Building trust with clients has become increasingly crucial for business advisers in the past year, as companies and individuals seek to navigate the uncertainties created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As their accountancy support, you’ve already established a greater level of trust with your clients simply by helping their business continue to survive and even thrive despite challenging times.
Take an industry deep dive
And while the future of the business landscape remains somewhat uncertain, it’s all the more reason why now is a good moment to consider ways to build on those relationships. One option is to look at developing areas of specialist knowledge and by being able to offer recommendations on specialist tools and systems specific to your client’s industry through advisory services.
To do so, you’ll need to truly understand your client’s business better from the inside out by taking a deep dive into their industry and developing niche services.
A useful first step in developing a specialism is to partner with leading organisations in your chosen specific industries
Being able to offer a personalised service for your clients, based on industry-specific knowledge, means that you can differentiate your practice from other accountants.
As a result, you can build stronger long-term relationships with your clients and become a go-to industry expert whom they can rely on for the best financial advice, no matter how the business environment continues to shift and change.
Learn through partnering
A useful first step in developing a specialism is to partner with leading organisations in your chosen specific industries. These types of partnerships help you to understand the particular pain points of businesses to better relate to your clients and offer them consulting advice that fits their needs.
Partnering with well-known and respected companies in the industry will add credibility to your practice. It demonstrates your commitment to staying up to date with developments and challenges in your specialised area.
The more you become aware of top trends and influential organisations in the industry, the better you can fill in gaps in the space.
This makes your practice even more valuable to potential clients and further helps you stand out from other consultants in the same industry.
Once you’ve formed strong partnerships in your chosen specialism, you can start to leverage these to both learn more about the industry and, most importantly, begin building an industry-specific client base.
One option is partnering with a specialist technology provider, who can help you understand the challenges of a particular market sector. For example, by working with a job management software provider, you will learn more about what field service businesses go through when managing field staff, job profitability, project management and labour costs. You will then be able to connect with a wide range of companies in plumbing, electrical installations, fire and security protection.
Build your network
Partnering with industry-leading organisations can open doors for your accountancy practice within your chosen specialisation. This may not be directly from referrals but through networking opportunities with key players within the industry.
Take these opportunities to learn from other professionals in the partner ecosystem by connecting through networking sessions, LinkedIn and events. You can use the marketing materials they provide to promote your relationship to potential clients.
Many organisations offer partner programmes that can help you further specialise and refine your services. Investing time in researching potential partners who match your ways of working and your areas of interest will pay off in the longer term.
