Most accountants I talk to have a real fear of selling.  They’re worried they’ll come across as product pushing - having visions of themselves in gold chains and snakeskin shoes - wielding a set of steak knives. 

I’m sure there are a hundred reasons why communication skills are neglected in the Accounting industry but four stick out to me....

You may or may not subscribe to the view that compliance is shrinking - that’s not the point.  You may or not agree that Advisory or Business Development Services are what’s needed to remain relevant to your clients - that’s not the point either.  What cannot be denied is that our industry is going through significant change and we need to adapt our skills.

During my 17 years running an accounting firm, particularly in the last five years when I was quoting for 100% of the work I did, I had hundreds of BFOs (Blinding Flashes of the Obvious).  Let me share four of them, relating to proposals and winning new work:

About 10 years ago I was having lunch with a friend (let’s call her Jane) when she asked, 'why should I come to you as a client Mark?'.  I started my usual and practised patter about quality, professionalism, great team, great service…   Jane basically then told me to shut up.  I’m sure that if we weren’t having lunch, she would have walked off to find someone else to talk to!  Instead she...

There’s a proverb about a young man walking down the street.  He comes across an older man sitting on his porch, with a dog lying next to him, whining in pain.  The young man asks the dog’s owner ‘What’s wrong with your dog?’. The owner replies ‘He’s lying on a nail’.  The man asks ‘Lying on a nail? Why doesn’t he move?’.  The owner replies ‘Because it’s not hurting bad enough'.

We all know that the secret to success is to work smarter, not harder, right?  Yet we still get stuck in the day to day emails, client queries, file reviews, and activities that are highly important to others, but not necessarily to ourselves.  Working smarter becomes a pipe dream as we can’t see the wood for the trees.