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Trust your gut: Dealing with prospective clients

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A recent Any Answers has dredged up the age-old issue of finding the right client for your firm. We spoke with three accountants who know this issue all too well.

16th May 2022
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While ensuring a high volume of work coming through the door is always going to be a top priority for practitioners up and down the country, working with the right client to best suit the running of your practice is equally important when it comes to success.

Any Answers user slim found themselves grappling with this very conundrum after a recent call with a prospective client. Questioning whether to take the job or trust their gut instinct, they came to the community for answers who were only too happy to offer their thoughts on the subject.

In response to this, AccountingWEB decided to pose the question to previous Accounting Excellence award winners and learn more about their own trials and tribulations of dealing with poor-fit clients.

I Houston

Ivan Houston: Owner and director of Scholes Chartered Accountants - Accounting Excellence Medium Firm of the Year finalist

I think that ensuring you find the right client is a really interesting question that many of us in the industry grapple with. I can understand what stimulated the conversation amongst the users on Any Answers because I think really, the longer you’re working in the industry, and certainly the longer I go on doing this, the more you come to trust your judgement when it comes to that initial chat with a prospective client. 

Personally, I would like to think that these days, I would be more inclined just to say “sorry, this kind of work is simply not for me”. This is different to how I thought when I was a younger professional. Back then, I might have had more of a cold, hard focus on the economic side of things rather than my own wellbeing when it came to setting myself up in practice. But, especially now that I have a team that I work with, I would not want them to have to deal with anyone who could potentially be bothersome or unpleasant.

These days, I think you have to place as much importance on wellbeing, if not more, than you do on whether your client may pay a good fee or not. I think it really matters whether you like the clients you're working with and personally, I have no qualms about waving goodbye politely to a client that doesn't fit for whatever reason, particularly if they are difficult or in any way unpleasant for my team to work with. 

J Bareham

Jonathan Bareham: Founder of accounting firm Raedan -
Winner of the 2021 Accounting Excellence Small firm of the year award

I've been running an accountancy firm since I was 27 years old and have made a lot of mistakes along the way in the past. Many times I've taken on a client’s business because, at the time, you feel like you need the money and you, rightly or wrongly, believe that you'll find a positive way around the issue. I can't really think of an exception when I say that I think every single time, your gut feeling ends up being true when it comes to working with clients.

So, compared to when I was younger, I would say that we now put business and wellbeing first when it comes to client relationships; even more so now that I feel the pressure of running a team of nine people, because it's not just me that it upsets if we end up with a rubbish client! But, I think it’s important to remember that this focus on smooth sailing and minimal stress hasn't always been the case, as I've made the mistake plenty of times over the last 10 years.

Yet, over time you learn and eventually you get to a place where you feel comfortable enough to know what you want from this career - it’s all a learning process. There's over 20,000 accountancy firms in the UK. There are more than enough businesses out there for us all to find the right kind of clients to work with. And for a different person, the issues you might see as a red line might not be an issue for them at all. All in all, it's about learning to be brave enough to say “that client isn't right, but there are plenty more out there that are.”

L Cohen

Lucy Cohen: Co-founder of Mazuma Accountants -
Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Contribution Award at Accounting Excellence Awards

Every single accountant will have taken on a client that is not a good fit for them, especially when first starting out, because you feel like you need to replace your income from whatever job you have before as quickly as possible. Because of this, it’s normal to just take anything that comes through the door and try and make it work. 

Sometimes this is okay because you're going to learn a lot from that experience while also learning what your boundaries are. However, once you've decided what you're doing, as a firm or as a practitioner, it’s essential to get rid and turn down clients that don’t fit your model, otherwise you're never going to deliver that exceptional client service. 

Your chances of succeeding and delivering incredible customer service are increased exponentially if all of your customers fit your model and fit well. Don't do stuff you're not brilliant at as a firm you don't need to - it's your firm, that's the point. You don't have to do stuff you don't love doing. 

What we need to remember is that, we have a responsibility as good practitioners to not let clients flounder in our service and we can only be the best practitioners we can be when we are serving good fit clients. When we serve poor-fit clients, we do ourselves and the client a massive disservice.

Cohen's excerpt was adapted from a recent episode of Client Confidential in conversation with Des O'neil.

What are your thoughts on finding the perfect prospective client? Leave a comment below and get involved in the conversation.

Replies (1)

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By Hugo Fair
16th May 2022 18:23

I did wonder why Lucy's contribution seemed to be dis-connected from the rest of the article ... until I got to the admission that her views were an extract from an unrelated source. Still at least my EI antennae are obviously still working :)

More seriously, everything else could be summed up as "it really matters whether you like the clients you're working with" - which I feel is broadly stating the bleedin' obvious.
Dressing it up under references to 'nowadays' or 'wellbeing' makes it sound new or even radical ... whereas it lies at the heart of why many of us set-up in business (or ceased to be employees to put it the other way round).

Speaking for myself I've never found it essential (although pleasant) to like a client - BUT I regard it as my inalienable right NOT to accept as a client anyone whom I mistrust or actively dislike in any way (without any need for evidence to support my opinion).
This is not to be confused with bias or a lack of willingness to deal with a wide diversity of people ... but a business relationship is personal (whether you like it or not) and my life is sacrosanct to me, so why would I put it under stress or even risk by choice for mere fiscal gain?

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