19
HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO GROW FUTURE SUCCESS

HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    0

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO GROW FUTURE SUCCESS

Page 2: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Disruption. It’s the buzz word. The fact is, around the world technology is driving transformation in businesses and professional services of all shapes and sizes – the world of accounting is not immune. However, the key to future success is to discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’ hours to your offering.

For those practices yet to consider this area of potential growth, let’s define it: advisory is about interpreting a client’s data so you can then present information back to them. Information they haven’t received before, that provides them with value that can’t be ignored. It’s expert advice from a trusted source, backed by real data and insights.

In short, this guide is designed to help you become a ‘connected practice’, become more productive, efficient and to harness the opportunities to broaden your advisory services, expand your client base and in turn, grow your income. It will also serve as a reference to help you continue being the trusted business partner your clients turn to.

By the end of this guide you will have a good understanding of how you can further upskill and optimise your services offer more value to your clients, and in turn create more success for your business.

Why read this guide?Contents

Chapter 1: Look to the future 3Chapter 2: Advisory – The first steps 5Chapter 3: Training and Development 7Chapter 4: Client and Pricing 10 Chapter 5: Showcasing your potential 12Chapter 6: Starting the conversation 14 Chapter 7: Adding value to the data 15Chapter 8: Help when you need it 16Chapter 9: Marketing and identifying

client oportunities 17

2

Page 3: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

The main point to remember is that you don’t have to be an expert in everything to do with your clients’ businesses to be able to offer advisory services. It’s not about stepping outside your field of expertise but there is definitely opportunity for growth if this is something that interests you.

A great place to start looking at potential advisory service options is to specialise in an area that you’re already proficient in – such as business performance, cashflow, tax planning and forecasting. You could look at becoming an expert to a particular industry such as hospitality or retail, and then offer expert knowledge in relevant accounting software add-ons or business processes.

Using the knowledge and experience you already have around compliance, tax and financial process, you can feel confident in partnering with your client by giving them advice on these things. You can help add real value to their business, and in turn, grow yours.

THE FOUNDATIONS TO HELP YOU BUILD A STRATEGY FOR NEW OPPORTUNITIES.

What you’ll need to grow your advisory work

3

Page 4: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

There are many accountants already offering advisory services, some to a greater degree than others. Regardless of whether you may be taking the first steps or looking at ways to build on what you’ve already started, you need to concentrate how you can add more value to your clients’ businesses and in turn, grow yours.

We’ve created a suggested workflow to help you build and prioritise your advisory plan:

Build your strategy

1

4

2

3

Do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

Visualize what the ideal client might look like. It can help to create to create a persona who you can always reference back to in planning meetings and with the team

Build a Target Market of potential clients.Is this industry based, is it more focused on size of client or do you want to only serve clients within a certain geographical area?

Identify what Advisory for your business might mean. E.g. cashflow analysis, tax planning, management reports etc

5Put together your ideal Advisory Service Package. The worst that can happen is your client prefers to stay on your old package and way of working. We talk about different potential pricing strategies further on in this guide.

6Choose the advisory apps to help you deliver higher valuee.g. MYOB Advisor, Connected Ledger, EzyCollect, ServiceM8, Kounta and Tanda just to name a few.

7Compile a list of Add-ons to evaluate for future use.Keep an eye out for the MYOB Add-on Guide coming out in early 2020.

The key to shifting the balance between a compliance-heavy business model into one more weighted in advisory lies in prioritising exactly what needs are of greatest importance to the clients you wish to focus your attention on, whether they are in your existing portfolio or clients you are wishing to attract.

Discussions within your management team will no doubt highlight differences in opinion as to what constitutes business advisory to service these needs. Narrowing your focus down then to defining exactly what key services you are defining as your advisory offering becomes the next step.

Assessing whether you may need to spend more time developing tools and resources to effectively and efficiently deliver these services is all part of the process, so too is identifying who in your team is best equipped to deliver these services and whether you may need to spend time upskilling within your team to ensure that the needs of clients who uptake these services are met. It is likely you are already doing many of the services defined as

advisory in your day-to-day discussions with clients, however it is the product packaging which will enable you to more clearly focus the attention of your team and result in a higher quality and consistency of services across your practice.

Having defined what is involved in the delivery of these services, you will be better equipped to then set the pricing of your advisory services, taking into consideration your target clients and their pricing expectations.

