Client Advisory Services is About Earning Your Clients’ Business

Not so long ago, we won our clients through referrals, and most of our client base lived within a 5 to 10 mile radius from our office. We went to local networking events in the evening and possibly advertised in the local paper, yellow pages or maybe even sent direct mail.

Those times have passed. With cloud technology upon us, access to clients anywhere in the world, and generational shifts in not only our clients, but our staff, expectations have shifted on what an accounting professional is expected to deliver today and into the future. Rather than delivering the work after the fact, and clients not getting a glimpse into their tax position until anywhere from 3 to 9 months after the year is over, clients want to know in real-time where they stand so they can make proactive decisions.

This “real-time” desire for information is actually not completely new. Clients have always wanted our advice and time dedicated to answering questions about their business.  Before cloud automation, the problem was that it was hard to dedicate the right amount of time to these conversations. This is because of the countless piles of papers and forms that we needed to sift through in order to complete all of our clients’ compliance work on time and accurately. 

This is where the gift of cloud technology is realized. We can now let technology do the heavy lifting for us, so we have more time to provide strategic advice to help our clients make smart, real-time decisions and plan for the future.  

Furthermore, when we take the time to think through how to implement cloud technology and automation into our businesses, it not only enhances our clients’ experience but that of our team’s. This is because cloud technology helps our employees focus on strategic, meaningful interactions with our clients -- rather than being stuck behind the computer -- and better connect and communicate with clients and colleagues. As a result, a whole new world opens up for us to deliver our services in innovative ways that are bound to delight our clients and empower our teams to do their best work.

I remember a client I had years ago when the construction industry was hit hard in South Florida. When everything began to foreclose and construction stopped, their business took a hard hit. One day my client called me and said, “I only have $200 to pay you this month, will you still meet with me so I can review the numbers with you?” That struck me hard. With the last $200 that they had that month, they wanted to spend it with their accountant. 

This experience was the biggest compliment I could have ever received. It showed that I was a valued part of their business, not an expense that they felt was a “price of doing business.” How many of your clients would want to spend their money meeting with you because what you deliver is critical to them making the decisions they need to stay healthy as a business?

We have all been trained in this.  We have thousands of hours of expertise that we have built up over our careers. Technology is now giving us the opportunity to step out from the computer and have these real conversations that make an impact and can create more fulfillment in the work we do. We can’t assume though that communication is easy. Communication is as much of a skill as our technical expertise. Unfortunately, though, we don’t dedicate as much time to working on our interpersonal relationship skills that develop strong connections with our clients as we do on keeping up on regulatory and technical training.

According to the World Economic Forum jobs report, workers will need an average of 101 days of learning over the five-year period ending in 2022 — about 20 days per year -- to keep pace with technological advancements. The top skills in demand include analytical thinking and innovation, active learning and learning strategies, creativity, originality, initiative, technology design and programming, and critical thinking.

This is a wake-up call to review how we’re currently training our teams so that we’re ready for this shift in technology and can take advantage of what it offers. What has always been true, and will continue to be true, is that technology can never replicate our human advice and connection. The accounting profession remains highly trusted, and we can’t risk losing sight of that valuable personal connection that people crave. 

Training such as project management, enhancing soft skills such as collaboration and active listening, as well as analytical skills are a great benefit to your team. Plus, adding in non-traditional training, such as painting or even music, can start building the creativity muscle to help with innovative thinking to create and deliver new service lines. 

I encourage you to rethink where you focus your learning this year to include interpersonal and analytical skills, as well as time for outside activities that your teams can participate in together and build their creative side to unlock innovation. As we put more attention to these important skills, we can start creating new service lines in our practice that deliver more proactive real-time analysis of our client’s business, and allow the technology to do the heavy lifting of the compliance work. We can smooth our revenue cycles so that we are billing our clients on a recurring basis, meeting with them on their current issues and opportunities, and delivering an advisory relationship in which you earn a lifelong client because they can’t imagine not having you and your practice as a part of their business.

— Amy Vetter, CPA/CITP, CGMA, is the CEO of The B3 Method Institute, a keynote speaker and corporate board adviser, Technology Innovations Task Force leader for the AICPA’s Information Management Technology Assurance (IMTA) Executive Committee, and the author of the books Integrative Advisory Services: Expanding Your Accounting Services Beyond the Cloud, published by Wiley and Business, Balance and Bliss: How the B3 Method Can Transform Your Career and Life.