SURVEY RESULTS: What Clients Really Want

428 business owners surveyed: “What should your accountant do?”

By Rob Nixon

There are two schools of thought on finding out what a customer wants and what they are prepared to pay for.

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The first I’ll call the Henry Ford way. Mr. Ford (who founded the Ford Motor Company) famously said that if he asked his customers what they wanted they would have said “a faster horse.” He didn’t ask his customers what they wanted – instead, he designed something that they needed. However, the customer didn’t know that they needed it yet.

Posted on October 24, 2016

Rob Nixon

About the Author

Rob Nixon has coached more than 434 firms adding over $850 million in profit to them and delivered seminars to over 175,000 people in 16 countries He can be contacted at robnixon.com.

Nixon is the founder of Panalitix, a technology-based coaching consultancy and membership community for tax and accounting firms seeking to improve operations, accelerate growth, and improve profitability.

Rob has forged a niche to be the world’s foremost authority on how accounting firms can achieve peak performance. Rob believes that accountants are the natural trusted advisor to business. He believes that accountants make a massive difference to their client’s condition. He believes that technology needs content and methodology to really be useful. He believes that accountants are not that interested in the future they are interested in what they need to do now. He also believes that unless accountants change their business model then a big part of their current revenue will go the way of the dinosaur.

Since 1994 he has been running businesses that specialize in helping Accountants run better, more profitable businesses. Accountants intrigue Rob and over the years he has trained them, consulted to them, coached them, researched them and visited thousands of them. His speaking work has taken him around the world where he has spoken to in excess of 150,000 accountants. Currently, his landmark strategies and products are used by over 16,000 accountants in over 20 countries.

In 2005 he created the revolutionary coaching model called Coachingclub. The CoachingClub model enabled firms to be accountable, to consistently learn and to share ideas amongst their peers. Over 800 Accounting firms have graduated from his Coachingclub program. The vast majority of firms have doubled or tripled profits because of the program.

Rob is a keen golfer (single figures) and adventurer (he is ticket holder 293 on Virgin Galactic to go into space). He lives in sunny Brisbane, Australia, with his wife Natalie and three children.

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