You’re here because you’re wondering if you’re undercharging your clients…
Hint: Most small accountancy firms are..
One of the first things we work on with our AGC members is the confidence to charge what they are worth and to go ahead with that long-needed fee increase.
If you want to get your firm to go from growing to scaling, i.e. above £150k in revenue, you need to ensure that your prices reflect that. This is why one of the 6 profit pillars we check in our free Growth Assessment is Pillar 2 – Pricing, Fees & Profitability.
Download our letter template to implement a fee increase successfully. Click here
Getting your pricing right is fundamental to how easy (or not) you make it to grow and scale your accountancy firm. This is why one of the 6 profit pillars we check in our free Growth Assessment is Profit Pillar 2 – Pricing, Fees & Profitability.
To see whether your issue is just with pricing or a bigger more systematic problem, take our 10-15 min free Growth Assessment here.
Written by Becky Rogers, copy and content writer for Accounting firm owners and Accounting specialists.
You’re worried that showing your fees will scare away potential clients. You think that if prospects see your prices, they’ll run straight to your cheaper competitors. We have this conversation with so many of our Accountants’ Growth Club members who, like you, fear showing their fees and having difficult pricing conversations. But here’s what’s actually happening: by hiding your prices, you’re attracting exactly the wrong clients whilst the high-value prospects you actually want are going elsewhere.
Sound familiar? This article reveals why displaying accountant prices is one of the smartest decisions you can make for your firm’s profitability and growth.
The advice given in this article on client onboarding for accountants is drawn directly from our book, Profitable Pricing For Accountants .
To buy your copy of the book directly from Amazon: Click here
To download the first 4 chapters of the book for free: Click here
Chapter 5 will show you how to increase your firm’s cash flow and profitability.
Chapter 11 talks about how to turn your Leads into paying Clients.
Chapter 14 covers how to package your services and make your firm irresistible to your niche.
Order your free copy here.
The way people find and choose accountants has changed.
Before social media and the internet transformed everything, prospects would typically contact you at the “I’ve decided what to do about my problems” stage. Now? According to Google’s Zero Moment of Truth research and subsequent Forrester studies, buyers are contacting potential suppliers when they’re already 50-80% of the way through their buying process.
What does this mean for your firm? Prospects aren’t coming to you for advice on what they need anymore. They’re coming to you after they’ve already done most of their research. They’re at the “finding people to help solve my problem” stage, and they’ve already got a pretty clear idea of what they want.
This changes the debate about whether you should put fees on your website. Your website is now the first sales meeting you’ll have with a prospect. It’s your initial point of sale, whether you like it or not.
So your website and social media presence need to help prospects with this earlier research whilst building up their trust in you and your firm. This goes way beyond just listing the services you offer. You need a useful, regularly updated blog that answers most (if not all) of the questions your prospect is likely to have before they decide to use your firm’s services. The firms that have been honest and transparent with these answers? They’re the ones potential prospects trust the most. They’re the firms that get the phone call or email requesting a meeting, regardless of where they’re located in the UK.
One of the biggest questions prospects are trying to answer is “how much is this going to cost?”. They’ll only get an answer from an existing client referral, someone who knows your fees, or from your website. If your website doesn’t at least give them an indication of how much your firm will cost, they’ll go elsewhere.
Think about your own behaviour. When was the last time you needed to make a big complex purchase? Did you have the patience to keep digging to find a supplier’s prices? Did you avoid contacting them just in case they were too expensive for you? No-one likes being embarrassed by having to admit that a supplier is outside their budget. Or did you just move onto the next possible supplier?
We’ve asked this question to over 300 accountants in our Accountants’ Growth Club webinars. The answer? Unless they had a really strong recommendation or referral, they just moved onto the next supplier. Your prospects are doing exactly the same thing.
Displaying accounting fees isn’t just about trust with your prospects. It’s about protecting your profit through something called the “anchoring effect.”
If you haven’t primed a potential fee level with a prospect before you speak to them, they’ll walk into the sales meeting with their own number already in their head. This is the budget they’ve mentally allocated for their accounting (an “anchor”). If your proposed fee level is much higher than this number, you’re unlikely to win their business.
Want to avoid price-sensitive prospects who push back against your proposed fees? You need to mention fees first. The most effective way to do this is to have them on your accounting firm’s website. That way, you also filter out the prospects who aren’t a good fit for your firm before they even make contact with you.
