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.
Look at any accounting firm website and there is a fair chance that the word ‘proactive’ will be prominent. Ask some business owners and taxpayers whether they consider their accountant to be proactive. There is commonly a gap between the two, between the intent of the accountant and the expectations of the client.
The tag ‘Trusted Advisor’ gets bandied around a lot. Without trying to be deliberately contentious, I often challenge its use. Undoubtedly, accountants were once the trusted advisor to their clients. When I came into the profession 44 years ago now, the older partners, especially, were seen by their clients as their trusted advisor, their ‘go to’ person on any issues, business, family or personal, that were troubling them. Without the filing deadlines of today, these clients were with their accountant primarily because they valued the relationship rather than the products.
All accountants are the same! We’ve all heard it said. It’s nonsense, of course, but, when you are asked what it is that your firm does that differentiates it from other accounting firms, it can be a challenge to come up with something tangible. Accounting firms tend to offer similar services, that’s what makes them accounting firms. Differentiating from competitors based upon services provided is therefore an issue.