What is a Trusted Adviser?

There's a lot of talk about change in the accountancy profession at the mo... although I guess that's true of any profession or indeed any walk of life.

Traditionally accountancy has been about historic data; getting a bunch of figures relating to income and expenditure that may have happened up to 21 months previously, knocking them into shape and creating a set of accounts for a customer to sign off.

But things are changing... or more accurately... have changed and will continue to change.

The phrase I hear a lot is 'from computation to consultation.'

I think I understand that.  Accountancy used to be about adding things up then taking them away to arrive at a figure - typically a profit or loss and as a result a tax bill or refund.

But customers are getting much more demanding - quite rightly so - and are looking for their accountant to provide much more than simply a set of accounts.

They want contact, information, help, advice and so on.  They want a 'Trusted Adviser'.

Apparently.

I thought I understood what one of those was but when someone asked me the other day I fumbled around for an answer for a few minutes before smiling weakly and sloping off to another meeting.

So, I did some research and I was pretty encouraged by what I found...

Firstly, a Trusted Adviser (I'll call them a TA from now on) is asked for by name and clients will seek them out for advice that goes beyond what might be expected.

For example, I was asked the other day about whether a customer could afford a new piece of machinery.  Something, as an accountant, you might expect to be asked.  On the same day I was also asked if I knew someone who could help fix a coffee machine and what would be a good rate to pay for dog walking.

In other words - the relationship isn't just technical.  There's the technical element in it, but it's more about a wider world view.

When asking about, our customers also said they liked the fact that we dress relatively casually - no pin striped suits for us.  That's because we want to like our customers not different from them.  We are business owners first and foremost and can fully appreciate the stresses and strains of running a business.

Other things that I discovered about TAs include 'communicating beyond the question'.  In other words, not just answering the question that was asked but giving the answer context and perhaps even exploring alternative solutions.

Business acumen is needed by a TA, big picture thinking, being technically strong as well as confidence in problem solving.

But the thing that separates TAs from any other 'service provider' is called Customer Thinking.

And that means thinking about any given situation from the customers point of view; asking the question 'how would I feel about that if I were the customer?'

And that's a TA