Case Study: Displaying Prices Increased Average Fee by 50%The following case study demonstrates how one firm successfully used price transparency to attract higher-value clients. When Ismail took the decision to display his package prices on his accountancy firm’s website, he was initially reluctant to do so. He was worried that it may put off the type of clients he wanted to attract. So in the 3 months before he changed his accounting firm’s website to display his packages and pricing, he measured the following:
In the 3 months after he put his accountancy fees on his accounting firm’s website the average fee had increased by 50%, with most of his new clients opting for his middle package. Whilst his number of enquiries had reduced by 33%, the enquiries he got were all good for the firm. He also stopped getting phone calls from Prospects just wanting to know “what it would cost for a set of year end accounts”. It wasn’t just the quality of the enquiries which improved, it was the time it took to convert a Prospect. Unlike before, he found that most Prospects verbally agreed to become a client of the firm during the first Sales Meeting. |
Most small accountancy firms sell a mixture of compliance services, one-off ad hoc work (like mortgage applications or bookkeeping clean up jobs), and advisory services (tax planning, business planning, cashflow forecasting etc. That’s a huge menu of options for a client to choose from, and choice overload is a real problem.
By bundling your firm’s services into fixed-price monthly packages, your clients can choose a package that best fits their requirements in one simple decision.
Neuroeconomics expert George Loewenstein found that buyers prefer to make just one purchase rather than multiple separate ones. Why? Because multiple purchases create multiple purchase decisions, and each decision point ramps up the potential buying friction (that “analysis paralysis”). When buyers only have to make one purchase decision and buy a bundle of services, there’s less friction. At the end of the day, making one decision rather than being presented with a list of options is much less hassle for most people.
Packages help your prospects’ brains from thinking too hard. To move them away from conscious, slow decision-making to automatic, quick, and effortless decision-making (hello subconscious), here are two steps to packaging your services:
Each of your accounting firm’s packages should match the requirements of one of your client personas. If you’ve got 4 or more client personas, you need to:
For example, if your firm specialises in contractors and construction businesses, you’ll have 2 clusters of personas.
The strongest scientific backing for a three-tiered pricing strategy comes from a phenomenon known as the Compromise Effect. When consumers are presented with three options (Low, Medium, High), they systematically gravitate toward the middle tier.
The human brain treats extremes as inherently risky: the cheapest option feels like it lacks quality, while the most expensive option feels wasteful. The middle option becomes the safest, most easily justifiable choice.
However, you may find that 2 or 4 works better for your firm than 3. Whatever number you choose, the goal is to make the decision process as easy as possible. Brains love information in a simple and easy-to-digest format.
Now you’ve chosen your packages, you need to give them a meaningful name and a short description of who it’s for.
If you’re going to charge what you’re really worth (i.e., adopt a value pricing model), you need to remove any barriers or friction to your prospect being able to make a quick decision to work with your firm. It’s a simple name that will help them make an easy decision.
Here are some examples of effective package names used by our successful Accountants’ Growth Club members:
When displaying what you charge for accountancy services on your website, you can influence what your prospects are most likely to buy by following these best practices:
When you display your prices, you’re giving your prospect a sense of whether they’re buying a Ford, a BMW or a Rolls Royce. You’re providing a ballpark figure for what it’s going to cost. You’re not giving them a final price (that’s what your new business meeting is for), and prospects are typically savvy enough to realise the final price will likely be higher than the “from” amount.
This means prefixing any pricing on your website with “from” or showing a likely range, so they at least have an indication of fee level.
Display your pricing packages side by side from highest to lowest and label the package you most want your prospects to buy as “most popular.” This simple presentation choice uses the “Bandwagon Effect” – where the more something has been adopted (social proof), the more likely it will be adopted by others.
There is something called “charm pricing”. This is where where you round down your ideal pricing so the number ends with a 9 (or possibly a 7). This has been shown to significantly increase sales when the prospect has limited information about a product. Why does it work? The way consumers typically read numbers – from left to right. This is called the left-digit effect.
When buyers read numbers quickly (like when they’re scanning your website), the brain interprets £499 as nearer to £400 than £500. This is a classic example of system 1 thinking, where your brain tricks you into thinking the price seems lower, and therefore more affordable and appealing.
However remember that you are not selling a product you are selling a service. So the jury is out whether this type of pricing helps or hinders potential prospects to use your firm. After all you are aiming to development trust.
Your firm’s website must demonstrate value, clearly articulate its niche and specialisms, be up-to-date, and visually pleasing. Why? Because your accountancy firm’s website is a visible indicator of quality and impacts your ability to charge what you’re worth.
Here is a video of Heather Townsend, author of Profitable Pricing for Accountants talking about the difference between price and value. And why knowing the difference will help you confidently put an indicator of your firm’s price on your firm’s website.
