Business Consultancy and 'Added Value'
I see post after post, and organisation after organisation, promoting 'added value' and referring to business/tax consultancy, rather than 'services'.
Can someone be more explicit as to what these consultancy services are, please. More specifically, I do try to help clients become more proftable by offering guidance, and also explain their accounts and financial reports in depth (to those who are interested), although I do not hold myself to be anything but a bog standard general practitioner.
What I would really like to know is ... what do you do that is described as 'consultancy' that isn't part of your 'standard' service and enables you to make additional charges for the 'consultancy' services?
It could well be that I am providing these services anyway but haven't realised it, and I am missing an opportunity for .... a), the client to appreciate more just what our 'standard' services include, or b) the possibility of higher fees.
To me, although I may be wrong, there are only three ways a business can be helped to grow and become more profitable:
- Increase sales & value of sales - I struggle to see how I could obtain substantial new sales for the majority of my clients, and I could have only limited input regarding value of sales. There are specialists who would be far more effective than myself.
- Reduced costs - I can advise where costs seem high, but it wouldn't be worth my while sourcing new suppliers for clients
- Increased efficiency - I have lots of experience in this area, but can't give any real help without spending a LOT of time with the client, and this would be less profitable than accountancy work.
What am I missing, or am I looking at it from the clients perspective rather than my own?
Finally, once you have got the client as profitable as possible, and any further growth would take them beyond their ambitions, what happens then?
Added Value