Shownotes
Got 10 minutes? That’s all it takes to sharpen your practice! In this episode of the Bissett Bullet podcast, Martin Bissett delivers two actionable insights to help you grow your firm without the overwhelm.
Do clients ever leave your firm unexpectedly?
Do you have a pipeline ready to replace them? What if you could reduce client loss without spending a penny? In this episode of The Bissett Bullet, we explore why firms lose good clients and how to stop it.
Part 1: Why Clients Leave (and Why You’re Surprised)
Firms are often caught off guard when a high-value client walks away. The truth is, it’s rarely about price. It’s usually about disconnection, clients don’t know the full value you offer, and you’re not asking what they really need. That leaves the door open for competitors who take the time to listen.
Part 2: The “Client A Day” Strategy
There’s a free, simple way to strengthen client relationships and protect your firm’s revenue: call one client a day. Not email. Not message. Just a genuine phone call to check in, listen, and understand what’s happening in their business. This habit uncovers risks, reveals opportunities, and keeps your clients close before someone else does.
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Ready to grow your firm with practical, no-nonsense advice? The Bissett Bullet podcast gives you bite-sized insights you can implement today.
Visit www.bissettbullets.com for more resources.
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4impactdata is an AI-powered platform that helps firms move beyond historical reporting by delivering clear, actionable next steps for your advisory team so that you can provide more value to clients without the guesswork of dashboards. To book a conversation or demo, or to join the 10X Advisory Cohort with resources from Martin, along with 10% off your first year’s subscription, visit 4impactdata.com
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ProNation is a global community for accountants and bookkeepers that gives you peer-to-peer support, expert guidance, and proven strategies to run a more profitable, efficient, and impactful firm. Led by Will Farnell, Lucy Cohen, and Martin Bissett, it helps practices of all sizes grow with confidence and better serve their clients.
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In association with CPA Trendlines
Transcripts
Question one, when a client leaves you, does it ever come as a surprise?
Speaker A:Question two, when a client leaves you, do you have another client ready in the pipeline, prospective client that is to come and replace the client you've lost?
Speaker A:And question three, what if you could avoid losing any of those clients without spending any money?
Speaker A:Sound good?
Speaker A:It's time for the client Relationship Bullet.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the Bullet, with thanks as always to our sponsors for making this show possible.
Speaker A:You know the format, we spend the first half talking about the issue, we spend the second half talking about the solutions.
Speaker A:We have some words from our sponsors in the middle of it, and this is the client Relationship Bullet.
Speaker A:So I'm fond of telling you that I've had 27 years at the time of recording working with the accounting profession.
Speaker A:That's worldwide.
Speaker A:That's a couple of thousand firms, over two and a half thousand firms.
Speaker A:That's a lot of partners offices to be stuck in at 8 o' clock at night.
Speaker A:And you can't do that without spotting patterns.
Speaker A:So here's a pattern when there is a major client departure, and by major client departure I'm talking about grade A, grade B style clients.
Speaker A:So I don't know arbitrarily anything from 5,000 upwards, but usually more like 10, 20, 30,000 pound clients or dollar or euro or whatever your currency is.
Speaker A:And invariably they didn't know, they the firm didn't know that client was going to leave.
Speaker A:It comes as a shock, a surprise.
Speaker A:There's an internal inquiry held in the practice to find out who knew what was done about it, were any preventative measures attempted, and so on.
Speaker A:And that's how disconnected we are from our clients.
Speaker A:So often you would think you would know about a 30,000 pound fee about to walk out the door.
Speaker A:You think you'd have a replacement ready for it as well.
Speaker A:But neither are the case in my experience.
Speaker A:So why is this?
Speaker A:Why does it come as a shock?
Speaker A:Can we do anything about it?
Speaker A:Well, second answer first yes, we can.
Speaker A:First answer second it happens because we're not very close to the client.
Speaker A:We carry out retroactive compliance services in order for them to keep the taxman and the relevant authorities away from their door.
Speaker A:We rarely go hugely beyond that brief.
Speaker A:If we do go beyond that brief, we don't regularly charge for it.
Speaker A:It's more scope creep and as a result you don't get close to what the client's doing, what the client's motivations are, what the client is in business for and that sort of thing.
Speaker A:So you can't.
Speaker A:Service needs that you don't know exist.
Speaker A:So therefore, as a business grows, as its needs develop and change, if you don't introduce into your conversations with them all the ways in which you can help them, we can't expect the client to know all the ways in which you can help them.
Speaker A:Therefore, we have to assume that they're going to assume that you can't help them, even though you can.
Speaker A:You just haven't told them and they haven't worked it out for themselves.
Speaker A:Therefore those clients become vulnerable to competitive attack.
Speaker A:So when they get a speculative approach from another firm who happen to be offering something more than the compliance, it's like, oh, is that possible?
