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Try describing your firm without words

Richard Brewin • January 20, 2020
You don’t have to look at too many websites for accountancy firms to spot a fair degree of repetition.

“We are different”. “Proactive”. “Help you grow your business”. “Leading firm”. Photographs of smiling accountants.

All commendable and the right messages to have but, given their commonality, do they really give a true message of what your firm is all about? Do they resonate strongly enough with your clients and target market to make you stand out?

To attract the right clients and the right responses you want a firm that reflects the right personality, a firm that creates strong and relevant impressions and messages. Limiting that to just words weakens your voice.

You want to be the leading local firm for ambitious business owners in your locality, supporting and advising them as they grow their businesses; standing side by side with them through the challenges; improving the lives for them and their family.

Do you just say that or do the imagery, colours, structure, tone, sounds, smells of your website, office, material, team reinforce it?

I see firms that talk about being local but with images on their website of capital skylines that are hundreds of miles away.

I see firms that talk about exciting ambition and success but with magnolia walls and calendars for decoration.

I see firms that promote growth and personal service but have nothing but dying plants in reception.

Your firm is more than words. We spend a long time proof reading copy but don’t give the same attention to all the other messages we give out, or fail to promote.

Try describing your firm without words.

Is it a warm colour or a cold one? Is it a soft material or a strong one? Does it smell of lavender or tar? Does it sound like Mozart, Jay-Z or Iron Maiden? Is it a painting by Monet or Miro? Is it old or new? Exciting or sensible?

It can be whatever you want it to be, but the message will only be clear if you think about your delivery in a wider sense.

Make you firm much more than words.

“Accountants can’t or won’t sell”

By Richard Brewin • February 25, 2025
Accountants selling to their clients is a topic as old as the profession itself. I regularly hear criticism from those looking to monetise the accountants’ relationships with their clients that “accountants can’t sell”. I also come across an attitude within the profession that “accountants shouldn’t sell to their clients…it’s unprofessional…it’s not what my clients expect”.  Let’s tackle the issue.

Progress, what progress?

By Richard Brewin • February 11, 2025
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, when I was a lad, doing the family laundry was a time consuming chore. Mum would disappear into the kitchen and close the door so that the noise around the rest of the house was at least manageable. She would be in there for hours, swapping between washing, rinsing and squeezing out.  Every so often the noise level would resemble a fighter jet taking off on an aircraft carrier as the tumbler element kicked in and then she’d reappear, wooden tongs in hand, to ask for help to reposition the twin tub that had danced across the kitchen floor.

Keeping your priorities clear

By Richard Brewin • January 13, 2025
Do I deal with the client who is shouting the loudest, the most pressing deadline, the thing that is most stressing me out, the best thing for my cash position, the team member who is stuck without my help, the thing that I had set out to do today or any one of all those other issues that are lined up at my door?  I would love to give you a definitive or simple answer but, of course, there isn’t one. Welcome to every day decision-making, not just in an accounting firm but in life!
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