Ever heard of confirmation bias? It’s where we become more aware of details that confirm our own beliefs. We’ll also continue to seek out information to support a strongly held view or opinion of ours. If a client or prospect has decided you’re too expensive or possibly may struggle to manage their affairs, they’ll seek out ‘evidence’ that confirms their opinion.
This is why, when it comes to pricing, making a good first impression is absolutely key. If your website looks outdated, old-fashioned or cheaply designed, this is going to impact your ability to truly charge what you’re worth.
If you want to increase your average client fee, filter out price-sensitive prospects before they waste any of your accountancy firm’s time, and increase your lead-to-conversion rate, then the evidence is truly in favour of displaying accountant prices on your website.
Yes, you read that right. You need to be putting prices on your website (or at least give an indication of price). This is how you attract high-quality leads who actually value what you do.
Of course, some prospects will see your prices and decide you’re not for them. That’s the point. Those aren’t your clients anyway. The prospects you actually want – the ones who value expertise, who understand quality comes at a price, who are ready to invest in their business – those are the ones who’ll see your prices and think “this is exactly what I need.”
When you set the anchor price early, you eliminate the clients that you actually don’t want (the time-wasting price shoppers) and attract the clients who value your accounting firm’s expertise and who are willing to pay for it. You’ll spend less time on unsuitable enquiries and more time converting the right prospects into profitable, long-term clients.
The question isn’t whether you can afford to put prices on your website. The question is: can you afford not to?
1. Will displaying my accounting fees scare away potential clients? The short answer? Yes, but they’re exactly the ones you want to scare away. You’re worried that if prospects see your prices, they’ll run straight to your cheaper competitors. But here’s what’s actually happening: by hiding your fees, you’re often attracting price-shoppers who will haggle over every invoice. Being transparent acts as a brilliant filter. It scares off the wrong prospects and attracts high-value clients who value your expertise and now know you are within their budget. Read more here on how fear manifests itself when you are setting the pricing for your accounting firm.
2. What happens if prospects can’t find pricing information on my website? Think about your own behaviour when making a big purchase. Did you have the patience to keep digging to find a supplier’s prices, or did you avoid contacting them just in case they were too expensive? No-one likes the embarrassment of getting on a discovery call only to admit a supplier is outside their budget. If your website doesn’t at least give them an indication of your fees, the vast majority of prospects won’t bother asking. They will simply click away and go to a competitor who is honest and upfront with their costs.
3. What is the “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT) and how does it affect client acquisition? In the past, prospects contacted you at the “I’ve decided what to do” stage, giving you full control of the sales conversation. Now, thanks to the Zero Moment of Truth, buyers are already 50-80% of the way through their buying process before they ever pick up the phone. They are doing their research online. This means your website is now your very first sales meeting. If you aren’t providing the vital information they are looking for, especially pricing, during this crucial research phase, you are losing out on business before you even knew they were looking.
4. How does the “anchoring effect” influence a prospect’s decision-making? If you leave pricing out of the conversation until the very end, the prospect has already set a number in their head. That’s their “anchor”, and chances are, because they don’t understand the complexities of your work yet, that number is going to be much lower than your actual fees. Displaying your accounting fees anchors their expectations right from the start. Even if you just give an indication of price, you are framing the conversation around the value you provide, rather than fighting an uphill battle against an unrealistic number they’ve made up.
5. Won’t prospects just go to cheaper competitors if they see my prices upfront? We have this conversation with so many of our Accountants’ Growth Club members. It’s a common fear, but let’s be honest: if someone is solely looking for the cheapest accountant in town, they were never going to be an ideal client anyway. High-value prospects aren’t necessarily looking for “cheap”; they are looking for emotional connection, credibility, trust, transparency, and certainty. When you confidently display your prices, you build that trust immediately and position your firm as a credible choice, making the price-shoppers someone else’s problem.
6. How can I display my prices if my accounting services are highly bespoke for each client? We hear the “it depends” excuse all the time. Yes, your services are tailored, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give prospects a starting point. You don’t need to list a rigid menu of every single service. Instead, try using “starting from” packages or minimum fees for typical client profiles. This gives your prospects the clear indication they are looking for during their research phase, whilst leaving you plenty of room to build a bespoke, highly profitable proposal once you actually speak to them.
Getting your pricing right for your accounting firm is fundamental to how easy (or not) you make it to grow and scale your accountancy firm. This is why pricing is one of the 6 profit pillars we check with our FREE Growth Assessment.
Complete the assessment (it takes about 10 mins) and you’ll receive a free personalised report that helps you prioritise what to action first.
Written by Becky Rogers. Becky has spent the last 10+ years writing copy and content for Accounting firm owners and Accounting specialists. Over the last 5 years she’s written copy for over 30 accountants’ websites. Connect with Becky on LinkedIn.