The range of services that fall under your advisory offering will not be suited to all your clients. You need to identify which clients may benefit from these services to focus your attention. Getting the ball rolling then becomes one of laying the foundations with these identified clients. Educating your clients about what else you can do for them and why their business may benefit is the first step. It may require periodic re-engagement with clients before they become ready to take you up on your suite of advisory services. As with all good things this process takes time.

KYLIE LIEW GILES & LIEW CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

4

Page 5: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Before you can follow any of the tips and advice in this guide the very first thing you will need to do is have your practice operating at peak efficiency.

By having your practice running at peak efficiency means you will have more time and energy to dedicate to the execution of your advisory offering.

The essentials before you get startedHOW TO START MAKING THE MOST OF THE LATEST TECH.

5

Page 6: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Kickstart your advisory business – 5 tips to save time

1 Add-ons

Add-ons are independent solutions created by third party developers that solve specific pain points for a business. It could be anything from scheduling client appointments to managing staff time.

Over the last couple of years, literally dozens of add-ons have been created to extend the functionality of accounting software. Watch this space for a guide to Add-ons, coming soon.

Saving time when managing clients

Send a regular newsletter to keep clients updated with your business’s news or what’s going on in your industry and tips that can help them in their business. This is a great opportunity for getting valuable information out in bulk and can often save lots of phone calls or emails explaining the same thing over and over.

Automate newsletters by using services such as Mailchimp and automate your social media content by using services such as Hootsuite or Buffer.

Collaborate with your clients and bookkeepers in the cloud

By having everyone online means you can upload your data file to the cloud and then provide password-protected access to your clients & colleagues so you can both access the information at the same time.

By using a portal for document transfer and message communication there will be far less need for phone calls or face-to-face meetings all the time, plus it means the end to frustrating processes such as emailing your data files back and forth, allowing you to deliver better service to your client.

Target 70% automation

Focus on automating processes within your business by moving paper-based processes online (job management, quoting and online invoicing), as well as integrating other technology systems such as payroll, rostering, etc with your existing accounting software.

Bank feeds

Set up bank feeds to save hours of time and take the hard work out of accounting by syncing your clients’ business bank transactions with your accounting software. You can get more information here: www.myob.com/nz/accountants-and-partners/client-solutions

It means there is no need to manually key in every receipt and payment detail as the information will be automatically uploaded into your accounting software. There will be no missing data, no duplicates and no incorrect transactions if set up correctly.

After quizzing some of the brightest brains in accounting and bookkeeping we’ve put together a number of valuable ways that technology can save you time in your business:

2

3

4 5

6

Page 7: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

The tools you’ll need

Once you have put in place the technological infrastructure that will help you automate processes, save time and communicate with your clients in real-time, you will need to focus on expanding your advisory operation.

Part of your plan will need to be knowledge-based, so training and development are both important. It’s a good idea to earmark events you might like to attend on the topic of advisory, such as workshops at MYOB INCITE and MYOB Partner Connect, or heading online and checking out the array of industry body resources available – anything that helps you enhance your understanding of the advisory space, and then work out how this could fit within your business.

Training & development

Now that you have your advisory strategy mapped out, it’s time to consider how to develop your business to be in the best position to offer these services to your clients. Thinking about your knowledge and experience in the industry, what kinds of advisory skills could you develop to offer your clients? Could you upskill and offer your clients specialised knowledge of certain add-ons, such as specific industry or business processes?

As we mentioned earlier, you don’t need to become an expert in everything, focussing on a specific area that you feel comfortable about is a great place to start.

UTILISING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AND CONNECTING WITH YOUR INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS.

7

Page 8: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

If you’re looking to grow your skills there are a number of New Zealand industry bodies that offer great training and development tools, courses and webinars to help you upskill and give you the confidence to start your journey as an expert partner for your clients. Here are a few you should look into:

CA Catalyst

CA Catalyst brings together Chartered Accountants, innovation communities Fishburners, Stone & Chalk and The Icehouse, and technology providers to create opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration and allow Chartered Accountants to get on the leading edge of the future of accounting.

These opportunities include immersions within innovation communities, access to training, toolkits and guides for disruption–readiness, and exposure to practical solutions to address your key needs.

CA Catalyst is designed to help members build personal and organisational capabilities, explore new markets and services, and leverage innovation to provide greater value for themselves, their clients and their communities.

