The Importance of Connecting With Clients
It is vital to connect with your accounting clients and be there to answer all of their questions. The people who come to you for professional help do so because you deliver something that they cannot or do not want to handle on their own. They’re hoping that you can fulfill their needs somehow, and they look to you as an expert guide. Naturally, therefore, they require your help in solving their problems.
Perhaps they seek support around an overwhelming, confusing task that falls outside their realm of understanding or capability. You can either do the task or guide your client through the details, allowing them to master and manage the steps on their own with ease.
Think about this from the perspective of your clients. They need help, and they’re seeking it from you. Selecting a person, group of people or entire organization to help handle essential details of your business is no small matter.
So when your potential clients decide that it’s time to fork over their hard-earned cash to solicit your support that brings them closer to their goals, they’re always going to search for that one intangible thing.
Do you know what it is?
The thing that your clients and potential clients want from you is trust. They want to walk into a business relationship with a sense of trust from the start. So, what sort of trust are clients hoping to find in you?
They want to trust your expertise and your ability to solve their challenge.
They want to trust that you’re keeping their needs on the highest priority.
They want to trust that you will provide high value with your services.
They want to trust that you won’t rip them off
They want to trust that you won’t do something unethical in your business dealings with them.
How do you arrive at a place of trust with people, so they feel ready to take the next step and do business with you?
How do you cultivate trust with a new client so they’ll return again and again for repeat business?
The way to get people to trust you is to establish a rapport with them.
1️⃣ Kick-off with a getting-to-know-you dialog. Keep the conversation about the client and their wants and needs.
2️⃣ Keep your client engaged at all times. The dialogue doesn’t end after the introductions and proverbial or literal handshake.
3️⃣ After the intro conversation, guide your clients through the phases of the business you are handling for them or the transaction you are carrying out on their behalf.
Your clients want to get the sense that you are “with them” every step of the way, and the best way to deliver this is through effective communication that reaches them at key points in the project or process that you’re taking them through, at the times when they need it most.