As an accountant, business advisor or consultant, there are three key factors that will make a huge difference to the success of growing your practice.
Although you have a great deal of knowledge to offer, many accountants, consultants and advisors struggle when it comes to attracting a predictable lead flow of ideal clients. It can be difficult to know which strategies to focus on and sometimes it feels as though your attention is being pulled in a million different directions.
However, when you learn to focus on the right things, the rest will fall into place. Let’s take a look at the three linchpins of successful practice growth.
#1 – Outcome Over Action
A lot of your success as an accountant, business advisor or consultant rides on the language that you use to sell yourself.
Focusing on terminology won’t help you grow. Providing your prospects with a simple list of your services won’t land you those high value clients you really want to work with. Instead, you need to focus on results.
The best way to set yourself apart from your competitors is to talk about the transformations you create to overcome your clients’ problems. It’s not about the actions you take, it’s about the outcomes you achieve.
Do you offer cash flow management, or do you build more lucrative and sustainable businesses?
Do you provide tax advice, or do you create thriving, profitable and tax-efficient organisations?
Be mindful of the language you use. Speak directly to your ideal clients’ fears and pain points. Remember that you’re not offering transactions, but transformations.
#2 – Value Pricing
This is where many accountants, business advisors and consultants get stuck.
Trying to compete on price will only result in a monster business filled with vampire clients who want to get as much out of you as they can whilst paying you as little as possible.
If you want to create a freedom practice, you need to learn how to price based on value.
What are you offering your clients? What value are you providing? How much money are you going to save or make for them?
Business owners will happily hand over £10,000 if they expect to see a £100,000 return. Therefore, it’s vital that you learn how to articulate your value and price your services accordingly.
As well as learning how to price your services, you need to learn how to get paid in advance. This will enable you to reinvest your profits back into your practice as soon as possible and give you the momentum you need for growth.
#3 – Niche
Last, but certainly not least, the most important ingredient for successful practice growth is finding the right niche.
If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that I bang on about niching all the time – and with good reason. It really does make a huge difference.
A practice is built around the expertise of the owner. If you’re a generalist and want to work with everyone, you’re not going to become an expert.
You won’t understand your clients’ business well enough to provide outstanding outcomes. You won’t be able to get super specific on their aspirations and pain points. When it comes to marketing your practice, you’ll struggle to be heard.
Without your expertise to make you stand out, you’ll be left to compete on price. Being a generalist is a one-way ticket to a monster business.
If you’re not sure who your ideal client is, create a list of all the clients that you currently work with. Next to each name, note how much they pay you and the amount of time it takes to service them.
I bet my bottom dollar that this list will reveal that 70-80% of your clients only pay you about 20% of your revenue. This means that, conversely, 20-30% of your clients are providing 70-80% of your income.
These are your ideal clients.
The other 80% are not profitable clients because they’re taking up too much of your time. You’re stressed and you’re not reaping the rewards of your hard work.
By filling your practice with ideal clients, you will work less and earn more – and that sounds a lot like freedom to me.
Summary
If you want to build a freedom practice, then you need to implement the above three factors. When you get super clear on your ideal niche, use the right language to promote your offer and charge what you’re worth, you will have far more time and money to reinvest in practice growth. Ultimately, these three actions will give you the momentum you need to create a lucrative and impactful practice that you actually enjoy working in.
