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When it comes to talking about the services that your accounting firm provides to your clients the conversation usually centers around the services that you provide not necessarily the solutions that they offer. The problem is that this approach can leave clients feeling confused and overwhelmed, after all, seeing a long list of services isn't very helpful if they don't understand how those services are going to solve their problems and make their lives better.

This Heart-icle 💛 is going to be a short one, but I hope it's impactful, so let's dive in!

It's important to highlight the solutions that you provide to your clients and their problems, rather than just talking about your services, this helps increase the effectiveness of your marketing and sales communications.

Here's how.

First, it lets your clients know that you truly understand their problems. This allows you to build trust and rapport with them.

Second, it shows that you truly care about them and aren't simply trying to make a sale.

I know that that's never the case, or never what you're attempting to do, but it can often come across as salesy to your client if you speak about Services first. Especially, in your marketing. But if you position a solution to a problem, that comes across a lot more helpful and less of a sales pitch.

Third, it naturally opens up the conversation to the services that you offer that will provide the solutions to your client’s problem. Setting the stage for your marketing by highlighting Solutions over services will make the sales process much simpler and way more natural.

It also takes the process of winning a new client, and makes it easier, because they will be associating your firm with solving a problem for them…instead of a bill they're going to have to pay later.

Here is a quick example!

Instead of saying you offer “Tax Planning” as a service, say something along the lines of:

“We help our clients save hundreds - even thousands - of dollars in tax payable each and every year with our comprehensive tax planning packages!

It is a really simple example of how to speak about Solutions over Services that you offer.

Here's a really quick exercise that can help you decipher the solutions that your services actually offer to your clients:

1️⃣ Take out a piece of paper and draw a line straight down the middle, on the right side write down all of the services that your firm currently provides. On the left side, list the solutions that your services solve for your clients.

2️⃣ Take that list and write out a single statement for each and every service.

3️⃣ Then use those statements that you've written based on the solutions that they relate to and use them in your marketing.

This way you will be able to communicate the outcomes that your client can expect when working with your firm, instead of worrying about the bill, because that's human nature.

If all we see is a service and a price tag, and we don't see the outcome or the way our life is going to look like after we pay for that service or partake in that product, we're likely not going to buy it. We likely aren’t going to feel good about making that purchase.

You want your clients to leave or pay their bill happily because they truly felt the value that you provided to them, based on the solutions your service offerings provided.

So, keep that in mind as you go through that exercise.

Just remember to keep it simple!

Wrap Up

That's it!

If you're looking for a guide to elevate your firm's marketing, be sure to head over to marketmycpafirm.com and download the FREE Ultimate Accounting Firm Marketing Playbook! It's packed full of tools, resources, and exercises to help you build your firm's marketing!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

Need some additional help? Book a FREE Discovery Meeting today, here, to chat about how I can help!

I'll see you next time.

About the Author

Bryton Udy is the Founder and CMO of atHeart Creative, and host of the Accountant Marketing Mentor YouTube Channel. Dedicated to helping accountants simplify their marketing and communications so they can grow their accounting, bookkeeping, and financial planning businesses, he is passionate about harnessing creative marketing to support the independent accountant.

One easy change can improve your Marketing - offer Solutions instead of Services!