As an accountant, you know the vast amount of value you bring to business owners and individuals on an ongoing basis. But do your clients know the value you bring to them?
When clients understand your value, they stick around. Prospects also find a reason to choose your firm over the competition because they know you offer something others cannot provide.
Far too often, clients do not understand the value of your services. As a result, you risk feeling unappreciated, devalued, and losing customers to your competition.
So, how do you communicate and demonstrate your value to clients?
Let’s take a closer look at actionable steps firms can take today to help clients understand the true value of their services.
How to Demonstrate Your Value to Clients
The need to demonstrate your value to prospects and clients starts right away in a relationship and must continue throughout the relationship. But in order to do that effectively, the first thing you need to understand is what they perceive as value.
What Do Your Clients Value?
To demonstrate your value, you have to understand your clients’ needs and what they perceive as value. Do your clients want to:
- Increase their profits?
- Grow their business?
- Have more free time?
- Increase their margins?
- Sell their business?
Maybe it is all of the above or none of the above. To figure out what matters most to them, you will need to ask a lot of questions to determine what their goals, challenges, and pain points are.
From there, you can communicate your value in a relatable way. For example, if your clients want more free time, you can demonstrate your value by communicating how your services save time and allow them to focus more on their family or tasks related to growing their business. It also allows you to tailor your services to meet clients' needs.
Finding ways to incorporate unique services that your competitors either do not offer or communicate well themselves into your offerings can give you a leg up on other firms while creating immense value for clients.
If you want clients to see the value of your work, you need to send the right message—one that touches on their needs and goals.
Communicate Your Value Upfront
Once you have understood what your clients value, it is time to review your marketing materials and onboarding processes. Through your marketing materials and onboarding process, you can let clients know that you offer more than just a data entry service.
Communicate your value by explaining that your services provide many other benefits, like:
- Providing financial insight into their business.
- Delivering accurate and timely financials that can help them reach their goals, whether it’s getting access to funding, selling their business, forming partnerships, or making important decisions (such as purchases or investments).
- Working with an experienced professional who understands their business and can provide helpful guidance in various areas.
- Providing organizational a process development to help create efficiencies in the business
Positioning your firm as a partner in their success will help clients see the value of your services right from the get-go.
When I was still running my firm, our onboarding process included a statement that explained how our services were not just a necessary business expense but an investment in the success of the business.
That we do not work for the clients but with them to help achieve their goals. Our clients were required to agree and acknowledge their understanding of this statement. Those who didn’t agree with the statement weren’t a good fit for our firm.
Taking a similar approach to your onboarding process can also help ensure that you only work with clients who value and appreciate the hard work and expertise you bring.
Work Closely With Clients to Help Them Reach Their Goals
You’ve shown your value upfront, but the work doesn’t stop there. If you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. That means working with clients closely to help them reach their goals. Show your clients that you do more than just send reports, keep their books updated, or provide them with a tax return once a year.
How do you demonstrate your value on an ongoing basis?
Spend Time with Your Clients
Communicate with your clients regularly. Spend time with them, either virtually or face-to-face. Understand their goals and how their business is changing. Consider how you can help them reach their current and future goals. This goes back to understanding their needs and what they perceive as value.
Just like your goals change over time, your clients’ will too. Work closely with your clients to keep in touch to see if their goals have changed and create strategies to help achieve them.
Throughout the process, track and measure progress as you help your clients reach their goals, which will further instill how your services are delivering value.
When clients understand your value, they stick around. Prospects also find a reason to choose your firm over the competition because they know you offer something others cannot provide.
Provide Ongoing Advisory Services
Offering strategic advisory services can go a long way in demonstrating your value. For example, when reviewing financials with a client, you can let them know when something is out of the ordinary and how it may impact their business.
If their expenses are unusually high, you can explain how this may affect other areas of their business, such as their cash flow and bottom line. You can also provide recommendations on how to resolve these issues.
Maybe a client has several lines of credit, and condensing them will make monthly payments more manageable.
Strategic advisory services are perceived as highly valuable by many clients. In fact, a recent survey from CPA.com found that firms offering advisory services increased their monthly client revenues by as much as 50%.
According to data from this survey, the most valuable advisory services were:
- Business modeling and revenue growth
- Budgeting
- Tax planning
- Risk management
- Advanced KPI reporting
Many of the buyers who participated in this survey purchased packaged accounting services. Bundling your traditional services with advisory services can provide value and give clients a reason to continue working with your firm.
Provide an Impeccable Client Experience
Demonstrating your value also means providing clients with an impeccable client experience. Even if you offer advisory services at unbeatable prices, you will have difficulty demonstrating your value if the client experience is poor.
How do you provide an impeccable experience?
- Never miss deadlines
- Do what you say you’re going to do
- Be proactive with communication and guidance
- Make it as easy for clients to work with your firm
The right software can help your firm achieve all of these goals and provide clients with first-class service. Client Hub is one excellent option for firms looking for software to help with this.
Communicating and demonstrating your value is an ongoing process, and it is one that needs to be tailored to each client. Following the steps above can help clients understand how your services benefit their business and help them reach their goals.
But do not forget to add the client’s experience into the equation. Providing personalized services and ensuring that you provide the services you promise will further demonstrate your value.
If you have questions about demonstrating your value to clients or would like a demo of Client Hub, get in touch with Judie HERE.
Judie McCarthy is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor (Advanced Certified), speaker, author, experienced accounting professional, and co-founder of Client Hub. Client Hub is a one of a kind, all in one web-based, frictionless workflow and client collaboration tool built for today's accounting professionals. Client Hub takes communication out of cluttered, unsecure email inboxes and into a secure, firm branded workspace. To get in touch with Judie or schedule a demo, CLICK HERE.
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