While we Accountants are adept at spotting potential weaknesses in our client’s fiscal plans, we often turn a blind eye to weaknesses in our own skill sets that could be stymieing our practice growth opportunities.
As an Accountant and Practice Growth specialist, I get to meet lots of hard working Accountants that are called upon daily to solve complex financial issues, but beyond solving the problem at hand, many Accountants are often clueless when it comes to identifying the needs of their clients beyond the immediate problem they are addressing.
In other words, Accountants are often poor at communicating the additional value they could be offering to their clients (value-added services) that could make a huge impact on their ability to generate higher fees. Let’s face it, many Accountants just don’t feel comfortable when it comes to ‘selling’ their own abilities.
The good news is that clients are often desperately in need of these additional services, the trouble is that they don’t realise that you (as their Accountant) are probably better equipped to provide these services than any other 3rd party advisor. The key is in knowing how to spot those needs, and more importantly, knowing how to convey your extended expertise to your own client base.
This is not a failing of Accountants per say, but rather can be attributed to a historical oversight by many firms to put in place formal processes that provide their clients with an expanded range of business development tools. Tools that go beyond the normal services of a traditional Accountant.
At TwentySix Group, we are specialists in Practice Growth management and we can provide your firm with a range of business tools and skill sets, that will enable you to identify a broad range of opportunities to meet your client’s broader business needs, which will in turn open the door to more billing opportunities.
In today’s competitive market, practice growth and higher fee generation need to be driven by formal business processes that enable you to fully understand your client’s business needs, and that constantly prompt them to turn to you as their most trusted source of business advice.
Why not talk to us today to see if our tried and proven practice growth strategies can help you gain a much greater rate of fees from your existing client base.