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Don’t service clients: Give them an experience.
Advisory

Don’t service clients: Give them an experience

Half a century ago, we went from a manufacturing economy to a service-based economy. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies are transforming us from a service economy to an “experience economy” that removes the friction between customer and service provider by transcending traditional service delivery.

Ron Baker, founder of the VeraSage Institute and host of the VoiceAmerica radio show, has long encouraged accountants to move beyond the hourly billing model to one in which they’re paid for the value and outcome of their work–not on how long it took them to do the work. For many years, Baker championed value-based billing and is now encouraging firms to adopt a subscription model.

The key to making the subscription model work is guiding clients through transformations in their lives in which they make breakthroughs on the financial and non-financial fronts. It's about building a year-round relationship between accountant and client–the same way concierge doctors practice medicine. Just as concierge doctors don’t just see clients on their annual physical, accountants shouldn’t just meet with clients during tax time.

Dennis Moseley-Williams, founder of Dennis Moseley-Williams Strategic Consulting and author of “Serious Shift, How Experiencing Staging Can Save Your Practice,” believes we need to move our mindset from “What I need my client to do” to “How I want my client to feel.” He believes this can only be accomplished by staging experiences that ultimately lead to client breakthroughs that drive transformations.


If you’re thinking about complementing your practice by offering financial planning to your clients, I’ll share some advice: Financial planning is about more than money, business and investing; it’s about seeing the totality of a client’s life and what’s most important to them. More importantly, this process will be the compass that guides your client’s transformation. I like to call this going from advisor to Advis-ROR, as in an advisor whose goal is to maximize their ROR (Return on Relationship) with clients.

The power of experiences 

According to Moseley-Williams, the financial services industry has long been focused on providing services, often confusing them with experiences.

"While services are about saving people time and money, our experiences are about creating time well spent,” said Moseley Williams on my podcast. The goal “is to make clients feel deeply engaged, personally connected, and ultimately transformed by their interactions with their advisor.”

Moseley-Williams emphasized the importance of understanding what your clients truly want beyond their financial needs. He believes it's about discovering their goals, aspirations, and the emotional impact they seek to make with their money as they go through their life journey.


Beyond investor/client behavior 

Having studied behavioral finance in-depth, I’ve found that one of the most important benefits advisors bring to the table is preventing clients from making ill-advised financial decisions. Many advisors understand the most common biases found in behavioral finance, including loss aversion, mental accounting, herd mentality, and the fallacy of break-even. They understand how to help clients avoid having those biases derail their financial plan.

An Advis-ROR helps clients become better versions of themselves, not just better financially, but with respect to their entire sense of well-being. This requires a shift from providing heavily focused technical advice and services to using their business as a platform for teaching and guiding clients toward a more fulfilling life. For example, you can use value exercises to uncover what’s most important to your clients beyond money. You’ll learn the right way to ask clients such questions as “What are your best hopes for your future?” Moseley-Williams believes every interaction with your client is an opportunity to “stage an experience” so they look forward to spending time with their advisor rather than dreading it.

Case study: Beyond taxes to life goals

A CPA our firm works with came to us for help with a business owner client who wanted to minimize taxes and help his employees save better for retirement. The CPA’s client (let’s call him Bob) was an entrepreneur who was scaling his business. Bob’s immediate concern was setting up a 401(k) plan for his employees. Traditionally, the focus might have been solely on the mechanics of reducing tax liability and creating a retirement plan for his team.

But we saw an opportunity to go deeper.

We advised the CPA to ask Bob what his ultimate goal was—not just for his business, but for his life. Here’s where the CPA could ask Bob a “best hopes” question such as, “If your best hopes were realized what would that look like to you?” After some thought, Bob revealed that he wanted to retire in 10 years at age 60, and fulfill a long-held dream of traveling the country in an RV to visit national parks with his wife.

When the CPA asked Bob how this vision made him feel, Bob said it would bring him happiness and a sense of freedom. Bob also mentioned a desire to maintain a connection to his business by consulting occasionally while traveling and working remotely from his RV. But he didn’t want to jump back into day-to-day operations. He hoped to delegate that to his trusted team.


This revelation from Bob reframed the entire approach. Instead of simply tackling the tax question, we helped the CPA craft a holistic strategy to align Bob’s finances and business operations with his life goals. This included the following:

  • Retirement planning: Structuring his business finances to accelerate his personal retirement savings.
  • Succession planning: Identifying key employees and creating a pathway for them to take over day-to-day operations, allowing Bob to step back without losing touch with his business.
  • Tax optimization: Integrating the 401(k) plan into a broader tax-efficient growth strategy that benefited Bob and his employees.
  • Life plan vision: Mapping out a 10-year financial plan to fund his RV adventures and ensure he could maintain his desired lifestyle while working remotely.
  • Values-based focus: Aligning Bob’s financial decisions with his core values of family and travel helped him uncover the “why” behind his work, which led to meaningful experiences he could enjoy with his wife while exploring the country.

By asking Bob a simple yet profound question, "What do you want out of your business and life, and what does that ideal future look like?, we helped the CPA transform the conversation from a transactional one to a relationship one. The result wasn’t just tax savings; the result provided clarity, purpose, and a roadmap for life that Bob could look forward to with excitement.

Make your client a VIP client

By embracing this transformative approach, you can make every client a VIP by elevating client relationships beyond traditional financial planning to becoming champions of their overall well-being. The rest is up to you.

Editor’s note: Rory Henry’s new book, Holistic Guide to Wealth Management for CPAshas more about facilitating client transformations and becoming a true Advis-ROR.

DISCLAIMER


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