Speaker A:Could that be done?
Speaker A:Why is our current accountant ever told us this?
Speaker A:And their interest is piqued even if they don't leave right there, it plants a seed and that's not good.
Speaker A:Your firm.
Speaker A:So if it is that the competing firm, the predatory firm, try hard to win that client and make them feel special and loved and cuddled and wanted and understood and heard and so on, that's all the things we're not doing for them.
Speaker A: herefore that can happen in a: Speaker A:So I'm going to ask you to consider how many times that's happened.
Speaker A:How many times that happened in your firm if you were able to prevent that loss and keep them, how many more years would you have kept them for?
Speaker A:How much more in terms of fee increase would you been able to have been able to levy as a result of additional help?
Speaker A:And what is the true loss in cash to your firm as a result of not knowing or being close to your clients in the first place?
Speaker A:Seems stupid, doesn't it?
Speaker A:I certainly think so.
Speaker A:The good news is, is that there's a remedy for free that suits people who can be bothered finding out what their clients are all about.
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Speaker A:Find them at 4 that's the number 4fourimpactdata.com that's forimpactdata.com so what's the solution?
Speaker A:The solution is CAV C A D abbreviation for client a day.
Speaker A:This is a ridiculously simple methodology that has worked for firms I've advised for all these years and doesn't work when you just can't be bothered, when you're just too busy, when there's just too many other things to deal with.
Speaker A:In other words, you don't care whether your clients leave or not.
Speaker A:So I'm going to ask you to do the most stupidly simple thing and here it is.
Speaker A:I'm going to ask you to phone a client a day.
Speaker A:Phone by the way, not email.
Speaker A:Phone a client a day.
Speaker A:One client grade A or grade B, or maybe it's by fee level you choose.
Speaker A:Doesn't really matter.
Speaker A:Ones that you pick by the ones that you think might be vulnerable first of all, from most vulnerable down to least vulnerable.
Speaker A:And I'm going to ask you to recite the following extremely complex script.
Speaker A:Are you ready?
Speaker A:Hi, how are you?
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker A:They'll be surprised.
Speaker A:They won't be expecting a call from you.
Speaker A:They'll think there's bad news coming or that the clock's running or something like that.
Speaker A:You'll be able to put them at their ease quickly.
Speaker A:Say, hey, just checking in, just seeing how everything's going in the business, seeing what you're up to at the moment.
Speaker A:It's mid year.
Speaker A:How are you doing?
Speaker A:Are you on target?
Speaker A:What's going on?
Speaker A:Did you hire that person?
Speaker A:Did you buy that piece of capital equipment?
Speaker A:Did that deal come in, tell me what's going on right now.
Speaker A:And they will be suspicious of you because you've never done that to them before.
Speaker A:In fact, if they've ever had another accountant other than you, they've never had that before and it won't feel natural and they'll smell a rat.
Speaker A:So you have to carry on putting them at ease and just saying, look, we're trying to wee bit harder to know our clients, to serve them, to stand ready, to serve them to the best of our ability.
Speaker A:This is part of it, which is giving you a shout.
Speaker A:Don't worry, there's no invoice coming.
Speaker A:I just want to see how you are.
Speaker A:And once they get over the initial shock, the next thing they'll do is they'll talk to you and they'll tell you what's working in your relationship.
Speaker A:They'll tell you what's not working in your relationship.
Speaker A:That's usually the fact that you don't get back to them fast enough.
Speaker A:And they'll also tell you, depending on how much they like you, what their business is trying to do.
Speaker A:And then you'll start to hear things like, do you get involved with how much would you charge for things like that?
Speaker A:Okay, so the client a day program is a simplistic program where you and all of your partners and your senior managers, if they have enough sway with your clients, take the initiative.
Speaker A:That's right, initiative to call proactively on the phone.
Speaker A:Not email, not text message, not voice message, but call a client.
Speaker A:And if they're not in, call somebody else.
Speaker A:And you'll find that you'll get through them once every six months, and then you'll call them again.
Speaker A:And you will find problems for you to fix, you'll find opportunities for you to capitalize on, and you will find that your retention rate is already very high, which is why you're complacent in the first place, will get higher still.
Speaker A:And although you will maintain, if not increase, your existing retention rate, you will now eradicate any unnecessary client loss, which can only be a good thing for you and your firm.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So today's bullet is client a day program.
Speaker A:Phone one client a day, spend 15, 20 minutes on the call, say, hi, how are you?
Speaker A:Listen to the responses and just dig a little deeper into what that client's trying to do, what's going on in their business right now, how, and have no other agenda, you will find opportunities present themselves.
Speaker A:And it's the best insurance policy the practice can ever take out.
Speaker A:I hope you do it straight away because businesses are waiting for you to do so.
Speaker A:And I'll see you on the next bullet.
Speaker A:Bye for now.
