Businesses that sell services are basically offering a solution that the buyer is unwilling, or unable, to provide for themselves.
Accountants are getting the message: that solutions to problems can be packaged as service products.
Most practitioners would raise their hands if asked to confirm if they had researched and offered a client the solution to their presented problem. Many would also admit that after sharing their solution with clients, the research was filed to gather dust in the filing room or to disappear into paperless archives.
However, more and more advisers seem to be holding back from this “closing the file” process. Instead they are documenting the process, giving the service a name, a product name and offering the service to other clients or prospects who may have similar problems.
Obvious really, and yet how often does this opportunity to leverage advice get ignored by advisers caught-up in the daily grind of returning calls, answering emails and solving staff issues?
If we are entering a belt tightening period – post Brexit – does this not create the same opportunity to dust off recession-busting skills and offer them to clients to better their chances of surviving the possible downturn in economic activity?
It would be interesting to consider how accountants will deal with these same problems; even advisers are subject to the same economic pressures, the need to find solutions to their own problems. Indeed, some of those problems may require that they take advice.
If we are about to face these challenges, which is the better way to consider your options: to head for the nearest bar and drown your sorrows or switch into problem solving mode. No-brainer really.
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