There are many ways for a firm to unlock new revenue. With the rapid acceleration of technology use and new offerings that arose from the pandemic, accountants have realized the benefits they can gain by deploying cloud and artificial intelligence-based systems to enhance existing or create new service lines for their clients. By unlocking new income streams and reducing the time spent on mundane tasks, CPAs can be empowered to focus their time on what matters most: value-added services.
Cross-selling value-added services enables your firm to tap into its established client base and leverage the relationships and work your firm already conducts to unlock new revenue streams. Unlike traditional marketing initiatives, cross-selling generally requires less substantial initial investment, yet drives higher revenue yield.
Leverage trust to drive value
Trust is a core pillar of accountant-client relationships. CPAs take on the role of trusted advisors to clients, offering critical financial and advisory services. It’s important to note it can take time to build trust with clients, and referrals are a vital driver of new business. It may take months or years to build confidence and a relationship of trust when a firm is onboarding new clients. But only by establishing this level of trust will you be able to introduce cross-selling services that benefit both the client and the firm.
If a client has a high level of trust in their accounting firm, it can establish a “single provider relationship” for multiple business services. Rather than a business retaining an outsourced payroll provider, a separate CPA firm to do their taxes and a consultancy firm for advice, a single trusted accounting firm could become a business’ sole provider of these services. This type of sole provider relationship can reduce complexity and cost for the client, empowering them with one trusted provider to turn to when they have issues or questions or need advice on best practices.
From the firm’s side, these types of trusted relationships can drive significant long-term value. They allow firms to spend less time onboarding and more time delivering additional value-added services that can generate further insight into the client's data and create a more holistic view of their business.
How to cross-sell services
The first step to cross-selling services is to engage with your clients, have meaningful conversations and solicit honest feedback. Asking questions and listening to direct customer feedback are essential to understand what aspects of your services are working well, what areas need improvement and where you may be able to expand into other areas of the client's business. Start with your most friendly clients, as they will give you honest feedback and won’t mind the open-ended questions.
There are several tactics you can use to increase the services your existing clients purchase from your firm:
- Choose the best time of year: Different times of the year can significantly affect your firm's ability to cross-sell services. Having a conversation after the end of the year (when clients turn to you for compliance services) is a perfect time to offer additional services, as clients are most likely to be fully engaged.
- Invest marketing budgets efficiently: Most accounting firms today utilize online portals. Recognize that those client portals can be used for more than simple data exchanges; they can also host marketing content or ads specifically tailored to each client. Brochures can also offer additional information on service offerings. Tailoring messaging to clients is vital. By being targeted and creating specific client plans that integrate additional services, you can help drive value for some of your larger clients.
- Direct client conversations: When engaging directly with clients, pay attention to the issues causing them headaches. Listening to client feedback about their required services can help your firm gauge what tailored services could be most attractive for which clients. Engaging with each of your clients enables you to understand their unique needs and offers you more time to explain the different services you can deliver.
- Understand your client base: Every client has different needs. A baker with their own online business and an online storefront will likely experience significantly different challenges to a billion-dollar multinational enterprise. Understanding the different types of clients your firm services — and their unique needs — will enable you to take a targeted approach with materials explicitly tailored to the needs of different kinds of clients.
Choosing which services to cross-sell
A firm may choose to cross-sell many different services and products to clients, with compliance at the core of any service offered. There are many different options when it comes to marketing your additional services to clients with large employee rosters or that are undergoing high growth. For example, offering payroll solutions as software solutions can help clients fix their efficiency problems through self-service, while providing payroll-as-a-service can take the payroll burden entirely off the business. Once clients are driving their payroll through an accounting firm, HR cross-sell is easier because you already are managing employee information.
Offering bookkeeping and data management services to your clients can also unlock additional revenue streams for firms, enabling you to sell general ledger and management accounts every month. Many firms request this data from their clients at the end of the year for compliance purposes. Offering data management services provides your firm with a monthly revenue stream and significantly simplifies work at the end of the year. Consistent monthly visibility into your client’s data also allows you to spend less time during year-end preparing documents. Offering these services reduces admin work on their side at the year-end and lessens the possibility of mistakes for your clients. Services like these that benefit both the client and your firm can drive significant value and efficiency.
Beginning to cross-sell at your firm
To start your cross-selling journey and unlock further revenue streams, first ensure the products or services can be delivered with high confidence and quality, but also consider the effect of offering these additional services on your firm. You must look to find efficiencies within your firm. In certain instances, you may want to outsource some services as a “white label” to reduce the amount of work and stress on your teams.
It is critical to ensure that whenever you do offer new services to your clients, you can deliver on your promise to customers and continue fostering a mutually beneficial relationship for both the future of your firm and your clients’ business. Thoroughly understand your client, their goals and challenges, then create a customized solution for them with your value-added services that can ultimately foster growth for both of you.
