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Diversifying, better communication and being unafraid of raising prices are key to lifting profits says a marketing specialist.
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‘Identify your most valuable clients – and sack the rest!’
13 December 2022
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10 minute read
Accountants should focus on their most valuable clients “and sack the rest” to lift profits, according to Deena Janes of marketing outfit Your Client Matters.
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Ms Janes, director and client engagement specialist at the firm, said most accountants had enough clients so rather than expand that base, they should look to selling more services to their best clients and not be afraid of raising prices.
Her experience showed that fears about clients deserting due to increased rates were unrealised and those that did leave were often “my most difficult clients as they're not prepared to pay for the value”.
Aggressively pricing to troublesome clients made sense over the long term, she said.
“There's one or two that are a bit difficult to work with – they're the ones that want freebies and they're the ones that want us to bend over backwards to help them when they're not doing it themselves,” she told the recent Accountants Daily Strategy Day.
“So when the enquiry comes in and somebody wants us to do this for them, what are you going to charge? Charge them five times more than you normally would because if they pay it, it's going to be worth your while. It might only be a 15 minute job … but it's the three hours of conversation we have to have with them that we're not getting paid for, to get that work done.”
It was one way of cutting down an overlong client list and would allow the firm to concentrate on those with most potential.
“Identify your most valuable clients and then sack the rest,” she said. “Your best clients aren't necessarily your top paying clients – your best clients might be your referrals … they might not be the highest paying but if they're
sending you more clients, typically you probably don't want to sack them.”
To succeed, though, it meant getting more involved in clients’ financial lives.
“You are at the pivotal position of your clients’ financial needs, they should not make a decision without you.”
“We need to educate them: Why not call me first before you make any financial decisions?”
Diversification into other services – mortgage broking, financial planning and so on – allowed a firm to make more from its most valuable clients but it was essential to communicate this in an effective manner.
In this respect, many accountants were failing to exploit a key advantage of their profession: their clients open emails. But they had to be interesting and engaging, with a call to action.
“Take advantage of the fact that accountant clients open emails – even better is the click through and engagement rate.”
“Identify what you want to do, what services you're going to add, partner with other providers if you don't want to do it in-house. Communicate your offerings, if they don't know you're offering other services, you're not going to be able to make money out of them.”
The effectiveness of emails meant spending large amounts on marketing was a waste.
“You don't need to spend a lot of money. There's a lot of marketing companies out there for accountants that are charging $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 a month – shiny things like $1,200 a month for SEO and Facebook posts.
“You don't need to spend that, and that's not necessarily going to generate new business.
“You just need to have a good email product with good content.”
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