It was a great privilege to spend an hour in deep conversation with Glenn Collins, Interim Head of ACCA UK. Glenn has 23 years of history with ACCA, supporting firms like yours. Glenn shared his views on the importance of the POD approach to high-growth accountancy firms, as well as the importance of strategy and of anchoring to a core purpose, the real meaning behind everything you're doing in your firm. He also discusses how accountants might see themselves slightly differently, as a broader service provider rather than offering “just accountancy”, as important as accountancy is. He points to one or two ways, one or two insights, that can signpost many more ways in which you and your firm can deliver greater value to your clients. So if you are interested in hearing more, join me and Glenn Collins from ACCA on this humanisethenumbers.online podcast.Please scroll down this episode page for Glenn's contact information, as well as for additional resources mentioned in the podcast. |
The Solution:
I think as a profession, accountants can get very hung up about some of the descriptions and labels, whether that's customer or client.
For example, I was having a discussion earlier in the week about advisory and what advisory actually means. We complicate those descriptions sometimes by saying, advisory means this or advisory means that.
Sometimes it's very hard for us to explain this to clients. Advisory in its essence means I'm just taking some of your information and I'm actually getting more involved and engaged within your business.
If I turned to somebody and said "do you do due diligence?” they would say “definitely not”.
But if I turned around to them and asked if they provided advice on access to finance, different product lines for a particular client and what they should be doing as a strategy going forward, they would say “yes, actually I do some of that”.
So, you are doing a form of due diligence on product lines, you're just not doing it in that traditional sense of doing due diligence on an acquisition of a company.
Sometimes we can create our own confusion by complicating it with labels within our own marketplace.
SHOW NOTES
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Resources relating to this podcast:
In this podcast Paul and Glenn talk a great deal about questions - not being afraid to ask questions, the kind of questions that no one else will ask.
As an accountant, you are in the privileged position of being that business owner’s most trusted advisor, so having regular, robust conversations about that client’s business is of paramount importance.
But how do you ask the right questions? How do you develop those raw questioning skills and how do you ensure your team develops them too?
Glenn suggests that you be nosey! If you care, and are committed and curious about your client’s business, then you cannot go wrong.
In this Business Breakthrough report, you will discover how to ask the right questions and become your client’s empathetic ally by showing genuine concern for your client’s business in the meetings you have with them.
Click the button on the right to read the ‘Client Value Counts’ report and the button below to access the ‘Ask Better Questions’ report and master the art of asking the right questions at the right time.
