As an entrepreneur, your mind is never far from money, and how to get it. Jobs, suppliers and partners all depend on cash coming in. One of the things that can be fundamental to bringing in new business, is the ability to pitch and pitch well.

Pitching is not easy. There are plenty of mistakes to be made. But whether you are looking for investment, trying to land a new client, asking for a pay rise or to put up your fees there are a few tips and tricks you can learn that should boost your chances of success.

Preparation is key

A good pitch starts long before you go into the meeting, so do your homework. Know your material, and try to anticipate key questions or objections that might be raised. Confident, swift responses can make all the difference – but don’t pretend to know the answers if you really don’t. Who is going to be at the meeting? This is important, so do your best to find out in advance. If it’s a big pitch with a new client or investor, ensure you have an understanding of the problem you are helping them to solve. Understand their decision-making process. What has to happen before they can say yes or no? It can vary a surprising amount.

Going solo or in a team

When it comes to the big day, there is no getting around the fact that pitching is nerve-wracking. You can pitch alone – but it’s usually a good idea to have a couple of senior colleagues with you, especially if you know the other team are coming mob-handed. Everyone who does attend needs to participate and have a clear role.

Get to love your slides

Treat your slides like your favourite music playlist. You know all the songs individually, but, once the first one starts playing, you also know instinctively which one is coming next. There is a natural flow and you only need to learn the transitions from one slide to the next. Don’t get too lost in the detail. People will only remember two or three points from your pitch, so focus on the key facts, not the minutiae.

Question time

Questions can be tricky. You want to be quizzed a bit – questions are a buying signal – but not so vigorously that it interrupts your flow and makes you lose momentum. If you feel you are about to lose your thread, try saying you’ll answer further questions at the end. Try to make your audience feel like you’re offering them a special deal, or privileged access that’s too good to miss – something that won’t last forever. It may sound like cod psychology but it really works. Beware the sneaky lift question; remember that a pitch isn’t over until you’ve left the building are no longer in conversation with anyone apart from your team.

Let your audience make the final jump

Finally, sell yourself hard but not too hard. Leave some space so that the audience can make the final jump themselves. A good pitch is about creating the dominant point of view, a kind of irresistible gravitational force. A great pitch may not quite be money in the bank, but it’s the next best thing.

Soft skills have become a recruitment need for many roles, including that of accountants.

Why, in a job that deals with numbers, is communication, creative thinking, flexibility, problem-solving, critical thinking, and conflict resolution so important? Why do employers look for these skills, and how can you develop them?

Your future could depend on them

“My prediction is that the future of accountancy will consist of two types of people: those who are technical A-players, and those who are technically competent, and have mastered soft skills,” says James Poyser, CEO of inniAccounts.

“That’s because AI and automation will continue to have a huge impact on the profession. Technology has the ability to eliminate vast swathes of entry to mid-level technical roles – because computers can do it better, faster and cheaper than people.”

What will be left, he says, will be the really tricky technical problems, which are so unique that it’s not economical to build an algorithm to solve them. These complex problems will be solved by the most technically proficient accountants: the mediocre need not apply.  There won’t be many jobs here, and there will be no problem filling them.

But what if you’re not a technical A-player? Now’s the time to start thinking about your future: you won’t be able to get by with average technical skills, as the computers will out-do you. This is where soft skills come into play, he says.

Soft skills can make or break a business

Hugh Davenport, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, has taught undergraduate and postgraduate accountants and says that soft skills are often harder to develop than technical skills.

“To progress higher up the hierarchy as an accountant in a large organisation you will have to manage and lead people,” he says. “Soft skills are often harder than technical skills as you have to understand people as individuals, what makes them tick, and you have to treat each of them differently.”

He says companies are still making the mistake of taking on people who have technical expertise and thinking that they can train them in soft skills, but staff can’t necessarily be trained unless there is something there to start with.

“Young graduates who are going to be able to inspire and lead people need to have some of those skills already. There has to be some ability around teamwork, listening skills, communication, negotiation and empathy.”

Soft skills might make the difference between a company growing and being effective or going out of business or stagnating because staff need to be good at communicating with customers and practising truly effective listening and understanding the customer’s needs.

“Customers might be delighted with great products, but it is the after sales service that they will remember, and it is about the continuation of the relationship,” he says.

Understanding your clients

“Technical accuracy is an essential component in delivering a high level of service, but good soft skills can be beneficial when it comes to really understanding a client’s needs and wants,” says Carlo Fardella, Operations Director at First Freelance, a London-based specialist accountancy service for contractors, freelancers and small businesses.

