In part.1 we explored ‘Advisory’ and this unique term used within the accounting profession ‘the Trusted Advisor’ and how this unique label is defined.
Let’s now explore the perceived “Value in Advisory’.
Risk Dashboard has observed accounting firms on our platform grow their business by transitioning to include more strategic, advisory services, as mentioned; HR / H&S / InfoSec / Fraud / Sales & Marketing etc.
This represents an opportunity for a deeper partnership between the accounting profession and your clients. The path towards a new, higher-margin revenue stream.
Firms who are yet to transition will be left with lower-margin work and purely transactional relationships.
Those firms looking to migrate to an advisory practice, need to start by asking – “what does this mean for them?”.
Advisory is not ‘one size fits all’ driven by firm size, it is where they are at in this journey, where they are located, and potentially the specific industry or vertical where they focus.
“I think firms have to ask, ‘What business model do we want to have as a firm?’ rather than, ‘What do we want to react to?’ it’s, ‘What do we want to sell?
Building a successful advisory practice also means determining the right services to provide clients.
Accountants should always lead with understanding clients and their needs. Examine your clients’ pain points, and determine where they need the most help. If it’s not clear or you aren’t sure, ask.
One-on-one meetings are an opportunity to deploy Risk Dashboard and get to the heart of what they need from you most,” aligning client needs with your firm’s appetite (and ability) for growth, existing offerings, employee interests, and potential areas for expansion, as mentioned in part.1
Developing an advisory practice and successfully delivering those services to clients means having the right tools and resources in place to enable greater efficiencies, standardization, and higher-value insights.
Today, business clients are looking to make decisions based on business insights, not just financial statements.
Another critical factor in building an advisory practice is to develop an “advisory” mindset among the firm’s staff (and partners). Ensuring top executives are on board and everyone within the firm has a clear understanding of the value and benefits to be gained is essential.
For some firms, change management can prove challenging. “Developing an advisory mindset is an intentional focus on shifting how you look at your work from the ‘checklist’ to proactively highlighting areas where you can add value and insight to a client”.
Clearly, building an advisory practice involves many factors. Through it all, it is critical to remember that putting the “advisor” in “trusted advisor” boils down to truly understanding your value.
“The value, that clients really are going to want to pay for is:
- Can you help me run my business better?
- Can you provide data?
- Can you provide reporting and MI?
- Can you provide advisory services to help me run my business better?
- Can you help me profitably and successfully exit?
That’s where the value is in the value stack,”
During one of the great webinars being run by our partners at VFD, their CEO Mark Walker asked the following of a group of accountants…
“ is your firm value centric, do you think like a buyer or/an investor on how you approach your clients?”
These are the questions giving firms a competitive edge, advance and deepen client relationships, and open the doors to new opportunities and a new way of doing business.
Pivoting or adjusting current business models to incorporate consulting services can help drive business growth and profitability, open the door to more growth with clients, and set an accounting firm apart by offering specialized consulting in unique areas of business.
This type of integrated, holistic service approach will dominate the field as clients look to partner with firms that offer a wide variety of services, expertise and critical thinking under one roof.
Most partners are already great advisors and they are not the ones who need advisory training. Instead, you need to look at younger professionals so they’re comfortable “The year-round accountant/advisor”, future leaders in your firms.
Younger professionals have a lot to offer outside of audits and tax compliance having advisory conversations with clients on their own.
“What I would suggest to [younger professionals] is to go learn about the value pricing models as you start to build your client base,” “Because the compliance work is going to be there anyway, but [the clients] aren’t going to value that.”
With the evolution of technology’s such as Risk Dashboard and VFD, offering ‘Advisory’ services is easier than ever.
As a specialist provider of analytical solutions to the accounting sector, Risk Dashboard delivers real-time evidence based continuous analysis for improved reporting and decision making for accountants, business advisors and their clients.
If you would like to know more about how Risk Dashboard can help in creating a wider ‘advisory’ solution please contact Neil Campbell, Commercial Director at Risk Dashboard on info@riskdashboard.co.uk