CPAs need to start asking the tough questions. Here are my top 10.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
If you think you know what your client or company wants from you, you are probably wrong.
Why? Because most CPAs simply don't ask. It's probably the single biggest mistake most CPAs make in their practices and in their careers.
Evidence of the gap is all around. For instance, ask CPAs what the next big thing is going to be in technology, and you'll find CPAs in public practice and CPAs in industry drawing up very different lists, as I reported in "The Next Big Thing in Software." In public practice, the top item is construction accounting software. Among members in industry, it's help desk and call center solutions.
Or try this one: Ask clients, "What else can your CPA do for you?" And about three in four will say, simply, "Nothing." Then ask, "What do you wish your CPA could for you?" And you'll get a raft of answers, ranging from financial advice to legal services and back again.
Here's a third example: The biggest single issue facing small- and medium-sized businesses, year in and year out, has been health insurance costs. And yet, few, if any, CPA firms are helping clients with the problem.
So it's positively refreshing that a new program is afoot in the profession that could help CPAs start asking the right questions and actually delivering good, valuable and actionable answers.
To be sure, systems for consultative selling have long been available -- in checklists and manuals, and from consultants and trainers. But a new solution leveraging the considerable experience of Paul Dunn, famous for Results Accountants Systems and the Accountants' Bootcamp, holds out the promise of partially automating the process with Web-based software.
At its height, Dunn's operation had enrolled maybe 3,500 small CPA firms in his army of go-getters. Then in 2000 he sold the business and retired to the south of France. Now Paul Dunn is back. That alone is news. But what Paul Dunn is doing with longtime associate Shannon Vincent is even bigger news. They've formed The ReNew Group and are launching a nifty little program called TRUST. It's still mostly beta, but nevertheless worth a look.
But don't take my word for it. "It's an awesome program," raves D. Michelle Golden, a CPA firm marketing consultant based in St. Louis. "If just one or two Trust sessions per month were on each partner's or manager's personal marketing plan, it would make a big difference in any firm, not just in sales, but in improvement of service and expansion of relationships in general."
Here's how it works: The CPA invites a client, at least annually, to fill out an online questionnaire -- not unlike the idea of a tax-season questionnaire.
From the answers received, the program pinpoints issues and challenges from -- and this is critical -- the client's perspective. The questionnaire takes about 40 minutes and client answers are likely to be at least as honest as, if not more honest than, they would be if the CPA were spending the time face-to-face. The plethora of data divulged is huge. And the information is immediately actionable. It's also broadly customizable.
Still, the starting point for the system is the range of questions Dunn and Vincent have devised.
Measure yourself against these questions, and decide if you're asking the right questions, and getting actionable answers, from your clients or your company:
1. How confident are you that all of your income tax returns have been completed and liabilities agreed with the tax authorities?
2. How do you rate your understanding of the responsibilities and risks of being a Director under corporation/company law?
3. How do you rate the quality of the management information you receive from your systems?
4. How well has your business lived up to the expectations you had when you started it?
5. How do you rate your personal investment plan as a means to achieving financial independence?
6. How proactive are you at ensuring that any differences between forecasted and actual profit are addressed, at least on a monthly basis?
7. How frequently do you prepare and review financial statements to monitor business performance?
8. How confident are you that you have adequate retirement funds?
9. How recently did you carry out a financial modeling exercise, examining various what-if scenarios for your business?
10. If a prospect asked you to describe what you do in 30 seconds, how confident would you be that you could get your key messages across?
Even if The ReNew Group's solution isn't right for you, Dunn and Vincent are moving the profession forward by prompting CPAs to bear down on the right business issues.
And isn't that what CPAs should be doing all along?
