Council Post: Six Steps For Landing (And Keeping) Clients Looking For Cash Flow Services

Jody Grunden is CEO & Co-Founder of Summit CPA Group. He has helped pioneer innovative changes within the accounting industry.

Many businesses struggle with cash flow due to poor cash flow management and a lack of understanding about it in general. Cash flow management has always been an essential component of a business’s financial stability. In light of the pandemic, cash flow is at the forefront of many business owners’ minds. Fortunately, companies that elect to hire a firm to manage their cash flow often find that they experience better cash flow visibility and, therefore, have less anxiety around their company’s financial health.

As the CEO of a distributed accounting firm, I believe the following steps can help grow your CPA firm by bringing on clients looking for cash flow management services specifically:

o Make sure the price is right. Establish rates that allow you to be profitable by taking into account several factors including your firm’s accounting experience, how much value your services will add to a client’s current operations and what system you will be replacing, which will indicate the amount of work involved in successfully delivering your service. If you do decide to follow a flat-rate fee billing model, it’s imperative that you set your fixed rates correctly, as failing to do so can cost your business a substantial amount in lost revenue.

o Set up a simple billing system. Our firm’s billing system is subscription-based, which means we charge our clients the same fixed rate every week. This system can be easier for your clients because it allows them to avoid being behind on a bill. They will also be able to consistently account for that outflow of cash, which will allow them to forecast their future cash flow more accurately. At our firm, we base our subscription billing system on a business’s size, which means that as a client’s business grows in revenue and number of employees, our rates increase in tandem. If you’re interested in following a subscription-based billing system but are unsure of how to transition your current clients onto it, I recommend applying this method to all new clients as if it’s the norm. In doing so, you can still maintain your former billing method for any other services provided.

o Have an uncomplicated and informative meeting with your potential client. Your goal for an initial meeting with a potential client should be to have them walk away from the meeting knowing what’s provided in your cash flow management services and the cost of the service so they can make an informed decision about whether to pursue things further. Since we’re a distributed firm, we typically have an hour-long meeting over Zoom with a potential client. During that meeting, we mainly let the prospect talk while we listen and learn more about their business and their current challenges. This kind of process lets you identify which services will help the potential client overcome their challenges and grow their company.

o Stick the landing. The key to securing the business of an interested party is to highlight your firm’s value proposition. We sell our clients on transparency and consistency in a market where firms are often opaque when it comes to fees and processes. Telling your clients what they can expect from you and what you expect from them also provides them with more information they can mull over while deciding whether or not to hire your firm.

o Manage expectations during onboarding. It’s imperative that you prepare for the onboarding session and make the most out of future meetings. At our firm, we typically prepare for an onboarding meeting by looking through a client’s transactions to learn more about their company. We then sync those financials to a tool that we use to analyze data further and come up with questions that will guide our recommendations.

o Conduct weekly meetings. Establish recurring weekly meetings with your client. During the meeting, you can spend a few minutes on noteworthy cash flow news from the previous week. You should then spend the rest of the time looking into the future to determine how things will look based on the client’s current actions. From there, you can devise next steps so your client can make adjustments as needed to ensure they continue to have cash on hand.

You can easily use cash flow management services as a springboard to offering other services, especially as your clients’ companies grow. However, in the meantime, landing new clients who want an outside entity to manage their cash flow, or getting current clients to invest in your cash flow management services, is an excellent way to continue growing your firm. Managing a client’s cash flow is also a great way to get to know them and form a more robust work relationship that will help ensure their loyalty to you, their service provider.

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