What do you REALLY need to sell as an accountant?

Each week Mark publishes a fresh strategic advice blog post for the thousands of accountants, bookkeepers and tax advisers who have subscribed via his website. He also copies the email here as a Linkedin article and adds 5 further practical tips and the most recent item from his Accounting Fun blog.

Intro

This week you'll find below:

• 3 more practical tips I have shared with clients I am mentoring
• Another practical Linkedin tip
• A quick tip from my talk on advisory services
• What do you REALLY need to sell as an accountant?
• What you can get from the Tax Advice Network
• Ten more puns for accountants

As ever, you are welcome to get in touch if anything here sparks a need to chat or you want to clarify anything I have said.

3 practical tips I shared recently in 1-2-1 sessions

If any of these resonate maybe now would be the time for us to have a chat to see if I could help you directly:

1. More options: I can see why you've focused on those four options as regards the way ahead, but there are at least two more you haven't considered. There may be others too. Let's reduce the sense of overwhelm and focus on your ambition and then it will be easier to decide which route to take.
2. Priorities: Despite what you might claim, your real priorities are often revealed by the time you have reserved for them in your calendar. If you don't reserve time for them, how important are these 'priorities' really?
3. Check what's out there: Open a private/incognito tab in your browser and then search for your firm to see what shows up when others do this online. Do the same with your name, that of colleagues, clients and competitors. Check out the general results, the images and the news. (You have to do it 'incognito' so that Google isn't influenced by your search history).

Maybe you would benefit from a mentor or a quasi-NED for your practice.

If you'd like to have a chat without any obligation, do get in touch. Whether to help you move your practice forwards, to use me as a confidential support or to help you resolve any practice or strategic marketing related challenge you are facing.

Book a call >>>

Linkedin tip

To ensure you get to see my regular posts on Linkedin, go to my profile and click the notification bell at the top right beneath the header banner. You can also do this with anyone else whose posts you want to see. The alternative is to leave it to the algorithm to decide which posts to show you from your various connections on the site.

Visit my Linkedin profile >>>

Tip from my talk: Moving into advisory services

Ask questions that will reveal your clients’ needs, challenges, problems and worries. These are pain signals and reveal where your pro-active advice may be valued.

You need to know their Aspirations, Dreams, Hopes and Drivers/Desires before you can help clients develop plans, exploit opportunities and build on their strengths.

Talks and topics >>>

What do you REALLY need to sell as an accountant?

What do you really need to sell 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’s start with what you’re NOT selling. As I explained in a 2018 blog post, You are NOT selling your time.

Clients typically don’t 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. They ask because they don’t know what else to focus on. You can help them realise this is not the best way to compare accountants.

So, if you’re not selling your time what are you selling?

Well, you’re probably also not selling tax returns, accounts or any other ‘product’.

At least, you will struggle to get the clients you want paying you the fees you want if you focus on trying to sell these things.

So what are you really selling?

There’s a wonderful old analogy involving electric drills. When someone buys a drill, is that what they wanted? Or is what they want, holes? The manufacturers will sell more of their products if they focus on what their customers really want. 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.

In the remainder of this article you will find the answer to the question, what this means for how you promote yourself and your services if you want to secure more business and clients of the type you really want.

Read the full blog post >>>

General practice focused Tax Tips

Get your 3 timely, practical and commercial tax tips every Thursday from the Tax Advice Network. These are written, especially for general practitioner accountants, by Rebecca Cave. And each tip includes links to the source material should you want more details. You can sign up FOC now.

Weekly tax tips >>>

When you need tax support for your clients

It costs nothing to use FindATaxAdviser.online. The advisers you find here are all members of the Tax Advice Network, which I Chair.

Easy to use whether you have a one-off situation or you want someone to refer your heavyweight tax issues on a regular basis.

2021 saw a 45% increase in traffic to the Tax Advice Network website. It is bigger than ever, with specialist advisers covering an extensive range of over 100 tax issues.

Fun time - Ten more puns for accountants

1. Immature accountants don’t act their wage.
2. Accountants don’t retire, they just close the books.
3. Accountants are like gymnasts as they need to be good at finding their balance.
4. Stoic accountants have good internal controls.
5. Accountants like working in glass offices because transparency is important.
6. My accountant's pre-tax income is gross.
7. Accountants quit when they lose interest.
8. Accounting can be accrual profession.
9. Some accountants have great figures.
10. Every accountant counts.

---------Copied with permission from AccountingFun.co.uk-------

Let's have a chat...

....if any of the more serious topics above resonated with you. I love supporting and encouraging sole practitioner accountants who want to secure more referrals, reach and results.

You can take your chances here now: 07769 692890

or book a call at a time that suits us both: www.calendly.com/bookmarklee

-----------

Mark Lee FCA  provides strategic insights, advice, talks and mentoring for accountants and tax advisers who want to improve their reach, referrals and results. He is also Chairman of the  Tax Advice Network, the UK’s largest network of independent tax advisers.

Earlier in his career he was a partner in two top firms. He has a number of voluntary roles and is a long time member of The Magic Circle.

BookMarkLee.co.uk

You can subscribe for his weekly email on Linkedin or via this link >>>