\n
What do you really need to promote as an accountant? This is a simple enough question, and knowing the right answer could make a profound difference to the success of your practice.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with what you\u2019re NOT promoting. Your time. It\u2019s less common today than it was, but still there are plenty of people, including some accountants, who think accountants are selling their time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of the reasons I prefer to reference what it is you need to promote. As this is self evidently NOT your time.<\/p>\n
Clients typically don\u2019t value your time. It rarely matters to them whether what you do for them takes 2 hours or 22 hours. This is true even if they do ask about your (notional) hourly rate.\u00a0 They ask because they don\u2019t know what else to focus on.\u00a0 You can help them realise this is not the best way to compare accountants.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a wonderful old analogy involving electric drills. When someone buys a drill, is that what they wanted? Or is what they want, \u2018holes\u2019? The manufacturers will sell more of their products if they focus on what their customers really want.\u00a0 The different types of drill and the extra features they may have are all secondary to whether they will give the customer what they really want.<\/p>\n
Years ago I realised that what our clients want is trust, confidence and peace of mind. They want solutions to their problems.<\/p>\n
Our clients typically want and value someone competent and experienced to help them satisfy their legal obligations to file annual accounts and tax returns, to work out how much tax they need to pay, to help them arrange their affairs to pay the minimum amount of tax that will be legally acceptable and so on.<\/p>\n
Many clients want an accountant to do this work rather than for them to have to devote their own time to doing something they don\u2019t enjoy or don\u2019t want to learn how to do themselves.<\/p>\n
Beyond this, some clients want regular advice from an accountant evidently able to provide guidance by reference to previous comparable experiences; or someone able to apply their knowledge, skills and experience to help the client achieve their objectives.<\/p>\n
These objectives may be to save money, time and effort or to avoid making critical mistakes, to increase their profits, maximise their post-tax sale proceeds \u2013 or any of a long list of other ideals.<\/p>\n
When you talk about what you do for clients, whenever you promote your services, you will have much greater success if you keep in mind what clients typically want and value.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same for me in my current role. Those accountants who choose to work with me have problems, challenges or issues and they have to be satisfied that I can help them resolve these. Often the role then evolves into something closer to NED-style support for the practice owner. But rarely does anyone get in touch if they don\u2019t have a specific issue that is troubling them.<\/p>\n
Coming back to you, if you\u2019re like most accountants your website focuses on the basics. It promotes (and thus tries to sell) the same boring old compliance work as every other accountant. This may be what some clients want. But by focusing here you\u2019re not making it easy for anyone to see why they should choose you and your firm over any other accountant.<\/p>\n
You all seem to be selling the same things. And, as with anyone selling any interchangeable products, you need to make it easier to choose YOU rather than someone else.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t stand out in some positive way you shouldn\u2019t be surprised that people look for the lowest price option. That\u2019s what we do when we buy things that we could get anywhere. And yet, plenty of people buy premium priced services and products. They do this when they are satisfied that they will get more value than from the cheaper alternatives. \u2018Value\u2019 as they, the customers\/clients perceive it \u2013 not because you claim to deliver good value ;-).<\/p>\n
Fail to stand out positively and even when you win clients you may find they do not value you or your services. Why not?<\/p>\n
Clients will never value their accountant if they and you think that all you are doing is selling a product or service that could be obtained from any other accountant.<\/p>\n
Whilst the tax returns and accounts you produce might be much the same as that available from other accountants, that is not the end of the matter. Your website and promotional messages could focus on something other than the basic compliance services provided by every accountant.<\/p>\n
And, when you first engage with a prospective clients, if you ask them the right questions you can uncover what really matters to them. What is it that is driving them to seek a new accountant?<\/p>\n
Only when you know what THEY want and WHY they want it, can you really promote the benefits of your services in ways that ensures they will resonate with the prospect.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what you need to promote. How your services can provide clients with what they seek, what they need and why they should engage you rather than any other accountant. So, put your modesty aside and accept that you also need to be able to promote the BENEFITS of using YOU.<\/p>\n
If you dislike the idea of \u2018selling\u2019 it may help if, you\u00a0<\/span>reframe the idea and recognise that<\/span>\u00a0all you are trying to do is to secure someone\u2019s commitment to engage you.<\/p>\nWhich ever way you look at this, the most challenging part of this is recognising that to win more of the clients you want, you do need to get better at the promotional side of things.<\/p>\n
A \u2018me too\u2019 website and a focus on the same old boring compliance services as other accountants, isn\u2019t going to help much, if at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What do you really need to promote as an accountant? This is a simple enough question, and knowing the right answer could make a profound difference to the success of your practice. Let\u2019s start with what you\u2019re NOT promoting. Your time. It\u2019s less common today than it was, but still there are plenty of people, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11759],"tags":[21425,2481,8402,17188],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-54835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accounting","tag-accountant","tag-future","tag-marketing","tag-promote"],"yoast_head":"\n
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