“Good interpersonal skills have always been a really important aspect of our service, so when it comes to recruitment, we do look for people that are excellent communicators and good listeners too.”

In a numbers-driven profession, many accountants focus on their qualifications.

“Qualifications might get you an interview, but soft skills will get you a job and help you to keep it, says Paul Russell, co-founder and managing director of Luxury Academy, which covers softs skills training for the luxury market.

“Often, as students, we’ll focus on gaining qualifications but it is soft skills that allow you to put your qualifications to use,” he says. “Without soft skills, progress becomes stunted, environments become difficult and conflict quickly ensues.”

Building long-term relationships

Growing your business and your client base is important for any accountancy practice, and a key part of that is building a core of repeat business.

“Our clients are typically contractors, freelancers and small businesses, so each of their needs can vary,” Carlo Fardella says. “We want our teams to be able to adapt to those requirements, and then act upon them when needed. We believe it’s the key to providing true value and building lasting, long-term relationships.”

Aimee Bateman is the CEO and founder of Careercake, a company that aims to help organisations who want to help their staff build confidence in their careers and the challenges they may face in their working lives.

“The term soft skills encompasses so many things from communication skills to how you engage within a team and much more,” she says. “If you can communicate and explain accounts to your colleagues who work in other departments, you will inevitably improve your working relationships. Those that haven’t studied in accountancy won’t always be familiar with the terminology used, or how to read finance spreadsheets, so if you can tell the story behind the numbers in an approachable way – you’re going to win people over.”

James Poyser says there is one soft skill that blows all others out of the water: empathy. “Empathy has universal power,” he says. “By truly understanding people, empathy will improve the relationship you have with your peers, your manager and your direct reports.” It will allow you to build deeper and more valuable relationships with clients.

“It’s even a prerequisite to innovation,” he explains. “Effective innovations are those that solve peoples’ problems, and to do so, you need to be empathetic, and listen.”

He says that’s the perfect place to start building your empathy soft skills: listening.

“Spend time really actively listening to people. Minimise your own mental distractions,” he says. “Ask questions to seek understanding. Start putting this into practice and you’ll be lightyears ahead of AI.”

A competitive edge

Carlo Fardella believes that having a team with a broad range of soft skills can help your practice stand out from the competition and be more than just a commodity service.

“We acknowledge that all of our clients have busy careers and what’s paramount to them is having the peace of mind that their accountancy needs are in safe hands,” he says. “We become a trusted partner to our clients with a team that is prepared to go over and above to meet client expectations. That’s where soft skills can make a huge difference.”

Using skills that go with emotional intelligence enables an accountant to be proactive, too.

“Having the awareness to know when a client might be feeling frustrated or under pressure, and then taking action to overcome that, is something we really encourage as it gives our clients genuine added value,” he says.

He cites having a strong work ethic, high regard for teamwork and the ability to be decisive as really important soft skills. People with these qualities often demonstrate an ability to better manage their time and workloads and are able to create a healthy work-life balance.

The key to effective team work

In today’s working environment, collaboration and a good understanding of how teams work are essential, says Julie Provino, an international HR leader and founder of VeryHR.

“As we move up in our career, we become more exposed to politically charged situations,” she says. “We are also responsible for motivating teams and dealing with complex issues. These require greater self-awareness and the ability to understand how to engage with others effectively.”

Liz Sebag-Montefiore, Director and Co-Founder of 10Eighty, a career management and leadership training organisation, says communication is key to any job in any profession.

“It’s important to be able to get your message across and check understanding, learn how to listen, use body language to help your ability to communicate and implement the critical aspects of giving and receiving feedback.”

For a team to be successful, it is necessary to understand how emotions affect the team’s work and in turn strengthen the team’s ability to face challenges.

“Employees need to acquire the skills to be able to recognise conflict within their team and coach team members through it,” she says.

Is emotional intelligence something you can learn?

“By the time people are ready to join the workforce, it’s evident that some people have got the skills, and some haven’t,” says James Poyser. “There’s a small minority who naturally have these skills and an equally small minority who are always going to struggle to acquire them. But for the rest of us – the majority – I believe it’s about nurture.”

If you’re in an environment that values and practices soft skills, you’ll soon take in these skills via osmosis, he says.

“I’ve witnessed this in my own firm, where our own soft-skill superstars have a positive halo effect on the rest of the team – improving balance, happiness and performance. It’s something to keep in mind for those looking to change firm in the coming years.”

He suggests you ask yourself to what extent do you think you’ll be able to develop your soft skills to future-proof your career at your target firms?

