The CPA’s New Relationship With the Client

Source: Accounting Today

August Aquila (Aquila Global Advisors, www.aquilaadvisors.com) and Bruce Marcus (editor of The Marcus Letter on Professional Services Marketing, www.marcusletter.com) discuss the new CPA-client paradigm.

CPAs’ relationships with their clients began to change when “marketing” was introduced to the profession in the late 70s. Factors are globalization, new capitalization methods, and new technologies. The latter caused changes in inventory controls, financial reporting, financial controls, and more, and required a new set of skills.

Marketing at first simply tried to promote the firms’ high quality services. Then the emphasis shifted to letting clients know more about the firm and its capabilities. Later it was discovered that the best marketing initiatives were those that focused on clients’ needs. Instead of promoting a set of services, CPAs tried to find out how to best identify what clients needed.

As a result, the client, not the firm, became the focus of the accounting practice. It became necessary to teach clients how to take advantage of the firm’s services, requiring an insightful understanding of the client and its needs.

This evolution is subtle but profound.

From Accounting Today, January 8, 2007, SourceMedia Inc., One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10004, 800-221-1809. For the complete article, click on the following link: www.webcpa.com/current_issue.cfm?issuedate=2007-01-08&pub=ato, then select the January 8, 2007, article: The Dawn of a New Era in Firm-Client Relations.

In the January 29 issue of Accounting Today Aquila and Marcus further discuss the new client relationship, including this list of what clients want:

• Solutions to business problems.
• CPAs who genuinely care about them.
• A greater range of high-level skills.
• Courtesy and good cheer.
• Responsiveness.
• A better understanding of the client’s unique needs and how to serve them.
• To be given detailed reasons for every recommendation—as opposed to blind acceptance.
• To be convinced by your actions that you should have their trust.

For the complete article, click on the following link: www.webcpa.com/current_issue.cfm?issuedate=2007-01-29&pub=ato, then select the January 29, 2007, article: Manifesto for a New Era in Firm-Client Relations.