MYOB Academy

Get the most out of your software with our extensive catalogue of MYOB courses. Choose your path, add to your learning dashboard and start learning. Whatever you want to learn, we have your covered. https://academy.myob.com

MYOB Radar

MYOB Radar report explores and discusses the various threats and opportunities for accountants and bookkeepers for the next 10 years – and beyond. You can get more information here: www.myob.com/nz/comms/accountants-partners/myob-radar

Future of Business

MYOB’s Future of Business report explores the technological developments that will transform the way we live, work and play. Find out more information here: www.myob.com/nz/about/future-of-business

State of Aotearoa’s Start-ups

MYOB State of Aotearoa’s Start-ups report explores whether enough is being done to establish New Zealand as a hub for start-up development. Visit: www.myob.com/nz/about/state-of-startups

Enterprise Insights

Transforming the mid-market: 2018 MYOB Enterprise Insights Report: www.myob.com/nz/comms/enterprise/insights-report

Women in Tech

MYOB Women in Tech sheds light on the New Zealand tech sector and reveals how it must improve gender diversity in the workplace. http://files.myob.com/news/MYOB-women-in-tech-report-2018.pdf

What resources are available?

8

Page 9: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

CPA Australia Education

CPA Australia’s vision is partnering with members to prepare for today and tomorrow in a globally connected world, and this is inherent in the design of the CPA Program and it’s Continuing Professional Development offer.

The CPA Program is a comprehensive, postgraduate education program that provides candidates with a thorough grounding in accountancy, finance and business knowledge. In addition to technical accounting skills, it focuses on strategy, leadership, ethics and governance with a view to developing agile and adaptable accounting professionals who are ready to meet the challenges of a changing business world.

The CPA designation is recognised and respected throughout the business world. It represents financial, accounting and business advisory professionals of the highest training and expertise.

The value of the CPA designation is underpinned by our comprehensive Continuing Professional Development program. We offer a broad range of professional development options including face-to-face workshops, online self-paced learning modules, discussion groups, conferences, networking events, webinars and podcasts to ensure contemporary, practical and current knowledge for those in the accounting, finance and business profession.

MYOB Blog

The MYOB blog is a one-stop-shop that is jam packed with all the latest news, bookkeeper and accountant specific articles, plus relevant news and resources on everything from Government legislation to valuable tips on helping businesses succeed.

MYOB Events

Events such as Partner Connect or Incite are a great way for you to keep up with the latest trends and changes within the industry. Ask your Partner Manager or get in touch with MYOB to learn about upcoming events where you can learn from industry professionals.

MYOB Certified Consultant Course

Certified Consultants are a specialised group of highly trained MYOB Partners who have earned exclusive access to client leads, promotions, discounts, software and more.

As part of onboarding into the Certification our partners are given training on our accounting software, and add-ons, empowering them to upskill themselves, as well as their clients, on all things MYOB. Our annual re-certification provides a continuous learning path that ensures our consultants keep abreast of our business and product developments. Becoming a Certified Consultant also connects you with over 1,000 of Australasia’s leading

Accountants and Bookkeepers. We have a very active online and social community where the network support each other and share ideas and opportunities, by far the biggest advantage of the program from a Consultant perspective.

With a plan in place to expand your practice’s capacity to include more advisory, it’s a perfect time to consider how you might develop valuable partnerships with other businesses. First, a good place to start is by looking at what we call an ‘Advisory Quadrant’, based on 4 elements of advisory that your practice could start to offer. These would be:

1. Workforce Advisory 2. Cashflow Advisory 3. App Advisory 4. Strategic Advisory

Now, your practice will need to build partnerships with consultants and respected technology vendors such as MYOB, to help you package, sell and deliver advisory services within this quadrant, keeping in mind that some clients will need all 4 advisory services, while others may want only 1 or 2 depending on their needs and budget.

Let’s break down the Advisory Quadrant, to give you a better understanding of the

types of key areas that fall under each of the categories. These will provide you with ideas for the kinds of consultants and technology vendors you will need to search out and contact, with a view to expanding your specialist knowledge.

Workforce Advisory: This would include tasks such as payroll, rostering, timesheets, workforce optimisation and HR.

Cashflow Advisory: This area focuses on “Where did my money go”, faster payment from debtors, expenses, Live books etc

App Advisory: There are so many specialty apps out there which can really add value to a client’s business, from POS, inventory and eCommerce, through to things like online bookings, marketing, and CRM.

