Connect with John
1. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice, as he discusses the importance of 'primary conversations'.
2. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John discusses the issue of accountants just doing more of what they are doing already.
3. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John shares some of his insights on the importance of personal goals, feelings, and emotions when it comes to what drives your business owner clients.
https://humanisethenumbers.online/episode-139-john-thompson-ceo-wisdom-in-practice/
1. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John discusses the importance of having structured conversations with clients as part of your process, and why you should make them automatic, habitual, and systematic.
2. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice, as he shares his theory on the value of KYC – knowing your client – and some stories on how a large audit firm has made the shift from audit to advisory.
3. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John discusses the importance of your relationship with your clients, emphasising that this relationship can only be built by getting to know them and their personal goals. These goals will be intrinsically linked to their business objectives.
And once you understand their personal goals, you can work with them to ensure the business can deliver those goals.
4. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John talks about SOPs – Standard Operating Procedures – and why every accountancy firm should have SOPs for advisory work as well as for accounts work.
He discusses how to follow a particular line of enquiry, which starts with getting to know your client – asking them how they are, how their family are, how they have been, their issues and challenges, and their 'good news'. This is when you find out what is going on in their lives, their concerns, their ideas, and what is driving them.
He calls it a marriage of business and personal.
5. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. When it comes to having more client conversations than you do now, John uses the word 'brave' quite a lot during this chat with Paul.
He believes that most accountants are already doing advisory work, but it's all centred around the accounts work and the business, rather than around their clients as people with emotions and feelings. And although this conversation may feel alien to an accountant, John says that 'you only have to be brave the first time’.
6. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John shares his thoughts about feelings being more powerful than thinking. If you ask your client what they are thinking, the conversation is likely to be centred around business strategy and plans, but if you ask them how they are feeling, it creates an environment for a very different kind of conversation.
7. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. Paul asked John to elaborate on the benefit of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), and John stressed their importance for establishing good habits and good behaviours. He narrows it down to having an agenda with your client that starts with the question: how are you feeling?
8. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John talks about 'primary conversations', which are conversations where you talk about what's really important to the client. He also stresses that accountants don't have to have all the answers. You can get experts in to help you, but if you are working at this primary level, you have control of the relationship, as you are doing the important stuff.
9. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John shares his 3 'songs for life'. You might be very surprised to learn what they are – listen here to discover them.
10. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John discusses the challenges of getting accountants to meet clients face-to-face and why these meetings are so important.
He and Paul discuss the issue of email being the default contact method, when it should be phone calls or meetings.
They talk about creating KPIs for relationship building and why more client meetings invariably lead to more work.
11. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John shares the story of how he tripled, in two years, his top line in a firm he used to work in.
He says they did this by simply having face-to-face meetings and asking the questions that the business owners' current accountants were not.
12. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John hates the word 'compliance'. Listen in to discover why.
13. Listen to this Humanise The Numbers podcast with John Thompson, CEO of Wisdom in Practice. John has two takeaways from this podcast – put yourself in your client's shoes, and then everything is advisory, and measure and track your number of client calls. He believes that both of these things, when done habitually, protect your relationship with your client.
https://humanisethenumbers.online/episode-139-john-thompson-ceo-wisdom-in-practice/
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Here is a soundbite of the interview with John