5 Tips for working with Accountants

Many Financial Planners would like to establish professional
working relationships with Accountants and establish on-going client referral
arrangements. For good reason, the majority of us on the financial planning
side view advice best delivered by Financial Planners and Accountants working
together with a client.

We know dozens of Financial Planners who have developed
relationships with Accountants although these don’t often bare fruit with
referrals and new clients, and Advisers are often left wondering why. The
exercise needs an outcome, over and above making “new friends”

So we’ve put together a list of 5 tips to working with
Accountants based on feedback from them, and also Financial Planners with
successful referral relationships.

We also recently wrote an article on Why the Accounting
Fraternity Needs You which may be helpful, and also How to Benefit from
FASEA to learn more.

1. Plan to make contact 5-10 times over a 3-6 month
   period, face to face, email, phone call, coffee, networking events, whilst
   providing small pieces of information useful
   to them. Give, give, give, give.
2. Arrange your contact points around busy times
   for the Accountant, don’t approach them during Tax Season, they don’t want to
   see or talk to anyone other than clients
3. Don’t tell them what you do – they have a fair
   idea. Explain how you’ve helped clients in the past that may reflect clients
   they work currently with.
4. Make them look good. If you are invited to see a
   client with them, be polite, courteous, do most of the listening and make sure
   your personal presentation is very high.
5. Outline a process that is easy to understand
   (not advice process) for what it would look like if you met with one their
   clients. Demonstrate what the client is likely to experience, not how you put
   the advice together.

We could elaborate on each and everyone of these points but
we don’t have time here. We do share numerous other tips with our clients
including the Accountant cheat sheet, or as we call it “how to work with
Accountants, written by Accountants”.

You may also like our article on working with accountants

 If you are looking to
grow your business and would like to develop referral sources and alliance
partners in the accounting sector, then contact us or find out more about our alliance
partner services.

We also provide services to assist Financial planning
businesses with Practice Management & Coaching, Recruitment &
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