Strategic Business Advisory: This includes areas such as management reporting, projections, benchmarking, KPIs, KRAs, P&L, tax planning, strategy and succession planning.

Alternatively, you might choose to provide advisory on a specific industry, one that you may already have some knowledge or experience in. These industries could include retail, hospitality, trades, construction, eCommerce, startups, or aged care.

The bottom line is you’ll quickly discover that working in tandem with a consultant/technology vendor helps bring even more value to the advice you provide, and further strengthens your client relationship.

Partner up with technology vendors

9

Page 10: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Clients are the heart of your business and their needs are changing and evolving just as quickly as the way we do business. Keep in mind, when thinking about moving into advisory or even expanding the advisory work you might be already doing now it’s about having the “right clients”. By this, we mean you should aim to work with like-minded clients who truly value an advisory relationship – those who understand what you’re offering, why you’re doing it.

In terms of the “right clients” you may have to make some adjustments to the way you currently do business. Like having the confidence to turn certain clients away, to review them quarterly instead of monthly, to retain good clients but politely end the relationship with others. Ultimately, you might be more successful by working with fewer of the “right clients”.

One of the main questions we hear from Accountants is about how one might price advisory services. It’s likely that you’re currently on an hourly billing structure and while this may be working well for you now, as you move into an advisory space there are other options.

Here are 3 different types of billing models you can consider. These pricing structures are just examples, ultimately how you price your services is up to you.

Hourly billing:

This is a straightforward billing model based on an agreed hourly rate for specific services and tasks.

Fixed fee billing:

Fixed fee billing is when your client is billed a fixed amount for agreed services on a monthly or regular basis. Fixed fee billing can be an exceptionally good outcome for you and your clients, however, looked at in isolation when the only focus is on price, the conversation needs to be well supported by the service you’re providing and the subsequent benefits it delivers to the client.

Service billing:

Have you thought about the idea of a service billing model, such as a monthly or quarterly retainer? ‘Value based pricing’ means communicating with the client effectively about the problems they have that you can solve with your service. This may even include pain points that the client hasn’t even thought about as yet. The idea behind this is that when you point out some of the outcomes of your service they realise they don’t want to be without your solutions. This means there is very little conversation about or consideration of price.

CHOOSING THE “RIGHT CLIENTS” AND A RELEVANT PRICING STRUCTURE.

Choosing your clients

Pricing your services

10

Page 11: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Dear <name>

I’m changing my billing structure from an hourly rate to monthly fixed fees. With long-term clients like yourself this is an easy process as we have the billing history on which to base the calculations. Please note all figures are excluding GST as this represents the true cost to you. Fee history: For the previous financial year and this year to date (X months) my fees to you have averaged $XXX per month. My proposal: $XXX per month including MYOB subs. That represents a saving to you of $XXX per year (or more than a month for free!).

Conditions: 1. This would be subject to review every X months (however your business is quite stable

so unless you introduce a new element or there is some other major change I’m happy for that to remain as it is for at least a year).

2. I would ask that you set up a recurring payment for $XXX + GST = $XXX on the 15th of each month. That would cut down on the admin for both of us, although I’d still send you an invoice each month.

So there you have it, and I look forward to your feedback and any questions you may have.

Regards,

From hourly to fixed fee – an MYOB Partners Story

“I had been charging an hourly rate for as long as I’ve been in business (many years) and when I’d considered fixed fees it was hard to think about how to work it out. I’d also been of the opinion that with fixed fees someone always loses.

Either you add a buffer to allow for unexpected extra work, in which case the client loses, or else you charge a conservative rate in which case you lose when there’s extra work.

However, when I got down to it, it was actually quite easy. Most of my clients had been with me for some time if not for years, so I had plenty of history to use to work out what their average monthly fee was.

Then in order to sweeten the deal for them, in all cases I offered them a bundled amount that was less than what they’d been paying, and that worked in every case – I had virtually no resistance. I took advantage of the reduced subs for MYOB Partners so that I wasn’t losing out either – a real win-win!

The example email explains it best.

Probably the best part of this for me (and I’m so glad I thought of it) is Condition 2, the recurring payments. In that it’s now a case of set and forget for both me and the client.

