The conversational accountant - it’s good to talk but will our clients pay us for it?

Asking a client ‘how it’s going’ doesn’t necessarily sound like the foundation for a longstanding and successful partnership. But for practitioners who take a conversational approach to providing trusted business advice, it’s often the first – and most insightful – question they’ll ask.

“This isn’t about trying to force your way into a client’s life,” explains Derek Blair, founding partner at Pinkham Blair. “It’s about trying to be useful; perhaps acting as a facilitator for the realisation of their long term business, financial and personal plans.”

Holding a conversation sounds simple enough, and it is, but it also needs thought and planning. Blair – who has developed the conversational style with clients over many years – recommends starting with a typed sheet outlining a structured agenda. He tweaks this very slightly depending on each meeting, but the first question is always: ‘How’s it going?’ “That’s effectively the introduction,” he explains, “and often I don’t have to say very much more. The client then downloads what life’s like.”    

The agenda acts as a guide and aide-memoire. “Through the conversation, the client is effectively gaining insights into how things are working within their own business,” says Blair. “I’m really starting an internal conversation for them. I’m someone to talk it thorough with.”

“I think lots of accountants out there can already do what I do,” he says. “The difference is that they give it away free; they don’t think of turning it into a product they can sell.”

Separate set of eyes

Having a structure doesn’t mean the conversation isn’t developing organically. “If the client raises points early on that will be covered later, I’ll make notes as we go along so we can circle back to them,” explains Blair. “Or they can pursue that point during that initial stage if they prefer.”

After the introductory question, the next heading is strategic issues. This might cover anything from an office move, to the planned sale of the business down the line. “It’s not about me making decisions for the client,” Blair stresses. “Advisory suggests you are telling people, and I definitely don’t ever tell people how to run their businesses.”

After strategic issues comes financials. Here the conversation may cover topics such as cash flow, personal tax or regulatory changes. “We talk about that quite early on,” emphasises Blair. “Because most of our clients want to get on to the more interesting stuff and if we had it lower down the batting order, we’d never get to it.”

Next up is operations, which is what Blair describes as “the guts” of what the client does; then comes HR, followed by sales and marketing. The final agenda items are a catch-all “any other business” section, and agreeing action points and responsibilities, as well as the dates of the next meetings.

“We’re not providing detailed sales and marketing consultancy or HR advice,” Blair emphasises. “Those are outside my professional specialisms. If they want to know the tax issues around a decision, that’s advisory but when I ask: ‘What’s the sales pipeline looking like?’ they then talk me through that. It’s having that separate set of eyes on it that then provokes them into thinking or doing something they might not otherwise have done.”

Shape of the gap

There is plenty of room for flexibility. For a long-established client, there might be another heading on the agenda – confirmation of the previous meeting’s action points. And for a new client, the first conversation may start with a fairly blank piece of paper.

The focus initially is to work out what the client wants to achieve, and “the shape of the gap they’ve got”, says Blair. “If they’ve agreed to have – albeit a trial – business planning meeting with me, there’s a reason they’re there, so I’m trying to identify that reason.”

“I don’t ever really sell to them. But what I do know is how to listen. So if a client is perhaps coming in to talk about year-end accounts, we’ll ask:  ‘How’s it going?’, and they’ll start talking about the issues they’ve got in their business. And we say: ‘Okay that’s interesting, tell me more’.” 

Once that conversation develops, Blair may pick up things indicating a client might benefit from a more structured conversational relationship. This style only works when a client recognises the value, however. “There’s no point in taking this approach with a sceptical or reticent client,” he says. “You’ve got to be dealing with people who have open mindsets.”

“Only the client can determine how much value you’re adding,” he stresses. “And the way you know this is how much respect the client has for you and for the meetings. If clients start moving or skipping meetings, you know their value perception isn’t high enough.”

His fee structure is never based on time. “You might agree to hold a two-hour conversational meeting each month, but some of these might end up being an hour and 45 minutes; others might be three or more hours,” he explains. “But in neither case am I charging time, and they’re not buying time.”

Bonding and partnership

It can be tricky to raise issues people would prefer to ignore, but that is where the most value lies. “I’m conscious I’ve got my own blind spots,” acknowledges Blair. “So what I do is try to shine a spotlight on all the dark and dysfunctional areas of a business, so every area gets a bit of exposure each meeting.”

“It’s always useful to have someone who isn’t deeply involved in your business day to day who has permission to ask the silly or stupid questions,” he adds. “By playing the role of the naive guru, you can act as if you don’t know very much about a client’s business, but display deep curiosity by asking innocent but probing questions to get the client to think about why they do things the way they do.”

He also talks about himself during the conversations. This might include anything from challenges he might be facing in his business to chats about his family. “It’s an intensely personal relationship,” he says. “So, as the relationship progresses, the meetings will probably at some point cover issues such as kids, holidays or house moves. That’s all part of the bonding and partnership element.”

“What we do is quite simple,” he concludes. “The important thing is to be interested and observant – always be actively listening – and to have a bit of emotional intelligence.”