Three key aspects of an advisory fulfillment system that scales

Hey 👋 - Brandon here.

Happy Saturday to 1,055 growth-minded accountants.

This is post #4 in my five-post series on creating and delivering advisory services.

Here's what you can expect:

• Feb 18th: What is Advisory & Why Offer It?

• Feb 25th: Crafting Your Advisory Service (What Does the Market Want?)

• Mar 4th: Marketing Advisory Service

• Mar 11th: Pricing and Selling Your Advisory Service

• Mar 18th (today): Fulfilling Projects and Building a High Caliber Team

Want to read all posts in the series? Click here.

Let's go.

This is the final post in the "build an advisory service" series. I hope you've enjoyed it.

Today I will tell you how to set up a fulfillment system and hire the right people.

Once your sales engine starts working, new clients will be coming through the door expecting to receive the service they paid for. It's your job to develop a system for delivering consistent and high-quality results.

Fulfillment = Software + Process + People

To build a strong fulfillment system that works at scale, you must nail:

• Software

• Process

• People

Your software must provide real-time results and enable your people to take the correct next action.

Your process must deliver a great client experience and be followed by all team members.

Your team members must be go-getters who are great at customer service.

Mess any one of these up and you will struggle to scale.

Step 1: Getting the software right

Software should enable your people to succeed and give you real-time data that you can use to hold people accountable and solve problems proactively.

Spreadsheets won't cut it.

We use ClickUp to manage our advisory service line (we really use ClickUp to manage our entire firm). ClickUp allows us to store a knowledgebase, document client notes, easily update advisory projects, collaborate with each other, and soon they will embed AI.

It also allows us to automate a ton of tasks.

For example, when a project is added to the "onboarding" status ClickUp sends an automated email to the client with instructions to upload documentation and schedule their kick-off call.

Ever have problems collecting client feedback?

We did too. But now ClickUp auto-sends an NPS survey to clients once the project status reaches a certain point. This removes bias in NPS collection (i.e. only sending clients with positive experiences NPS surveys).

You don't have to use ClickUp.

But you do need to use a cloud-based project management platform that is customizable and enables you to automate emails and tasks.

Step 2: Getting the process right

The process should be designed with one thing in mind:

What steps must we take to maximize value for the client and ensure their success?

Too often, we get stuck thinking about how we can make our own lives easier. But clients don't pay you to make your life easier... they pay you to make their lives easier.

This happens in my firm too.

Any of these statements sound familiar?

• "I'm going to extend every client to spread out my work."

• "I'm going to require all clients be on QBO if they want me to do their prep."

• "I'm going to require clients email me to schedule a call, I won't give them a scheduling link."

We're all guilty of thinking (and saying) these things.

But we have to recognize that, for the most part, none of this adds value to the client. So when you are designing your advisory service, focus squarely on the client's success and you, in turn, will be more successful.

At our firm, our process starts at intake and then moves to onboarding and kick-off.

We've designed every email, call agenda, and deliverable with careful thought focused on helping the client find success. And once we develop a process that works, we train out people on it and use software to hold them accountable.

No one is allowed to deviate from the process.

Step 3: Getting the people right

The people piece is the hardest to get right.

I have tried for years to understand who makes a perfect advisor and how to go about finding them. I think I finally have a winning formula.

Let's talk about capacity first.

If you go through the effort of finding the perfect fit only to burn them out, you've wasted a ton of time. So it's important to understand how much work any one advisor can produce for you.

I stick to the 75/25 rule:

75% of their week should be focused on client-facing work.

25% should be focused on internal work (admin, meetings, upskilling, process improvement).

75% of 40 hours = 30 hours per week to spend on client work. We know our advisory service scope usually takes 10-12.5 hours per 12-month engagement, so we know our advisors can comfortably handle ~125 engagements per year or ~10 per month.

Sure, our advisors could probably handle 12-15 per month.

But then we'd eventually be faced with burnout and turnover. We'd lose institutional knowledge. So as long as we are happy with our revenues and margins on the 10 projects they start and finish every month, that becomes our maximum capacity (if the advisor wants more work, we point them to internal improvement projects).

Next, you have to ask: what type of person is willing to spend 30 hours per week doing this type of work?

For us, the answer has been people who love customer service and are more motivated by money than the average person.

So when we write job ads, we tailor them to those types of people.

And when we interview, we make everyone complete a DISC survey and we pay special attention to those with high "people-oriented," "customer-oriented," and "urgency" ratings.

Because your people are the most important piece to this puzzle, I highly recommend you systematize as much as you can and make data-driven decisions as often as possible.

That's all for this Saturday. See you next week.

Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you.

→ Work with me 1:1 to grow your firm (one opening per week, 12:30pm EST on Friday)

See you again next week.

Cheers,

Brandon

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