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The Next Stage
"There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart
This section covers the following:
Our objective is to establish a close long term relationship with a small number of customers.
Since our main services (business coaching, monthly financial review, decision support, strategic planning and operational improvement) are not compulsory, providing more value to your business than the price you pay is the only way the relationship can last.
If we don't you would stop buying.
OK I admit it.
We do lose some customers. Some assignments are for a particular project. When that ends we finish unless the customer asks us to do something else. That's what usually happens but eventually these project based assignments come to an end.
Sometimes we have capacity to make a regular service commitment to a new customer but at other times we don't and we'll have to tell you. It can be frustrating to turn down opportunities but our main responsibility has to be making sure that our existing customers are happy.
Even if you are looking at the website after a mailshot letter our situation can change very quickly. The only way to find out the up-to-date position is to call Paul Simister on 07941 394440.
If we can't take on an assignment, either because we are fully booked or because your needs don't match our capabilities we will still try to help. Perhaps we can guide you on the type of service that you need and make suggestions on who you might approach.
Try Before You Buy
When you are buying professional services it's not easy to be sure that you're getting a good deal. It depends so much on the relationship between the company and the specific adviser who will do the work.
There are really only two ways to be sure - "try before you buy" and a "guarantee of satisfaction".
When we have spare capacity we are pleased to offer our "try before you buy" services that take about half a day. These are free and without obligation. At other times these services are available from us for £495 plus VAT.
- Business health check
The idea is to give a demonstration of our services and how we can work together for the benefit of your company. It gives us a chance to get to know each other better before making any commitment.
Business Health Check
Improvement and extra profit are important objectives but the most critical task is to protect yourself against issues that could ultimately threaten the survival of your business.
Our confidential business health check is the result of a highly regarded twelve month research project into how business advisers can help clients avoid the traumas of financial difficulty.
As part of the research project, a survey of accounting practices showed that 91% thought that a systematic process for identifying future difficulties would be useful to help their clients but few had such a process.
Strange as it might seem the seeds for future problems are often sown when everything in the business seems to be going well and the business is earning good profits so it's never too early to check the health of your business.
Like a medical check-up it's designed to help make you fitter, stronger and healthier and just like a medical check-up you don't have to take account of the advice. But it may make you aware of problems and encourage you to act sooner rather than later.
The process looks beyond the results shown in your accounts to factors that could explain why the components of profit - selling prices, volumes and costs - may change in the future.
If you'd like to try our business health check and follow up service, then give Paul a call on 0121 554 4057 or email him at paul@plancs.co.uk.
Pricing
If you are looking for the cheapest accountants or consultants in the area then stop reading. It is not us.
Our totally biased view is that we provide a high quality, friendly and flexible service (but check out our customer testimonials for the opinions of the people who really know).
In our view price is the single most important influence on company profits and it doesn't receive the attention it deserves.
If we are going to be your advisers we are going to spend a lot of time talking about the prices that you charge your customers. It's a big area for potential improvement.
Customers will tell you if you are charging too much but how many will take you to one side and say that you should increase your prices because you're not charging enough?
By that advisory stage you will have agreed prices with our firm and we don't want you to feel that we have exploited our knowledge to gain an unfair price from you. That doesn't help establish a long relationship as a trusted adviser.
We recognise that we can't make a good sale for our firm unless it's also a good purchase for you. It has to be a win-win arrangement. Both of us have to receive something more valuable than we give up.
Bear with me if we have a quick look at the theory.
Value to the customer and costs to the supplier place upper and lower limits on the possible prices:
- No one should buy a service that provides less value than it costs. Of course it can happen once or twice. We've probably all bought items that seemed a great bargain at the time only to realise later on that appearances can be deceptive. The adage "You get what you pay for" is normally true. When we have a bad experience we learn and make sure that we don't keep on making the same mistakes.
- In the same way, no supplier should continue to sell a service that costs more than the selling price received.
When we start talking about a new assignment, one of our early tasks is to design the service in a way that provides the value and benefits that you want. This includes stripping away any items that you don't want or don't value because providing these incur unnecessary costs. That's a waste - it doesn't do either of us any good.
Only after we have designed the service can we discuss what represents a fair price. It has to lie between our costs and the value you receive and is influenced by two external factors:
- How much it would cost for you to find and buy the same service that has been tailored to meet your particular needs.
- How much we can earn elsewhere.
We aim to be flexible about the way we structure our prices. Different business advisors have different ways of agreeing prices:
- By the hour
- A fixed rate for a particular task
- An all-inclusive fixed monthly service charge.
Each has advantages and disadvantages. We're happy to go through each and help you select the method that fits your needs the best.
Our Guarantee Of Satisfaction
The "try before you buy" offer is designed to give you experience of working with us and confidence in reaching an agreement but we offer three extra pieces of assurance:
- We don't require any payment in advance of providing the service.
- If for any reason you feel that you are not getting value for money then tell us and we'll try to fix the problem or you can just pay the price that you think the service is worth. We won't dispute your assessment of the value because your opinion is the only one that ultimately matters. But we will want to understand why we failed to meet your expectations so that we can stop it happening again and that means that we'll have to ask questions.
- We don't enter into an agreement that requires you to make a long commitment. Our arrangements can be ended by giving just seven days notice. This time may be needed to finish off any necessary work and so that a handover to another accountant can be done smoothly.
PARTNERS FOR PROFIT
We've tried to go further by introducing our "partners for profit" approach where for particular assignments the majority of our fees depend on the improved results of the business.
For business coaching for small businesses, 100% of our fee can be tied to the value of increase in profit you experience.
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Last updated 2007-07-06
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