Are you the best person to be coaching your clients?

Coaching clients is an ambition for many accountants. It’s rewarding work, financially and emotionally, it differentiates the accounting firm and positions it as more proactive and advisory based and it is often in-line with the values and vision of the accountant.

Few can turn the ambition into reality though. Yes, there may be the odd client but the impact across the client base and the wider market is much less than hoped.

There are many reasons for this but I would suggest that the top 3 are:

• A failure by the accounting firm to systemise the marketing, delivery, and ongoing support of a coaching service in a sustainable form. 

• A lack of resources in the accounting firm, both for delivery and management of the service. There aren’t sufficient people with the right skills to develop the service.

• An absence of strategy. The accounting firm has treated coaching as an add-on rather than a defined, value-added service.

In many accounting firms therefore there is a will but not a way.

In other areas, such as legal, financial planning, specialist tax, etc, we would bring in the expert to work with our client, with the accountant being the lynchpin in the relationship. Yet we shy away from this when it comes to coaching.

Andy Page, co-owner of MPH Accountants in Kent, UK has always been an accountant who thinks ahead of the pack and his firm uses business coaches to give them a much wider reach and impact on their client base and the wider business community: 

“For a progressive practice, you have to be offering coaching to your clients. We found that our reputation increased and we were the ‘go to’ firm to use. This has not only increased our turnover in compliance itself but created a much more significant consultancy income. Selling consultancy is also easier as we are already clients Trusted Advisers.

There are many people out there that say they are business coaches and, I would say, most are poor. The key to success in this area is to find the right coach.”

Andy’s comments here touch on the two critical points: the provision of specialist coaching can have a huge positive impact on your firm BUT you’ve got to bring in the right coach!

A point I’ve stressed many times is that you can train skills but you can’t train culture. The right coach is someone who:

• you are happy to work alongside – they have the right skills and, as importantly, you see them as a good fit with your own ethos

• aligns themself with your values and ethics

• aligns themself with your vision and goals

• understands and appreciates your target market and client base

• understands and appreciates the accountant/client relationship

• understands the wider provisions and values of a great accounting firm

It’s a big list but one that is easily ticked off by the right coach. Lindsay, King, a business coach working with accountants in and around Sydney, Australia, certainly does that:

“Working collaboratively with accountants creates a significant win-win-win opportunity. First and foremost the client feels more valued by receiving pro-active assistance in brainstorming some practical strategies and some key actions they can implement immediately. Nothing too overwhelming for them but the objective is to ensure they walk out of the first meeting with 2 or 3 simple practical tasks to commit to. This could be such things as a pricing and margins review, staff productivity and function review, or a lead conversion process review, etc. The client gets to decide what they feel comfortable actioning first. From there it’s about creating an environment of accountability to ensure continual improvement through regular focus and action plans. 

The key here is the collaborative team approach, the confidential environment, and the shared ethics. It doesn’t work without it. The involvement of the accountant or their staff in these meetings is entirely up to them. Clients crave the “care factor” so I always recommend it for at least the first 2 meetings with the client. 

The big win for the accountant is a more “premium” position in the market, with increased client satisfaction, reduced churn, positioning for increased referrals, and a higher level of fees to new clients going forward, as the word spreads. It also positions the firm to attract a higher quality of graduates and younger accountants.”

A firm’s coaching strategy must consider its system for marketing, delivery, and support. This ensures consistency and sustainability of the service and also means that there is sufficient drive to not only generate and convert interest in the first place but to maintain it.

Introducing coaching services to your existing clients and marketplace inevitably means changing mindsets, habits, and perceptions. That requires commitment and constant focus so systemising your communications and approach makes this far more achievable than relying on pure human endeavor. 

A joined-up approach from accountant and coach adds energy, skills and resources to an area previously underdeveloped by the accounting profession. Worth exploring don’t you think?