2 Aug, 2020
Say so long to the handshake over a coffee, and hello to video-based reporting and deep dives into the data. We speak to leading accountants around the world to hear exactly how theyâve won new clients during the pandemic.
In the current crisis, accountants have not only had to service their existing clients but onboard new ones too.
âThe majority of our new clients during the pandemic came from word of mouth referrals from current clients. Many of them reached out to us after becoming upset with the lack of support they were receiving from their current accountants in the early stages of the pandemic,â says Robert McDowall, Partner at Arabon in Australia.
Itâs a view echoed by Matt Williams, founder of Cypher accounting in the UK.
âIn June, we put out 30 proposals to potential new clients, nearly all of which came from referrals, and every single one said âmy accountantâs gone missingâ, and it was the same for May and April,â said Matt.
Watch: Addressing new clients during economic uncertainty
Matt says many of these new clients have had no contact with their accountant during the crisis, and have had to fight their way through Government assistance schemes by themselves, and itâs a similar situation in other countries. âThey don't understand the grants, theyâve not had any help with the loans, and they just feel like their accountant has not been visible or helpful during the whole process.â
Tip: if youâre looking for new clients, ask your existing clients to recommend you with an email introduction.
Watch on Advisable: Getting new leads from existing clients and other sources
Joe David, founder of Nephos, has not only taken on new clients, but also had existing ones increase their fees.
âTheyâve said âwe want more bookkeeping or more advice from youââ says Joe. âOr they've created a new business venture and they want us to do more work on thatâ.
How to run a virtual meeting properly
If the near future of social-distanced working is video-based, youâll probably have to onboard and communicate with clients this way for the foreseeable. Ken La Croix, Founder, Insightful Partners in the USA offers some advice for kicking off virtual meetings, setting an agenda, and keeping the momentum going. âOpen the meeting a few minutes early to have some watercooler time,â says Ken.
Watch on Advisable: Deciding on key points of focus in meetings
As well as regular video communication, you can also use video for delivering management reports and other detailed information to clients. Malcolm Pope at Shorts in the UK recently took on several large new clients remotely. His approach is to get stuck into their data and run it through one of their service packages.
âWe do a short video walkthrough lasting between five and 20 minutes. Then you can start to say âwhy is your margin going up and down, whyâs that figure so high?â Thereâs always something going wrong in an expense somewhere,â said Malcolm.
âOne of those new clients was happy enough with management reports out of Xero. I said âwell humour me and let me run it through one of our packs and it at least gives you a benchmarkâ. After analysing the numbers using Fathom, it turns out that a new car expense wasnât allocated correctly. The result was instantly improving the profits of the client by ÂŁ40,000.
âItâs proving the worth of the reports. They give you a sense check of the data, help you understand the key trends â the bit we add is âwhat does that actually mean?ââWatch: Presenting Fathom's interactive Management Reports remotely
Sean Hackemann from SAS Accounting in the UK has been offering video commentary for a while now. âI had another potential client come in late 2019. I gave them a sample Fathom report, added my video commentary on top, and they said it was amazing. They had never seen anything like that before. And they were using Xero, so it's not as if they were behind the curve technology-wiseâ.
Read: How Specialist Accounting Solutions wins new business with the time saved using Fathom
What equipment do you need for virtual meetings?
So the good news is that youâve probably got most of what you need to do your first virtual management report, a laptop, webcam and internet connection. The team at Shorts take things up a gear with iPad Pros, as being able to highlight and draw over specific areas in Fathom reports with the Apple pencil helps focus clients on specific details.
Tip: use Fathom in conjunction with services like Loom and Zoom to walk your clients through their numbers
Watch on Advisable: What technology do you need to offer video advisory services?
What are the challenges of onboarding clients remotely?
As Malcolm said, pre-COVID, a site visit to a client could tell you a lot about their business, âgoods piled up in the warehouse might mean a stock problemâ. Matt Williams echoes this, âI do get a handle on what the numbers are going to be like by looking at the state of the office. If itâs a mess, you can bet their books will be the sameâ.
Accountants almost have a sixth sense when it comes to visiting clientsâ premises, but with that not always possible, Malcolm advises relying on your other ones. âIt then becomes more about the data. Thereâs always a story behind it, but youâre adapting and evolving on what youâve got access toâ.
Read our ebook: How to sell advisory services using Fathom
Robert McDowall tells us âthere have been several clients that really do prefer face-to-face meetings for a variety of reasons. Thankfully weâve had the ability to meet them at cafes and other public places whilst our office was closedâ. Of course, if you do that, ensure you can access the internet.
Tip: depending on your location, current Government guidance, and the weather, think about open public space to meet new clients.
The other thing to consider when it comes to communicating remotely with clients, is that many businesses might not have premises to go back to. If working from home works for professional services and non-manufacturing clients, then why pay for an office? The other benefit for you is that youâre spending less time and money travelling, time that can be put to better helping clients with their problems or finding new opportunities.
How to become a virtual accounting firm
Of course, one option is to switch your entire company virtual, meaning you and your clients can be anywhere in the world. This is exactly what Josh Zweig did in 2012 when he founded Canada-focussed firm LiveCA. He previously worked for a firm in Toronto but found that most of his client management was done via phone and email. âSo I said to my then boss, âLook, is there any way I can do this remotely from Tel Aviv? (a city he liked and wanted to go back to) and he said, âabsolutely not. You have to be in the office.ââ So he decided to start his own practice.
Referrals from existing clients are still his best source of new clients, and they have a robust onboarding process. âWhen I worked in a traditional firm, we didn't have an onboarding process. The client would tell us what they needed, they'd drop off their documents and we'd start billing time. Our current onboarding process is far more structured and involves a formal proposal, then a kick-off email, followed by a kick-off call, and CPA planning call with their accounting team.â
Watch on Advisable: How to run an entirely remote accountancy practice
Josh believes there are certainly specific cases where an in-person relationship is better suited to the client. Either because they don't feel comfortable using Zoom or because most of their processes are paper-based and manual. âIf we identify a prospect that presents too many of these red flags, we'll typically be transparent with them and offer a referral to another firm to prevent any serious challenges ahead.â
So does Josh have any advice for going fully remote? âIterate, iterate, iterate! An online firm operates differently than a traditional bricks and mortar firm, so the more you're able to adapt when hitting a roadblock, the higher chance you'll have of success.â
Another reason to go virtual is the ability to service clients out of your âpatchâ. Oxford-based Matt Williams put out a post on LinkedIn to reach new clients and signed up businesses from Portsmouth, Guildford and Bristol.
Tip: use marketing and comms to reach new clients nationally; this can be especially effective if you niche on one particular sector such as recruitment or farming.
The future of accountant and client communications
We donât know what the near future for the accounting industry and our clients will be. We may be at the start of ânew normalâ, things might slowly get back to âold normalâ, or we might have sporadic lockdowns or other disruptions.
But virtually or face to face, accountants need to continue to step up and advise clients; Malcolm Pope sums it up best.
âFor years weâve been establishing whatâs happened. Weâre now getting better at saying why itâs happened, we need to go to the next step and answer âwhat can we do about it?ââ
Thatâs where Fathom comes in. If youâd like to find out more about about how Fathom can help you and your clients get actions and advice from their numbers, start a free trial today, or book a call with one of the team.
Written by Andrew Webb
Andrew is Fathomâs Content Strategist based in the UK. He has a background in journalism and has worked for companies like the BBC and HuffPost, as well as start ups in education and technology. Andrew has also published 5 food books and makes a great pie.