The Complimentary Client Review bridge

The Complimentary Client Review bridge

The Complimentary Client Review bridge contains content for you to facilitate a complimentary meeting with clients to establish how you can work together to unlock client potential and help them achieve their goals.

Follow our CCR process to deliver a high value complimentary meeting with your clients each year. During the meeting, you will discuss your clients business goals and how they plan to achieve them, how their business goals tie in with their personal and lifestyle goals, the current challenges your client is experiencing, and how you can work together to address their challenges and achieve their goals. 

To access the Complimentary Client Review bridge, go to Navigation panel >  Bridges > Complimentary Client Review bridge.

Important info
A Complimentary Client Review should only be offered to current clients. For new and prospective clients, offer a Proactive Accounting Meeting instead. Check out The Proactive Onboarding bridge article for more information about delivering it.

Understanding the Complimentary Client Review process

Our Complimentary Client Review process enables you to re-engage existing clients as well as address and minimise scope stretch in your firm.
  1. The Process Guide outlines best practice use of the content in the Complimentary Client Review bridge; click the Download Process Guide button in the top right-hand corner to view this guide
Note
Ensure you review the Process Guide prior to using the content in the bridge.

Marketing the Complimentary Client Review

There are many ways to actively market the CCR, including:
  1. Discussing the Complimentary Client Review when a client makes an enquiry.
  2. Positioning the Complimentary Client Review at the end of an Annual Accounts Review meeting.
  3. Sending our relevant educational marketing content to your database to subtly position the value of working with you.
    1. Go to Navigation panel >  Marketing > The Gap + BOMA > The Gap + BOMA Content Library Catalogue to check out our education marketing content ready for you to send via BOMA.
  4. Hosting one of our Gap Webinars or Seminars available in Navigation panel >  Bridges to generate interest in your advisory services and offering a Complimentary Client Review as a complimentary service offering.
  5. Contacting clients to book in their annual CCR using the Script for Booking a Complimentary Client Review available in Navigation panel >  Bridges > Complimentary Client Review > Marketing.
Tip
As a firm, determine the criteria clients need to meet to qualify for a Complimentary Client Review, e.g. an annual fee over a certain amount.

Delivering the Complimentary Client Review Meeting

Note
The content to deliver the Complimentary Client Review meeting is located in the Marketing folder as a sale is the outcome of delivering this service.

Client Outcomes

By attending the Complimentary Client Review, clients will:
  • Clarify their business goals and how these tie in with their personal and lifestyle goals
  • Identify burning issues, opportunities and challenges they need to address
  • Gain clarity of the actions needed to achieve their goals
  • Understand how they can work with you to address their challenges and achieve their goals

Meeting duration

The meeting should take 45-60 minutes.
  1. Prior to the session, you'll provide all attendees with pre-work to complete; ensuring that any issues that need to be discussed are identified (and you can prepare accordingly)
  2. The Delivery Notes provide guidance on key talking points to deliver the session, topic-specific questions to cover if relevant to the client, and tips for positioning the value of relevant services
  3. The aim is to gain conceptual agreement to follow up the meeting with a proposal; the aim is not to solve the client's challenges during the meeting
Important info
We recommend enforcing a 'no pre-work, no meeting' policy. Politely discuss the benefit of pre-work and reschedule the meeting so it doesn't become one of discovery.

Following the meeting, if you've gained conceptual agreement, send a proposal within 48 hours.
  1. Use the Services Proposal if the client has agreed to a range of compliance and advisory services; this pulls through your services and service plans from your Services & Pricing area
  2. Use the Proposal for Additional Services for a one-off or bespoke service offering
  3. Use the proposal within a relevant bridge to offer a particular Business Development service
Click here for more information about common content found in the Gap bridges and how they relate to each step in the Complimentary Client Review process. See the Complimentary Client Review Process Guide for detailed information about the Complimentary Client Review content.

