Episode 7: How to Shift From an Expert to an Advisory Mindset in 6 steps (Part 2)
Following on from Part 1 in last week's episode, this time Sam dives deeper still into steps 4, 5 and 6 of the mindset shifts that accountants and advisors need to make to have better conversations with clients, build different styles of businesses and meet or even be the disruption in a more agile way going forwards.
This episode follows on from previous episodes about the advisory mindset, and the challenges of the difficult conversations we need to have with our clients and with ourselves.
Listen to a snippet
What we cover in this episode
Recap of the three attitudes from Part 1
Attitude 4: Product-Centric Specialist versus Client-Centric Generalist
Examples in our website and in our practice, practical tips,
The importance of focusing on root causes not just symptoms
Attitude 5: Transactional Focus versus Meaningful Client Relationship Focus
Examples of this in our business and practical tips
The power of creating a recurring buyer instead of always having to sell each new transaction
Attitude 6: Silo versus Collaborative Approach
Why we feel uncomfortable about problems we don’t know the solutions t
The need to bring a team of experts together to collaboratively solve client problem
Practical tips to put in place to make these shifts
Questions to ask yourself and questions to ask the client to bring an innovative response
Further information from this episode
Example Thought-Provoking Questions to Ask Yourself
How can I reframe this conversation by asking questions?
How could I bring a fresh idea here?
Is there something that I could think about innovating within the meeting itself?
How can I use this opportunity to connect our work back to our clients agenda?
Thought-Provoking Questions to Ask Your Clients
What is happening with [xyz]?
Why do you think this has happened?
Tell me how we got into this situation.
If we could stop this happening again, would you want to know about that?
Quotes
“The Generalist approach actually looks holistically at the client's problems, exposes the root causes, and not just the symptoms, and then builds advice and a solution around the client problem.“
“We’ve got to stop the traditional approach that leads to this which is ‘this is how we've always done it so we keep doing it this way,’ as opposed to the innovative approach, which is ‘let's think about how we can actually do this better and is a new solution out there?’”
“There's a lot of conversation to be had, particularly in our networks, of getting to know what other people actually do. This does take time, and we can actually then suggest and be able to bring that collaborative approach as opposed to a silo approach. We are so busy doing what we do every day, that we don't look outside and ask how we can go back to that client-centric approach and bring a team of experts together.”
“There's nothing wrong with the Expert Mindset. It's not a right or wrong answer. It's just that if you want to have better conversations with your clients and you want to move into more meaningful relationships, these are the skills and the attitudes that we do have to start changing over time.”
Bonus material
Expert to Advisor Mindset Questionnaire
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