Blunt Advice for Accountants Who Want to Make a Difference
Paul Davis
Paul Davis is an award-winning business and executive mentor, speaker, trainer, author of several international best-selling books, and creator of The Impact Code and The Executive Code. He has earned a reputation as a game changer and a secret weapon when it comes to the measurable and permanent positive change that has been experienced by the countless business leaders he has worked with. Having originally trained as a management accountant, Paul has since transformed several pan-industry enterprises into multi-million Euro successes. Shownotes:
- Compliance for accountants is becoming a smaller proportion of accounting firm income
- Accountants have NOT been listening over the years, both to what their client are wanting and what the market is driving
- Clients see little value in compliance, which is why it’s becoming a commodity
- Many accounting firms are unable or unwilling to give their clients the direction and advice they need
- Most accounting websites have the same buzz words – integrity, honesty, professionalism, reliability, so where is the differentiation?
- Most accountants have lied, bent the rules, committed things if they answer honestly
- The vast majority of accounting firms have not changed over the years and are not open to changing
- A picture of what will happen to accounting firms who cannot or refuse to change and really listen to their clients and their own staff
- The younger accountants coming through to replace the older generation are more empathetic and ask better questions of clients
- One possible reason why accountants don’t listen and ask good questions if clients is that they’re supposed to have all the answers
- Dashboards, graphs and charts are easy for accountants to produce, but this is not what business ownrs are looking for
- Most accountants are doing well from a revenue and profitability point of view but are not thinking long term and will suffer in coming years
- What separates the good accounting firms from the great ones
- Commercially minded accountants are few and far between, and many are not open to this coachable skill
- The difference between the good and great accountants is offering strategic advice
- Why accountants should not SImon Sinek’s ‘start with your why’ as that’s not why clients buy from you
- Values are completely misunderstood in all companies – accountants should properly use them for better impact and differentiation
- A business cannot have a set of values – it’s an inanimate object and not a human being
- Values are better phrased as priorities or philosophy when it comes to representing your accounting firm
- Almost all accounting firms are seeing huge downward pressure on fees and a huge increase in salaries, and economics says these two lines will cross
- Accountants are a 6 or 7 out of 10 when it comes to time management and productivity
- Accountants can put all manner of new business systems and processes in place, but if they don’t change human behaviour, they won’t succeed
- Very few business coaches and consultants who serve accountants do not invest in learning and so dish out the same information and methods.
'Almost all #accounting firms face huge downward pressure on fees and a huge increase in salaries, and economics says these two lines will cross and firms will suffer' says Paul Davis on the #Accounting Influencers #Podcast with…
Paul is an Executive Coach with the Irish Stock Exchange for companies preparing for IPO. He is also a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Fellow of The Institute of Management Consultants & Advisors. You can call him on +353 86 810 8548 or contact him below:
Liked your Accounting Influencers Interview with Rob Brown" target="_blank">Paul on email
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