Nothing is more frustrating to the highly specialized and skilled professional of today than being viewed as simply another commodity. Your ability to position your firm as a value leader and hence command premium pricing in your market will be vital not only to the future of your firm but also to the standard of living that you will enjoy in the coming years. Existing in a price driven environment is a position that no professional knowledge firm wants to find itself in. Commoditization is a fact and it is here to stay and even the largest professional knowledge firms are being confronted with it.

If client retention is a major concern for your firm, you are not alone. In fact, it ranked as the top challenge for CPAs according to the latest AICPA PCPS CPA Firm Top Issues Survey. Results revealed that holding on to good clients is crucial for practitioners going forward. Like it or not, in this new economy where cost-cutting and employee layoffs are the norm, client relationships are in great danger. Unfortunately, most firms have less people to take care of valued clients, with many stretched to their limits. To make matters worse, clients are becoming more critical and demanding of their advisors.

Often, professionals have too narrow a view of their product. They sometimes view the tax return, financial statement or other report, sometimes called the deliverable, as their product. Yes, the deliverable is a tangible representation of your service. As such, it is an important part of your service, yet it is not the service. The view that service is only the production of a deliverable is dangerous for professionals because it defines professional services as little more than a set of deliverables. Instead, think of your services as activities that take place during production and consumption processes that are partially simultaneous, and that always involve the client.