Carlo Fardella says experience and background can play an important role in helping to shape interpersonal skills, but many of them can actually be developed through workplace learning.

“We place a lot of emphasis on supporting our staff with continuous professional development and with the right coaching and refinement throughout their careers,” he says. “I think it’s possible for people to enhance their range of soft skills. Having a good mix of hard and soft skills really is the icing on the cake when it comes to finding ideal candidates and, in our opinion, accountants that have the full package can really flourish in this industry.”

In part one, we looked at how you can defend your prices. Here we consider how to determine what clients find valuable, and how to charge them accordingly.

More and more firms are moving away from traditional pricing based on billable hours to giving fixed prices up front. The client gets no surprises but, unless the scope changes, you have to stick to the quote even if the work takes longer than originally estimated. This is the problem with fixed fees if you use your expected costs as the basis for your fee calculation.

This type of pricing is, in fact, time-based billing in disguise. It focuses on inputs (namely, time) rather than on outputs or results.

“But time in our profession has no relation to value,” says value-based pricing expert Mark Wickersham.

He explains: “Say, you spend two hours finalising year-end accounts, the first hour reviewing an opportunity to save the client £50,000 in tax, the second in the photocopying room and drafting submission letters. The costs are the same for each hour, but the value to the client of each of the two hours’ work is completely different – one produced a £50,000 tax saving, the other was simply administrative tasks. That’s why pricing based on time is wrong.”

Value-based pricing

Agreeing to a fixed fee based on the expected outcome, or the value of your service to the client is a better (and more profitable) way to price.

Carl Reader, director at accountancy firm d&t, says: “Whenever possible, our prices are linked to the impact of the advice that we are giving. This might be based on profit improvement, time saved or tax savings.”

Are you helping a client to secure a HMRC payment plan or some external finance? Then why not base your fees on an agreed % of the payment plan or the finance secured?

Wickersham points out that you should price each client individually, even for the same piece of work. It’s true, preparing a tax return for a client with £50,000 of annual income might take as long as preparing the return for a client with earnings of £500,000. But the ‘value’ provided to the higher earner is greater, so you can aim to charge the latter more.

How to determine value

“First, we have a face-to-face conversation with the client and ask lots of questions to understand the overall background and practices of their business,” says Alex Rawlings, operations director at contractor accountants Stonebridge Pay. “Their answers help us build a picture of their situation and their needs.”

You also need to uncover the challenges and problems they are experiencing, and any underlying reasons.

Reader says: “We try to find out what’s on their mind. It could be current pressing issues such as cash flow or time pressures, or longer-term goals such as retirement and exit planning.”

Wickersham says this is when you should flip the conversation to get them to tell you what the results would be if you could help solve their problems. For example, you might say: If we could help you put some systems in place and improve your efficiencies so that you then meet your sales targets, what would be the results from this? How would you benefit?

“This is powerful stuff because when they start telling you the benefits of you solving their problem, they are now doing the selling for you,” he says. This builds up the value and will help you when you link your price to the benefit, or the value of your proposed solution, to the client.

Although before you reveal your price, you really must ensure that the client is absolutely clear on the benefits. “If the client says to you, ‘That’s a bit expensive’, you probably assume that’s because they’re price sensitive. However, that’s never the reason. They simply don’t understand the value. When they see the benefits, the price becomes less of an issue,” says Wickersham.

How to charge based on value

According to Wickersham, menu pricing is one of the most powerful pricing strategies and should always be your first consideration. Ask yourself if it’s possible to give the client a choice of differently priced service options or packages.

Stonebridge Pay offers Silver, Gold and Platinum packages, all with a varied level of service.

Rawlings explains: “The Platinum package includes company incorporation, full book-keeping service and director personal tax return, which aren’t included in Gold. The Gold package includes quarterly VAT returns, timesheet management and a dedicated account manager, which aren’t included in Silver. Also, we offer the full level of advisory related to the service feature included in a given package. For example, if somebody is on Gold or Platinum, we offer them advisory on VAT as well as on personal and corporation tax.”

He adds: “Offering increased value in our higher priced packages gives us the opportunity to sell and move our clients to those packages. In fact, our clients usually pick Platinum.”

When menu pricing isn’t appropriate, Wickersham suggests using one of these pricing methods:

• Contingent pricing
• Percentage pricing
• Retrospective pricing
• Unit pricing
• Retainer
• Fixed pricing
• Time-based

He says: “I really do not recommend the last option, but all the others have a place. For example, percentage pricing can be used for pricing tax planning work.” Mark Wickersham’s offers free monthly training on value pricing.