Combining the Complimentary Client Review with the Annual Accounts Review Meeting

Ideally, the Complimentary Client Review and Annual Accounts Review Meeting should be held separately, with the Annual Accounts Review Meeting being held first. If held in a combined meeting, it can be difficult to switch from the advisory mode of the Annual Accounts Review Meeting to the coaching style required for the Complimentary Client Review.
  1. The purpose of the Annual Accounts Review is to go through the accounts, make suggestions for improvements and outline the tax situation - this is an advisory meeting where the accountant does the talking
  2. The purpose of the Complimentary Client Review is to understand the client's goals, problems, and challenges, and then determine how to work together to overcome these problems and achieve the client's goals - the accountant asks lots of questions and the client does most of the talking
If the client is unable to attend two separate meetings, we recommend delivering the Annual Accounts Review online and the Complimentary Client Review as a face to face meeting or revisit the Complimentary Client Review later in the year.

If you need to combine the two meetings, we suggest that:
  1. You clearly distinguish the purpose of each meeting at the beginning
  2. If practical, the team member who prepared or reviewed the Annual Accounts delivers the Annual Accounts Review and the partner delivers the Complimentary Client Review (with a short break between meetings); alternatively, if the combined meeting is delivered by one person, allocate 50% of the time for the Annual Accounts Review and 50% Complimentary Client Review (i.e. don't try to switch between the two throughout the meeting)
Important info
Remember, you will position the Complimentary Client Review off the back of all education marketing events so you will not always do the Complimentary Client Review as part of the Annual Accounts process. In this case, ensure you ask questions relevant to the event topic. Refer to the last section of the Delivery Notes for topic-specific questions.

Converting Complimentary Client Reviews into sales

Complimentary Client Reviews are the most effective way to sell to new clients. If you're not achieving your desired sales outcomes, make sure you're focused on helping your clients rather than selling to them:
  1. Ask the right questions to establish the problems they’re experiencing and drill down into the long-term and short-term consequences of not resolving these problems.
  2. Discuss what life will be like for them if the problem is resolved compared to what life will be like if they don't resolve them, then ask what options they have to resolve the problems.
  3. Discuss how your most successful clients who have experienced similar problems have worked with you to resolve them.
  4. Confidently outline the benefits of the service in terms of how it will overcome the client’s problems and help them to achieve their goals.

What if the client just wants the answer now?

The purpose of the meeting is not to solve the client's problems but to establish a plan for resolving them. If a client asks specific questions and wants an answer, say you don't want to do them a disservice by giving them an ill-considered, off-the-cuff answer right now.  Most issues the client is experiencing are symptomatic of a bigger picture problem, so you need to get to the root of the issue. The solution will involve a lot more work but will be far more enduring if you provide it via a wrap-around service.

Remind the client of the purpose of the meeting, discuss how you can help them with the issue and position the additional service and fee. If the client is happy with this, record an action in the Meeting Minutes to send a proposal.

The Re-engage folder

It's common for firms to provide additional services to clients without charging for them and in many cases, without the client even being aware that you've provided the additional value. The content in the Re-engage folder will help your firm manage and minimise scope stretch and ensure your team knows how to recognise the potential for scope stretch before it occurs.
  1. Guide to Minimising Scope Stretch: this helps you train your team to recognise the potential of scope stretch before it occurs
  2. Annual Accounts - Our mutual Expectations: an email to send to clients to describe requirements, services and expected steps towards the completion of their Annual Accounts
  3. Outline and Benefits - Quick Queries Service: an email to send to clients to present the outline and benefits of your Quick Queries service
  4. Scope Stretch - Rework Script: a script to help you talk to clients about undertaking rework due to the quality of the information provided by them
  5. Scope Stretch - Additional Service Recommended Script: a script to help you talk to clients when services outside the service agreement are necessary
  6. Scope Stretch - Additional Service Requested Script: a script to help you talk to clients when they request services outside the service agreement
  7. Annual Client Reflection Questionnaire: send to clients to find out about the previous year and their plans for the coming year
  8. Lockdown Reflection Questionnaire: send to clients to find out about their lockdown experience and their plans for the coming year
  9. The Three Freedoms Worksheet: send to clients to identify the freedoms they want to achieve and the actions they'll take to achieve them
Important note
We recommend you offer a 'Quick Queries' service - complimentary phone and email queries for issues that can be raised and resolved within 10 minutes. This encourages clients to reach out for help without the fear of receiving an unanticipated bill. Ensure your team understands how to position answers which require more time - use the content in the Re-engage folder to learn how to address different scenarios.
Note
The Guide to Minimising Scope Stretch positions how to use the additional content in the Re-engage folder. Ensure you read the guide prior to using the content.

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