Four CAS Communication Strategies You Can Practically Use

"My clients don't really understand the value of the work I do for them."

Does that sound familiar? If yes, your single biggest initial challenge is communicating the value of CAS. And there are different ways to communicate it to every stakeholder

In the?previous edition of The CAS Newsletter, we discovered six ways to identify your clients' CAS needs and wants. This edition will discuss?effectively communicating the CAS value of your practice.

Are you planning to start/ already offering CAS?

You can find a proven roadmap, many strategies, and actionable insights to enhance your CAS practice in the best-selling book?Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide.

Communicating CAS:

Your CAS success is not just about how you explain the higher value of CAS to your clients. CAS communication starts from within your firm. Only then it extends to your clients and prospects.

1. Do your firm's partners push back on CAS?

They likely feel CAS may not be as profitable as your other services. You need to get their buy-in first.

I worked with CPATrendlines to conduct the accounting profession's largest CAS survey. It revealed that 68.91% of CAS firms agree that CAS provides superior profit margins.

(None of the remaining respondents disagreed.)

Your clients need and want CAS. If you do not offer it to them, someone else will. CAS clients need more advisory services. Your expert and experienced partners can sell more premium fee advisory services to your clients. If higher and more profitable revenue is not your firm's goal, what is?

2. Is your staff/team used to produce work more manually?

Technology and automation drive CAS profitability higher. If your team is used to producing work more manually, they will feel CAS threatens their jobs. Nothing is far from the truth than this unfounded fear. Nearly 89% of CAS firms responded that CAS creates new opportunities for their firms. You'd want to tell the team that CAS will enhance/upgrade their role and responsibilities. They need to recognize that CAS will improve firm growth and profitability. You need to convince the team that they will participate in making CAS happen. They will be the first ones to benefit from the growth.

3. CAS is NOT a sales pitch to your existing clients.

It is a value pitch, an upgrade pitch. In any business, clients understand upgrades only when they can compare the before and after upgrade value. In the CAS survey, 91.37% of CAS firms responded that CAS enhances client satisfaction. Your CAS communication to your existing clients must include this "after CAS" contrasting it with "before CAS." The enhanced value from CAS will help increase client satisfaction.

4. You need to reframe your prospects' perceptions.

Your prospects come to you with what they understand/perceive about your services. Their experience defines what they expect from accounting firms.

Communicating CAS is to induce and influence a behavior change; expectations reset. Ask two questions to them.

a) What's happening in the accounting of your business that you don't want to happen?

b) What's not happening in the accounting of your business that you want to make happen?

If they have thought about it, you can show how your CAS can meet their requirements. If they haven't really thought about it, you will have the opportunity to drive home the CAS value. In the CAS survey, 84.57 % of CAS firms responded that CAS attracts new clients. You'd want to hone your perception reframing skills.

These are just some of the ways to get you started with CAS communication strategies. In my?CAS book, I have shared more such strategies to enhance your CAS practice.

What next:

After you have figured out your CAS communications, you are still a few steps away from making CAS a success for you. And one of the key next steps you'd want to take is to define what makes a client a great fit for your CAS offering.

From a Facebook poll that I conducted last week, here are the top three things that accountants expressed. A deeper analysis can tell you that all these are inter-linked factors. In the next edition (June 2022) of The CAS Newsletter, I will share some new insights on how to identify CAS-fit clients. Stay tuned......

CAS has enhanced the practice performance of many firms. CAS does turn into more CA$H for accounting firms. Others have done it, so can you.

• In the subsequent editions of The CAS Newsletter, I will share many more new, practical insights to make it easier for you to achieve greater success in CAS.
• If you have not yet subscribed to this newsletter, please subscribe now, so the new, fresh editions with new, fresh insights get delivered to your email inbox, and you also get notified of it here on LinkedIn.
• Please see Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide if you want to get a head-start in your CAS journey.
• ?If you were to ask just one all-important CAS question, what would it be? I will answer that question - just?send me your CAS question by clicking here.?
• If you are a professional accountant interested in developing/enhancing your CAS practice, please connect with me on LinkedIn.

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About The CAS Newsletter:

The CAS Newsletter will uncover insights for success in Client Accounting Services (CAS) - the new revenue & growth segment for accounting firms.?

This CAS Newsletter is a monthly publication by Hitendra R. Patil, the author of the best-selling, accounting profession's first-ever book on CAS:?Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide. Hitendra has been one of Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting for five consecutive years, from 2017 to 2021.