STOPPED giving ANY advice for free.

Giving advice for free is the worst thing to do as a continuous activity: It effectively DEVALUATES your service because of the way most business owners think:

Advice that costs nothing is worth nothing.

Reversely, if you SELL your advice when a client brings a problem to you instead of jumping right into SOLVING it for him, you'll not only make a LOT more money but also effectively guarantee that he USES the knowledge!

Make your client PAY for your advice and he will automatically assign it much higher value — it costs a lot of money so it must be very valuable advice, right?

The worst-case scenario is brought about by...

—	NOT ensuring each client knows and understands the basics (so you have to keep on explaining everything endlessly and they STILL don't understand...)
—	GIVING YOUR TIME AND ADVICE FOR FREE.

Don't do that. If you're doing it already (like most of us) then make a definite decision to stop it.

Here's the better way:

—	Charge for your advice, and...
—	Make a monthly educational consultation package a condition of acceptance to your services.

The way you can achieve both AND increase your profits by an average 22% in the process is by adopting a new service model, a service that's the only BASIC added-value accounting service ever created.

It's BASIC because it is sold to every new client as their BASIC service which includes the compliance services they need.

It is the ONLY such service because it is the only concept that contains what business owners WANT on one side and what any accountant can easily DELIVER on the other.

There is only one such service, in other words as anything else will leave out something vital or add something superfluous.

It is what you deliver now BUT added with some ingredients which clients want so you'll be able to sign on new clients easily AND charge extra for it while starting the client on the road to wanting more.

Best of all, this service concept does not rely on HOURLY RATES for its compensation, so you'll be able to get by that glass ceiling.

There's quite a bit more to it than that but let's keep it simple for right now.

The goal of this service is bringing the client to a level where he is capable of understanding and planning his finances to SOME degree... and then gradually enhancing this ability.

You sell CONTROL and ABILITY — HIS gradually increasing control over his finances, HIS forever-expanding ability to plan his finances — instead of actions performed on his accounts.

The important part of it is your interaction with HIM, not data entry or year end accounts or the conducting of other compliance services.

Those services are included in the package but you don't sell THEM at all.

You sell a SOLUTION to the problem business owners HAVE. They want to understand their accounts, they want to control their finances better... and that's what you offer them!

"But," you may ask, "if it's only 15-20 minutes a month, won't it take YEARS and YEARS to train them onto a level where they're professional?"

Yes it will.

But why would you be in a hurry? It's faster than doing nothing and gives you a more fees for what you used to give for free.

"Yes, but... won't they mind the slow pace?"

No, they won't.

That's the pace they're capable of.

If someone wants to go faster, you sell him a bigger monthly package of consulting and go faster. You need to forget YOUR idea of how fast or perfectly things should be done and conduct your service based solely on THEIR ability to do it.

That's the pace they're comfortable with... and that's their level and you must not exceed it or they'll lose interest. The most common mistake of any consultant is to rush TOO MUCH at the client all at once, overwhelming him so he simply cannot take the resulting sense of "being a failure" any longer...

"Well... why would I want to train my clients into professionals who then won't need my services any longer?"

Trust me. That's not going to happen.

You're not going to educate them into accountants EVER.

But you'll train them into being CLIENTS — the best clients an accounting professional could EVER HAVE... and certainly the most permanent and more-buying clients your competitors ever thought possible!

You train them to USE your consultation support, to go through their accounts monthly and CORRECT any emerging problems immediately.

The more they learn, the more of your services they'll want to use... and the more permanent they become as clients.

You're giving them independence but they know that your support is the main source of their newfound skills and abilities.

The longer they stay on this service, the more they learn. The more they learn, the more they'll want to keep you on as their financial consultant.

This service model leads to levels of client-satisfaction and client-permanence which most accounting firms can only dream of. And one thing is for certain:

No-one, absolutely no-one would ever have the slightest chance of taking away these clients from you.

You'll never have to worry about that again.

Now this special basic added-value service has been created on the research of what business owners most want from accounting.

Thus, it's hardly surprising that 85% of business owners considered it very desirable... SO desirable, in fact, that the existence of such a service would immediately make them consider changing accountants.

Can you imagine what this service could do for your practice?

Just imagine.

If you're interested in finding out more about how you could acquire better accounting clients, why not come to our seminar "Revealing the hidden barriers of accountancy client-acquisition" or see what the Quality-Assured Accountancy Client-Acquisition Service could do to give you control over your local area?

Keep up the good work,

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
CONTACT FORM

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
CONTACT FORM