Lowballing and Why It (Usually) Doesn’t Work

Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and APlus some exceptions and how to pull them off.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

I actually received the same question from two people in one day. These calls were from two CPAs I speak to a lot, have a lot of respect for and who have successful firms with other partners and a good number of staff. 

QUESTION:  (1) I lowballed a fee to get a client ($2,000 a month), got the client and the time was running twice what I charged them ($4,000 a month). I asked for an upward adjustment four months later of halfway between the time and the fee (an additional $1,000 per month). They dropped me and went back to their prior accountant, who was charging less than I was ($1,800 a month), but who didn’t do anything close to what I was doing. I feel the client knew it was a lowball and took advantage of it. What did I do wrong?