Much of our time is spent training accountants in business consultancy skills, followed by instruction in how to use our technology to automate the ‘whole business’ advisory process.

Our business consultancy modules major on the human, psychological, skills needed to develop and sustain working relationships with business owners.

We start by practising on existing clients who will be accepting and tolerant of your need to learn and gain operating confidence before moving into the tougher proposition of engagement with new prospects.

Which has caused a fascinating discovery that most of our trainees knew nothing about their clients’ personal affairs.

We have been told: “this chap has been a client for 10 years and I never knew if he / she was married, had children, been to university, previous career, hobbies. I didn’t know it was OK to ask or even appropriate to know”

That works for accountancy I guess, but as a business consultant / advisor / coach / mentor we are dealing with everything about the business owner and their business.

So, we introduced a fact-find product that mixes everything an accountant needs to know with everything a consultant needs to know about the client.

Why does this matter?

Because:

The past explains their present
The present is where they are today
The future is the only place they can control
So, our job is to help them take the right decisions today about their future
Therefore, the correct consultancy process must be:
Understanding how the business and its owner arrived at today
Understanding where both wish to be in the future
Analysing the gaps and reasons
Mapping and agreeing realistic objectives that will close the gaps
Specifying the practical actions needed
Helping the owner to implement them

None of this can work effectively without an intimate understanding of the owner and their business, otherwise serious errors are likely through unchecked assumptions.

The first thing we teach is personality profiling. How to: understand yourself; spot and understand others’ profiles; deal with the different types; adapt your behaviour according to who you are dealing with.

Why?

Because it’s about getting them talking and disclosing in a safe way, so you collect all the information you need to gain a full understanding of their past and present and their future aspirations. This is relationship development as it should be done, building mutual trust and respect from which will flow new and interesting areas of business and personal fulfilment for you.

Which is how accountants can transit into a new way of working.

But let’s do a reality check.

So, straight away you see they are polar opposites.

The accountant is high on Steadiness and Compliance, essential attributes to prepare accurate and legally compliant work that his / her client entrusts to them, to keep them safe by organising the past.

The consultant is high on Dominance and Influence, reflecting a determination to get the order and start telling the client what to do, to make a difference to their future.

Neither profile is ideal for the Runagood® way of doing things.

So, can you change your profile?

No, but you can adapt your behaviour…

This works by studying the attributes that will get the best from your business owner’s personality type.

The main pointers are:

A D low enough to be a listener, but high enough to press for progress
An I high enough to build a relationship, but low enough to remain objective
An S high to respect the status quo but low enough to press for evolutionary change
A C high enough to follow the plan but low enough to change what doesn’t work

Through learning how to navigate these and offset yours to the business owner’s profile, every sales pitch can be won, and every client retained.

Further modules build on this by teaching structured conversational skills that get business owners talking freely and disclosing everything you need to know in order to offer them the right project to achieve their goals.

This process approach does away with the need for sales pitches, leading naturally to a request for you to help.

Conclusion

Knowledge is power and new revenue, easily obtained by taking a systematic and teachable approach to human relations.

Learn more about Consultancy Skills

By Duncan Collins

Founder of Runagood.com Ltd

What Don't You Know About Your Clients?