Free tax advice in the first meeting

Free tax advice in the first meeting

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I would be grateful for feedback/opinions on giving free tax advice in the first free meeting with potential clients.

I spend an hour or so in the first meeting. What has happened in the last two meetings is I spot tax savings opportunities, inform the clients about these. They are pleased with me. Following my quote they find a cheaper accountant.
 

I feel I am losing out by giving free tax advice. At the same time I cannot say: “ They are some key tax saving opportunities here, I cannot say till you become my client”. Or can I?

Shall I just accept this? Is there any other way this can be handled?

Thanks

 

Replies (9)

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By Ding Dong
20th Apr 2011 07:35

Part of it in my mind

I always tell clients the first meeting is free, whatever tips and advice they take away from that meeting are theirs to keep. I tell them this and feel the open approach and the fact I have given them tips usually means they come on board. Touchwood after the first meeting none have gone elsewhere yet even if my quote has been more than competitors.

(although I was recently talking to a friend who also runs his own small pracvtice locally who tells potential clients the first hour is free only, if the meeting goes on beyond that the clock starts ticking, he has said most clients either wrap the meeting up or are happy to start paying, I will be trying this approach (very gently at first) from now on as some of my initial meetings with clients have run to 3hours!)

If someone wants to go and find a cheap accountant, let them. If they are doing that sort of thing from the start it will only repeat itself ongoing.

 

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Stepurhan
By stepurhan
20th Apr 2011 08:04

Advice from Mark Lee

This piece of advice is down to Mark Lee of the Tax Advice Network. (Any error in the specific phrasing is mine)

When you get to a point where you would be giving specific tax advice to a client in a free meeting, you should say something along the following lines.

"That is straying into the area of detailed advice, which the institute does not allow me to give without formal terms in place. Once you have signed an engagement letter, I would be more than happy to discuss this matter further."

This makes you look reasonable without giving your expertise away for free.

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By ShirleyM
20th Apr 2011 08:23

General advice

I am happy to give general advice, and maybe a tip here and there, but I try to keep detailed advice out of the free meeting. I will point out where savings can possibly be made, but I try not to go into detail. If clients engage us we always have a follow up meeting to discuss their affairs in more detail and this is made clear at the initial meeting.

You always get the odd one trying to get as much as possible for free, and I've even had them thank me for being so helpful, and then ring me up afterwards to try and get more free advice. If this happens I ask them if our quote is being accepted and if they say no I politely tell them to push off. If they say the quote is being accepted, we arrange for the sign up and the second meeting.

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Red Leader
By Red Leader
20th Apr 2011 10:10

how often?

@FT: How often are you experiencing this? If it is common for prospects to come to a meeting with you, listen to your good advice and then find a cheaper accountant, then:

a) Your marketing is attracting prospects who are very price conscious. In my experience most prospects are not like this. They don't want to spend time traipsing around accountants offices trying to get cheaper quotes.

or

b) something is going wrong in the meeting - how are you coming across? In the first meeting, it is important that you not only show how you can help with useful technical advice, but also in some way "gel" with the prospect: in this respect, it's just a matter of coming across like somebody who it would be good/pleasant/easy to work with, a good listener.

To answer another of your points, I don't hold back from giving advice in the initial meeting. I remember giving some simple but £££ valuable advice to a prospect about 10 years ago, they liked it, became a client and the fees have been about £3k per year.

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By zarathustra
20th Apr 2011 10:41

Dont get pumped

I have been pumped for free advice a few times, but now adopt a similar approach to Shirlym and stepurhan.

Just outline the result that is possible but say a meeting will need to be scheduled to go over the specifics and put necessary arrangements in place.

I also use this approach when on the phone with fixed fee clients where we are straying into areas not covered by the fixed fee (not as much as I should though!).

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FT
By FirstTab
20th Apr 2011 10:57

Thanks

Thank you all for such a helpful response.

Red Leader you have asked some key questions that are important that I should think about by responding.

How often are you experiencing this?  My experience, over the last 3 months in particular, has been that clients see more than one accountant. Since accountants are willing to visit them. My prospect in question lives only 5 mins walk away from where I live  so I agreed to visit them.

Your marketing is attracting prospects who are very price conscious. All I have in terms of marketing is my website. At this stage I am not doing anything else. More recently I have found that clients are taking advantage of the internet age. Clients really do look around at more than one accountant. Having said that I have also taken on clients, when I have been more expensive than others.

Something is going wrong in the meeting - how are you coming across? This is such good point and a difficult one. Of couse I would say I come across well. All I can say I do my very best to speak less and let the client do the talking. I will ask questions. I am sure I can imnprove on this. It is knowing where I need improvements. Without someone observing me I find this one difficult to change. 

Having meet you, I think you are a great listener. I really cannot judge me on this aspect.

At the moment I am split between following your appraoch (my current way) and Mark's suggestion highlighted by stepurhan.

Please keep the response coming.

 

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Mark Lee headshot 2023
By Mark Lee
21st Apr 2011 09:58

Point of clarification

Pleased to see advice shared during my talks is worth sharing. Delighted in fact.

Just to clarify I don't recommend blaming your Insitute. It's the law - the anti-money laundering rules et al. Doesn't matter which (if any) body you belong to.

During the same talk I ask how long is a typical free first meeting? Most accountants have a default ONE hour in the head.  Some give more or less.   Implicit in everyone's approach though is 'as long as it takes'. And I ask "As long as WHAT takes?"

To get the prospect to want to become a client?

Is that you're only objective during your free initial meeting? Don't you want to decide early on whether YOU want them to become a client? Will they pay you a fair fee on time for the work you will doing? When will you find out that although you're hoping to earn at least £500 they won't pay anyone more than £100?

There's probably a difference in attitude of those prospects who are looking for their first accountant and those who have been frustrated before and now want someone better.  If I were in practice I'd focus on trying to get more of the latter.

Mark

ps: Thanks Stepurhan

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Red Leader
By Red Leader
21st Apr 2011 10:08

@FT: probably just bad luck

"Having said that I have also taken on clients, when I have been more expensive than others."

In that case, you have probably just had some random bad experience recently. Two data points don't make a trend!

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By DerekChaplin
21st Apr 2011 14:13

Patience is a virtue
You state that they are pleased with you then find a cheaper accountant. What they obviously fail to realise, and maybe you should highlight more, is that a client relationship with an accountant should be more than just a quick chat every year. The client needs to feel trust with their accountant and as such it is a personal relationship which should be viewed a medium to long term, rather than a quick win.

I have told clients that we are cheaper than most decent sized firms around, but there are cheaper firms than us. By the same token the fact that we are cheaper by the hour doesn't mean that other firms may not produce accounts etc faster, thereby reducing the differential.

If you have earned their trust in that first meeting and then they have been shortsighted and gone with a cheaper quote there are a number of factors at play:

The cheaper accountant may have gotten along well with them and identified the tax savings you did also. In this case the better person won.

The cheaper accountant may have won the fee on the basis of fee alone, with little connection between client and accountant - in which case, when the client realises that they should have a better bond with their accountant they may come back to you.

The cheaper accountant may have not identified the points you did, but related better with the client. In this instance it may take longer for the client accountant relationship to break down, but again your name may be the next one they look to in order to improve their lot.

My advice - don't worry about it. If you are getting other clients you are obviously pleasing some of the people. If you feel as though you have wasted your time, you haven't - it's all experience and makes you who you are today - just don't let it eat you up or you'll end up losing more than you win.

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