Back in the old study days I remember being taught something about the wrong and right way of advertising your services (some are frowned upon) does anyone no if a leaflet that days save 20% off ur current accountancy fees, woukd be acceptable. It's not discrediting anyone, so I thought it would be alright
Thanks
stuart
I don't see any problems with the ad apart from the fact that you will be attracting clients who only want a cheap job, so what happens when you get this job that ends up earning you £5 per hour and then they get another leaflet from someone promising them they will save them 25%, they jump ship. More often than not these cheap clients are more trouble than they are worth. I would say know what you want to charge/earn and don't undervalue yourself, sell them the added value you offer, find out what your differentiators. Maybe offer 3 packages, your cheap and cheerful, your preferred job and something a bit outrageous that makes your middle package look great value (this is basically decoy pricing). My highest paying clients give me the least bother, my cheapest ones have always wanted the earth from me. I have sacked two clients this year because of this.
It worries me when people say that they learnt something whilst studying and now do not use it... Ethics is everything. It is the code of honour that we sign up to which sets our profession appart from the back street cowboys and unqualifieds.
Right, ignoring that you are not going to win any freinds amongst other financial professionals with that sort of approach to advertising lets disect the question (be prepared for an ethics revision class).
All of the following is from memory so may not be word perfect where it references the ethical standards.
How can you say that you will save a client 20% on a comparable service when you don't know when advertising :
1) How much they are paying at the moment?
2) what their businesses financial professional is doing for them at the moment?
The rules for advertising that you refer to are section 250 of the IFAC code of Ethics for financial professionals which is either used in whole or as a basis for the ethical standards of the professional bodies.
The basic rules that you refer to are :
1) You will not be dispariaging of the services of any other practice
2) You will not make unfounded claims of the superiority of your own services
3) The advertising will be honest, legal, in good taste and do nothing to bring the profession into disrepute.
4) You will not do anything to undermine any of the fundamental principles (#1)
So, offering 20% reduction from an unknown initial fee level creates a scenario where you may be obliged to work at less than your costs (or at least less than minimum wage) on the guarantee that your work will be at least up to the standard of the financial professional that you are seeking to replace.
There is no specific rule to say that you cannot do that provided that the service that you offer does not suffer as a result of your charitable offer (i.e. if you agree to a price (20% lower than an unknown figure) you will do the work at a loss to the same standard as if you were making a profit).
Lets consider this from another angle. Audit firms will on occassion do the first audit for free in order to win clients (I think thats a silly idea as the first audit will always be the most expensive one but I digress).
The audit firm however does not say that they will be x% cheaper as that would be a direct attack on the practice of a fellow professional. They state a fee that they would charge (nothing). Its a subtle difference but a difference non the less.
I feel that a better way to approach this would be to offer a free consultation to see if you could reduce the clients fee's for an equivalent service but not give any statement about specific reductions which (a) you may not be able to meet and (b) will alienate you from every local practice whose livelihoods you are attempting to steal and causing endless issues with clients waving your literature at them.
Its good that you thought to ask the question as many would not. At the end of the day we are selling a professional service not cans of beans and the ethical code that we live by is what differentiates us as professionals from the unqualifieds who are not bound by an ethical code.
kind regards,
Shaun.
#1 The fundamental principles are (all financial professionals MUST not just know these off by heart but also understand them) :
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Professional Competence and due care
- Confidentiality
- Professional Behaviour.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks shaun.
Knew you would have a good response. I'm just trying to think of ways to get new clients. I do need to start going to some networking meetings which I have a couple lined up over the next months. So fingers crossed :)
I agree whole heartedly with Rob. Marketing on price is never a good idea. Rather than this you should really take some time to work out who your ideal client is (market segmentation) and put yourself in their shoes. What do they really want from their accountant/bookkeeper? You'll recruit more of the right type of customer and get the most money from it this way.
You'll soon realise that there are plenty of clients out there who are more than willing to pay a premium for a good quality service that they feel really meets their needs. Much better in the long run than the 'stack em high, sell em cheap' approach that will eventually see you cutting your throat and chasing turnover.
