Oct 12, 2015
A number of commentators are suggesting that accountants should be delivering a wider range of commercial services – I’m definitely one of those people.
However, rather than just putting words to the concept, we’ve developed a whole range of products to assist accountants to offer an outstanding service to your clients.
In the first instance, we believe it’s necessary for you to
identify your “product champions”. These will be people who will be
specifically trained in some of these new products, such as:
• Debtors
• Succession Planning
• Personal Property Securities Register Due Diligence System
Your business will also need “industry champions”, people who understand a little more about the industry than just the Profit & Loss Account.
Then you need to identify the key industries of your firm’s clients. It’s no use having a key industry or a “champion” for an industry for which you don’t have clients, unless you’re going to go out and market to them.
The industries you might consider would be:
• Retail
• Construction
• Farming
• Medical
• Real Estate
It will take more work and a bit more reading, but people should familiarise themselves with what happens in those industries.
This will then lead to analysing the top 5 industries with your clients and whether your staff clearly understand what’s going on in those industries.
How do you get to know more about a particular industry?
Ask your clients. You can go to seminars with them. Think about some of the issues; read their journals. Start writing some articles for them, on accounting, taxation, business development issues, etc, relative to those industries. This way, you will become “industry champion” and will be seen by the marketplace as being an accountancy business that is truly offering a wider range of commercial services.
Peter Towers
MANAGING DIRECTOR – ESS BIZTOOLS PTY LTD
+61 7 4724 1118 | 1800 232 088
peter@essbiztools.com.au
www.essbiztools.com.au | www.essbizgrants.com.au