Advisory services for Accounting & Finance firms

A typical firm is often competent enough to provide good quality work for its clients. A distinctive factor of well-off accounting, tax, audit and financial services firms is their ability to make quality business decisions in reasonable time.

At each professional firm, there are nine critical control points (CRICPs) where organizational entropy (left unattended) is responsible for huge losses of useful work. We work alongside top management to reduce — and sometimes increase — uncertainty to move the needle effectively.

Many well-positioned and differentiated accounting & finance industry firms are capable of charging more for their services. They are also more intentional about own workload, and capable of saying No to clients who aren’t a great fit without compromising profits, productivity, or sustainability. If that’s what you want for your firm, no reason to assume it’s unattainable.

Top performing firms win 2.6x more bids compared to undifferentiated rivals.

The top challenges of Accounting & Finance industries

Managing partners of accounting, audit and financial services firms deem the following problems to be of prime importance:

  1. How to manage ever-changing client demands while maintaining profitability
  2. Getting better clients and qualified prospects
  3. How to counter commoditization and global competition
  4. Hiring, keeping and motivating employees
  5. Winning more business without losing an arm and a leg
  6. How to improve utilization rates
  7. How to integrate cutting-edge technology to compete with AI & automation
  8. How to run an efficient firm at a comfortable size and pace
  9. How to make strategic business decisions better
  10. How and when to prune time-sucking processes and wrong clients
  11. Which service offering to add or subtract
  12. Which marketing activities will yield the best results
  13. What kind of culture would attract the most suitable candidates
  14. How to best manage the firm to stay ahead of competition

Based on proprietary management models, our advisory services and management solutions were developed specifically for accounting, tax, audit, finance, and wealth management firms to tackle the aforementioned challenges.

Solutions
Advisory Services

Getting better clients is about an excess of prospects

A typical accounting, tax, audit and financial services firm admits having 20% of bad clients. Yet they can’t help but continue serving these buyers at the expense of their time, profit margins and well-being.

The ability to say no to some undesirable clients comes from an excess of prospects. The more options you have the easier it is to make that overdue decision — to prune.

Clients come from prospects; prospects come from leads. To have a comfortable amount of work your firm needs an ongoing lead generation system as well as ways of improving lead-to-prospect conversion rates.

We will help navigate your firm to a defensible, sustainable, compelling market position(s). Where you are certain what you’re best at, know who would benefit most from what you do, and can clearly articulate your take on the problems and challenges of your clients.

Together, given your current capabilities, we will work toward an exciting future for your firm: better-fit clients, the right kind of professionals, palatable marketing activities, sustainable business, and preferable growth.

Profitability of accounting & financial services firms comes from differentiation

It doesn’t matter if the company has X per cent share of the market today if it isn’t that different from its alternatives. Recession comes back and undifferentiated firms will find themselves struggling — again.

When buyers of accounting and financial services end up with lighter wallets, interchangeable firms will be the first to replace. Combine this with a notorious notion (on clients’ end) of commoditization, automation and AI pressure, and we have makings of a not-so-lucrative business.

If you manage the kind of special firm that believes in doing the best work for their clients who eagerly pay premium for your deep expertise, you know — the path to sustainable, comfortable, impactful business rests with differentiation that is built around your competence.

To really stand out from a mind-boggling crowd of bland commodities we have to attend to your positioning. We have to review your service lines, and we need to discover what sets your firm apart at its core.

Attracting better people is about your firm’s culture

True — the higher the salary, the more the benefits, the better your chances of attracting more professionals to your candidates’ pool. However, at a certain income threshold money and benefits become less relevant.

A strong culture facilitates integration of new employees. We will attend to the fundamental pillars that foster your desired culture. Together, we will also work to (re)discover your mission, vision, values, and purpose.

We will introduce some tactics to your marketing channels in order to create a pool of qualified candidates. So, when you need it most you have a source to draw from.

Sometimes great employees move on and there’s nothing you can do. But when your firm has an amazing culture these A players will do their best to reciprocate — they will find replacements, and promote your firm to people they themselves would never feel embarrassed for.

Connect with us to discuss your aspirations

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