Answering the Awkward Client Questions

So, I’m meeting my client to deal with their usual compliance issues, probably accounts and tax – where I’m the expert.  

But s/he wants more from me, asking questions like these: 

  • What do I need to do to make better profits? 

  • Why is my cashflow such a struggle?  

  • How can I find more customers? 

  • Why aren’t my customers coming back for more? 

  • What can I do to make this business more efficient? 

  • Why aren’t my people more productive? 

  • I’d sell this business now if I could make it worth more – but how? 

And they ask other questions too which are really subsets of the above eg: 

  • What can I do about rising competition? 

  • Why do my sales pitches keep getting rejected? 

  • How can I stop suppliers putting up prices? 

  • Why can’t I put up my prices?  

  • How can I manage on fewer people?  

  • Why don’t my people pull their weight? 

…and so on. 

I want to help but feel rather powerless  

…because s/he is looking for specific answers to implement immediately.  

If I don’t try to help, s/he may think me incompetent or unhelpful which risks the relationship. 

After all, there are other accountants out there adding the expression ‘and business advisors’ to their advertising, to tempt them away from me.

And I’m using the same expression ‘business advisor’ as well so my client is entitled to believe I can help.  

And if I do help, s/he’ll expect it free, because I have no mechanism for charging other than by the hour, which isn’t well received these days.  

If I think I do know the answer and tell it to them – it might not work, then s/he will blame me, which puts the existing compliance relationship and my cashflow at risk.  

I might give safely vague answers like “have you thought about…?” Or “I have another client who did…”  

And I run a business myself after all, so have faced and solved similar issues. But then, an accountant practice isn’t like a typical small business. Is it? 

I’ve bought accounting software that claimed to empower me to give business advice 

…but that seems to stop with giving out fact sheets and website links to my client to figure out ‘where to next’. 

“Not good enough” s/he tells me. “I want absolute detail that I can implement now” but I don’t have that. No one I know can provide it to me, and I’m really not confident of making it up myself.  

And you know what?  

Giving business advice seems more time consuming than accountancy work, troublesome and harder to get paid for.  

But I’ve been drawn into my client’s problem and need to find a way out. 

So in desperation I’ve suggested a consultant I met at a networking meeting and another who is a client. But I’m worried they’ll do a bad job and charge a lot of money. And the client relationship will be spoiled anyway.  

So, there is the accountant’s dilemma… 

If I must become a business advisor, how can I do so credibly, operate safely, make my client happy, not waste my time and get paid? 

To answer that I’ve unpicked what a consultant does.  

It’s conceptually simple (if doing the job properly): 

Stage One 

  1. Find out where my client wants their business to be and when by  

  2. Establish where it is today   

  3. Forecast the feasibility of transiting from one state to the other  

  4. Work out what actions will achieve that   

  5. Present my client with a costed plan of action  

  6. Invoice & get paid  

    Assuming acceptance… 

    Stage Two  

  7. Implement the plan with my client by any of these support methods: 

    a. Mentoring  

    b. Coaching  

    c. Consultancy 

    d. Training  

    …and review sessions 

  8. Invoice and get paid (not a dispute hopefully)  

Trouble is that’s an awful lot of consultancy time and at the £100 per hour I charge for my time as an accountant that’s an eye watering £5000 for Stage One. 

Then Stage Two at one day per week is £2000-£4000 per month. 

Even if my client pays for Stage One, what appetite will s/he have to be paying me for the all-important implementation support? 

It’s just not going to happen is it?  

And to crown it all, there’s no way I can get the skills to do all that without giving up accountancy work and entering full time consultancy training before I can work with my first business advisory client.  

So I’m stuck… 

Unless I have a leap of imagination 

…like, what if the whole consultancy process could be automated:  

  • A benchmark database available for every SIC group showing what’s possible? 

  • Algorithms able to calculate performance and value for every aspect of any business? 

  • A detailed plan generated that starts by fixing the most urgent problem?   

  • Specific steps set out online for implementation?   

  • A knowledge base with an endless supply of next actions to take? 

  • My input time per client at one hour per month forever?  

  • Subscription income increasing every month?  

…And me trained to use it all in 10-30 hours?  

Just a wild thought

Find out the Runagood® solution here

Duncan Collins

Founder of Runagood.com Ltd

Runagood Ltd