They know exactly how much they’re paying every month and it’s done automatically, and I don’t have to chase anyone for payment.

I spread the dates of payments for the various clients across the month so there is something coming in every few days, and it’s so great for budgeting and cash flow forecasting. Absolutely brilliant!

Another positive to this change is that it allows me to relax and do my work at my own pace instead of having to watch the clock all the time. I like to do things thoroughly and you can’t always expect a client to pay for that extra care so this does away with that problem. Of course on the flipside of that it means I’m spending more time but not earning more, but you can’t have it both ways!

Yet another positive is that it has given me a good range of fixed prices that I can offer to prospective new clients when they contact me. I can match what they’re looking for, the size of their business etc, to my existing clients and work out a probable rate from that. Previously working on an hourly rate it was impossible to give a new client an estimate, and I also had to tell them there’d be an extra charge for the MYOB subs where as now it’s all one fee which sounds a lot more attractive.

Overall, it’s been a very positive change and I haven’t had any negative feedback from clients at all.”

11

Page 12: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Once you are completing advisory work ensure you are highlighting ‘value added’ to your client’s bottom line, either through email or face-to-face communications (Why not even ask if you can use them as a case study client).

A case study is the ideal way to showcase your success in advisory to current and potential clients. Once you have an existing client as a case study you then need to build a story highlighting the value you have added by calling out the key points, showing how your experience in the sector benefited the client and the successful outcome. You need to do this in a clear, engaging way that a potential client can easily relate to. Using an engaging format to promote it.

Once you have your advisory skills, services and price structure in place you then need to get out and tell people about them! You can achieve this in a number of ways. It could simply be word of mouth that delivers you a new client, or you may consider some modest social media activity using social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite to pitch your marketing message to potential and existing clients.

While you were creating your strategy you will have needed to identify potential clients in terms of “picking the low hanging fruit” – the businesses that offer good opportunities for you to advise on operational and process efficiencies. The second consideration when you start talking to clients about offering advisory are those who have shown an interest in such a service, or perhaps a client who has an operational efficiency opportunity.

TIPS ON EFFECTIVE WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR SKILLS AND SERVICES.

Marketing & identifying client opportunities

12

Page 13: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

The power of a solid case study can never be underestimated. If it’s clear, compelling and demonstrates the value you have added, it’s hard to ignore. A case study doesn’t need to be long, but here’s a checklist of what you should ideally include:

How to build a great case study Use this page to jot down some ideas:

A topline overview of the business/sector in question (be sure to ask the client for their permission to use their information)

The business challenge or opportunity at the point of offering advisory services – which problem were you trying to solve?

The service offered and advisory approach – what was the solution to the problem?

The results – what tangible value was added to the client’s business?

If possible conclude with a summary quote/testimonial from the client to use in shorter form communications e.g social media

2

3

4

5

1

13

Page 14: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

So, you’ve followed all of the previous steps, you’ve got your practice and your clients working harmoniously online together, you’ve got a steady flow of reliable, accurate data coming through, now for the hard part – starting the conversation with your clients.

Well, it’s easier than you think thanks to the wonders of artificial intelligence. Take MYOB Advisor as one example. It’s a new tool that looks at all of that valuable real-time data that is sitting with clients and then actively collates the data and turns it into meaningful insights.

The data is not just the usual graphs and reports though. MYOB Advisor uses a clever little feature called ‘natural language generation’ and what this does is generate actual conversation-starting statements on your clients sales, costs and more.

Then, armed with intelligent, data driven insights to get you going, and the ability to add your own interpretation, knowledge and understanding, you’ll find the nature and direction of the conversations you’re having with clients quickly begin to change organically towards a more advisory relationship.

To learn more about MYOB Advisor or get access to this free tool simply contact your Partner Manager or MYOB at: [email protected]

“We participated in the MYOB Advisory Beta Program and found it to be an excellent tool for the practice. The Advisory reports were quick and easy to run, saving time that would have been spent in analysing financial data and drafting reports to present to clients. This ensures time is spent building client relationships and having meaningful conversations relating to their businesses rather than spending that time drafting our own financial analysis reports. Advisory is also available to all staff meaning that advisory services are no longer limited to the Principal or senior accountants.

The reports that Advisory produces are able to be customised easily and are presented in a format that any client is able to read and understand. The client response to Advisory reports has been extremely positive and we will continue to utilise Advisory in our suite of services.”

