The Skills Needed to Be a Strategic Financial Advisor

Description

Be a Financial Advisor: Building your advisory practice can take some time, but adding advisory to your firm gives you, your team, and your firm a chance to grow, so it’s a good move. Many businesses are requesting advisory services along with standard compliance services from their accounting firms. This is your firm’s chance to provide the type of value your clients are looking for. It also gives you and your team the ability to grow professionally with new skills and do more face-to-face work with clients.

But advisory requires a different set of skills than compliance work. Here are the key skills you need to become a successful strategic advisor.

Client Relationship Management

If you rarely met with clients for compliance work, that will change with advisory. Long-term success in advisory requires connecting with clients and building trust. The businesses, finances, and potential growth of your clients are in your hands. You need to maintain trust by earning and reaffirming it regularly.

You must start the advisory relationship with a professional tone, because you don’t know your client yet. Then adjust how you work with them as you get to know them better. Emotional intelligence is an important skill in advisory.