It’s all in the Packaging

As you can imagine, we receive our fair share of objections with regard to reasons why some CPA firms who badly need to merge are hesitant to do so.

So, as a result, they procrastinate longer than a middle schooler who needs to get their parents’ signature on a failing report card.

One of the more frequent complaints is the fear that their clients, upon hearing of a merger, will decide to take their business elsewhere rather than confront the changes of the unknown.

My response to them is that the way to overcome client trepidation is to package it correctly. There are some subtle and other not so subtle strategies to allay client worries – chief among them is to have your new merger partner accompany you for an in-person visit to your top clients. This way they see the both of you together and can now envision the relationship and synergies going forward.

Another trick is to send your clients the merger announcement on YOUR stationary and not of the successor firm. Otherwise your clients may perceive it as a solicitation for another firm and file it under G – for garbage.

And if you’re predominately a tax-centric firm, you probably want to hold off announcing anything until you draw close to tax season. If you unveil an affiliation for example in June, then your existing clients have 6 months in which to make a yea or nay decision on whether to begin the search for a new firm.

Again, it’s a matter of packaging and timing. 

Perhaps one of the best examples of how to package something occurred when I was 18 years old and working in an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. The management was contemplating adding a higher end item to the largely basic seafood and shellfish menu and the choices boiled down (pardon the pun) to either lobster or steak.

A seafood purveyor arrived at the restaurant the next day – a diminutive middle aged man named Sal who in turn asked each of us what we ate for dinner six nights ago. None of us could accurately recall and he then framed the question to ask when was the last time any of us had lobster? The owner replied that it was the month before, while the manager recounted that he and his wife ate lobster at one of New York’s famed fish establishments some six weeks ago.

Sal had cleverly and almost subliminally packaged lobster as a special occasion entrée and within a week we had a lobster tank and a steamer. It soon became one of the best-selling items on the menu.

Now I realize that selling lobster on an infrequent basis is somewhat different than offering full-time tax, audit or consulting services but hopefully, you get my point.

A little packaging can go a long way toward relieving client angst.

Or for that matter enjoying and remembering next time you go out for a lobster dinner.