“Accountants can’t or won’t sell”

Accountants selling to their clients is a topic as old as the profession itself. I regularly hear criticism from those looking to monetise the accountants’ relationships with their clients that “accountants can’t sell”. I also come across an attitude within the profession that “accountants shouldn’t sell to their clients…it’s unprofessional…it’s not what my clients expect”.

Let’s tackle the issue.

My starting point is this: if you own and/or manage an accounting firm they you are running a business and any business that doesn’t sell, or have a sales strategy, has a problem. If you had a client come to you and say that they didn’t want to ‘sell’ to their customers then I’m sure that you would challenge their logic.

Let’s be clear what we are talking about here. I’m not talking about sales techniques or attitudes that promote a “Hello John, I have got a deal for you”, bombard customers with unwanted messages or jam a foot in the door. Unprofessional? Absolutely!

Look at some of the dictionary definitions of the verb ‘sell’:

·     ‘Give or handover something in exchange for money’ – Are we running a business or not?

·     ‘Persuade someone of the merits of’. ‘Be the reason for something being bought’ – Are we the trusted advisor or not?

·     ‘Cause someone to be enthusiastic about’ – Do we want to make a difference or not?

The issue is not ‘should we sell’ but ‘how do we sell’ isn’t it?

Where we reach common ground is when we start talking about giving advice, rather than trying to sell. Most accountants are comfortable in giving advice and clients are comfortable to receive it. The accountants’ business model is based around selling our services, knowledge and support so, as long as we are charging fairly for that, we can ‘sell’ all day long.

Of course, charging fairly for what we do is a big subject in its own right but our failure to charge doesn’t limit our ability to sell. As an accountant, recognise that you do sell!

We limit ourselves with our pricing and with the levels of free work that we do. That won’t surprise anyone. But, we also limit ourselves in the conversations that we have through a fear of being seen as selling.

We have a wealth of knowledge and insight into financial management, personal finance and business matters and, of course, tax. We can be guilty of not laying  all of that out in front of the client, at the right times, for fear that they think we are pushing for additional fees. That’s an internal barrier that we have to get over.

Think about our role as the trusted advisor and our desire to make a positive difference for clients. If we don’t talk about the risks, threats, actions and opportunities that impact on our clients, and put forward the advice and solutions that we have for them, then how are we truly fulfilling our role?

It is our role to advise, inform and alert clients. What clients choose to do with that is entirely within their own hands. Whether they choose to act and to buy is their call, not ours. If we are effectively censoring what we put in front of our clients for fear of being seen as ‘selling’ then we are doing the client a disservice.  Treat them as adults and give them the information for them to then make their own calls.

Believe in the advice and services that you offer and in the fair price that you charge. Then let the client decide for themselves.



They have the right.