Yunus Musa Managing Director TFS Chartered Accountants

DISCOVERING THE POWER OF DATA AND CREATING POWERFUL CASE STUDIES.

Using technology to gain valuable insights for your clients

14

Page 15: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Nearly all accounting practices will be communicating with their clients on a regular basis, either face-to-face, by phone or email. The key to successfully broadening your advisory offering is to integrate the features and insights that technology can deliver with those all-important one-on-one relationships. Having regular check-ins with your clients is the perfect opportunity to bring more advisory services, data and business insights into the conversation, not to mention building valuable long-term business relationships.

What many practices have successfully introduced is a ‘Monthly Business Health Check’ meeting for their clients. At these meetings the data and information that has brought to life via MYOB Advisor is presented to the client, and anecdotally, the practices that have initiated these have found it’s the one meeting clients don’t want to miss!

Shiralee from Gunson McLean talks about building the conversation

“MYOB allows us to work with real-time data which means that a client will pop into the office and we can see what they were doing that morning. Because the program updates automatically we’re dealing with accurate data and information and that’s key to any decisions that we make, plus we have the ability to send clients a detailed monthly report which we can then combine with a personal check-in.”

Shiralee Gunson McLean

The secret to success is to keep the conversation going

BLENDING COMMUNICATION WITH TECHNOLOGY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

15

Page 16: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

We trust this guide has been a useful starting point for you on your journey to offering advisory services for your clients’ businesses. If you’re keen to start your advisory journey now and want further information of the free MYOB Advisor tool simply contact your Partner Manager or call us on 0800 696 272

Below, you’ll find some information and contact details to some key accounting bodies, who will be able to offer resources and advice on advisory.

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand is a professional body comprised of over 120,000 diverse, talented and financially astute members who utilise their skills every day to make a difference for businesses the world over.

Members are known for their professional integrity, principled judgment, financial discipline and a forward-looking approach to business which contributes to the prosperity of our nations.

Visit www.charteredaccountantsanz.com

CPA Australia

CPA Australia is one of the world’s largest accounting bodies with a global membership of more than 163,750 members (as at 31 December 2017) working in 125 countries.

Our core services for members include education, training, technical support and advocacy. Employees and members work together with local and international bodies to represent the views and concerns of the profession to governments, regulators, industries, academia and the community.

Visit www.cpaaustralia.com.au

THE HELP AND RESOURCES YOU NEED TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

16

Page 17: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

Once you have your advisory skills, services and price structure in place, you then need to get out and tell people about them! You can achieve this in a number of ways. It could simply be word of mouth that delivers you a new client, or you may consider some modest social media activity to pitch your marketing message to potential and existing clients.

What is Professional Services Marketing?

Professional services marketing is all about selling the relationships. You are selling yourself/your key people and the way they will service the client.

You also need to ask – why would a potential new client pick my business instead of a competitors?

Where do your new leads could come from? What people in your business can help turn relationships into new clients? Can you identify and nurture your rainmakers?

Let’s look at the relationship you have with your mechanic or hairdresser. If your they move location if you like and trust them, you will move with them. Having a brand with credibility that has been built up over time is the backdrop for the people in your business.

Professional Services marketing is also about brand awareness, getting your offer right for your target market, working out your story and looking for ways to tell it.

A key thing to remember is to set a marketing strategy that aligns to your business one, and set a marketing budget and stick to it. Along with setting up your website and emails to reflect the your brand. Ensuring that you leveraging pro bono arrangements to enhance your practice.

If you are interested in MYOB helping you with your marketing strategy, please contact your Partner Manager or the New Zealand Partner Marketing team via [email protected]

TELL THE WORLD WHO YOU ARE.

17

Page 18: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

For 25 years MYOB has been making life easier for people in business. We started with the promise of incredible accounting software. Today, MYOB serves businesses of all sizes ranging from start-ups to bigger businesses. Our business also includes a vast network of Accountants and Bookkeepers throughout Australia and New Zealand.

By developing intelligent, intuitive tools we enable our customers and partners to succeed, and to make their business life easier, including online and mobile business products, helpful content and a local support centre.

18

Page 19: HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS TO … · 2020-04-17 · discover how your business can grow and thrive by using the technology at your fingertips to add more ‘advisory’

myob.com.nz

For more information please visit myob.com/nz/accountants-and-partners

NZM1441611-0320