No reference to fees and plenty of free advice time?

A new contact called me recently as she wanted to ask me some questions that she was too embarrassed to ask her accountant. I was happy to help but I was confused; her questions were exactly those that I would expect to be directed at one’s accountant. And I’m sure her accountant would not have thought her odd, silly or difficult had she asked him. Indeed I suggested that did so.

The exchange got me wondering however whether this is a common occurrence.

Let’s call my caller Sindy. I learned that she had only engaged her accountant earlier this year and he had given her plenty of his time for free so far. However she did not recall him making any reference to fees or the basis on which he will be charging her. She also hasn’t received any form of engagement letter.

Having had various very positive and helpful chats with the accountant, Sindy is convinced that he is not suddenly going to sting her with a big bill for fees.
Sindy told me that she had found the accountant on the web and had checked out his website – she had decided that she wouldn’t even bother approaching anyone without a website. The accountant had spent 90 mins with her as part of his initial 30(!) mins free consultation – and had indicated that he wouldn’t be charging for the additional time – he liked her and was interested in her business.

I assumed the accountant was a one-man band in which case what Sindy was telling me was quite feasible.

I have since looked him up on the web and see that his firm claims to be one of the leading accountancy practices in the South East, with a team of sixty staff. This puts a whole different complexion on things and makes me more cynical. I’m sorry but now I doubt that Sindy’s confidence is justified.

The guy Sindy saw might well be sincere but I wonder whether the rest of the firm operates in the same way. I’ve yet to find a larger firm that can manage to do so. Certainly this one claims to operate on the basis of fixed fees – so hopefully Sindy is ok. I’d be delighted if my fears on her behalf are unfounded. Time will tell.

Is this accountant’s approach a good one to model?  At first glance it looks good.  Lots of helpful advice up front.  No charge for a long and valuable initial meeting.  Making himself available for free to try to further convince the new client that this accountant is ‘the one’.  Sounds fine in theory.

Now look at it through the eyes of the new client – even before she spoke to me, I might add. 

• What sort of a business brain does this guy have if he gives away 90 minutes of his time when his ad says only 30 minutes?  Doesn’t his watch work?  How confident can I be that he’s going to be able to tell the time properly when he records how much time he’s spent doing my books (or whatever)?
• What’s he hiding?  Why hasn’t he told me how much his fees will be? If they were low and reasonable he’d have told me up front.

And so on.

One of the traps that professionals often fall into is the one that prevents us from looking at things through the eyes of a client.