In this episode of the CFO project podcast, we discuss how to speak your client's language.

Welcome to the CFO project podcast. Today, we're talking all about speaking your client's language and why that's important. To help me with the discussion, I've invited Sarah Bryson, the grand Poobah of her own CFO. Company CFO. Yeah, to the show. Sarah, welcome to the show.

Yeah. So, in full transparency, you're also a member of the CFO project, but you own you own your own CFO company. I love the title. Your business name, CFO. Yeah. So tell the audience who you are and why you started your service and how you came up with that name. That's really cool.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. So fine arts. So when you decided on that, major, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, that. You're right, you're right. And the reason why I asked about the fine arts. Because the topic of today's episode is all about speaking your client's language, which is an A mode, which is a a soft skill, which we'll get into in a few minutes. It's a soft skill that that a lot of accountants and bookkeepers need to possess if they want to be a good CFO.

And it's almost like maybe you you had that naturalist. That's why I sort of came naturally to you, didn't you? You were inundated with just numbers. And then when you started talking to clients, all you talked about were numbers. You were you were able to speak their language. So what do you have? How

do you speak? And what do you mean by speaking your client's language?

So this is so important.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's like Greek. Yeah. It's right.

Oh. That's good.

Yeah.

Right. Totally.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you you're absolutely spot on. Taking action is the most important part. I will I will fail as a CFO to our clients if we don't get them to take action. Somebody whom we have no control over to take action. And most people like high schoolers learning the the, the formula you're talking about. They won't take action until they understand something.

And, and I think for people to understand something, they have to they have to feel like they care about it. So you have to translate it in a way, like you said, like I did. You know, if it's over 90 days, you may not get paid. Case in case in point, I had a client, one of my clients, we actually our monthly meetings actually this afternoon last month.

She has a day sales outstanding problem. Like, it's, like 280 days is ridiculous. But she is she she sells high ticket, programs to fortune 500 companies. And but she's not a numbers person. So I just instead of even going to talking about day sales. Outstanding, I said, hey, you know, my clients, maybe, you know, these six clients, they haven't paid you.

Do you know what's going on? And that's it. Like, instead of introducing with her, at least instead of introducing any complicated financial jargon, just talk like talk in a language that they understand. And she immediately rattled off what was going on. I'm getting the client to take action. And she knew exactly which hit the six clients she needed to contact that day.

Yeah. So, Sarah, what why did you did did you always have this mindset of speaking your client's language, or did you start off speaking when you started getting to bookkeeping and starting offering advisor services? Did you start off sort of doing it the wrong way, and then realized that your clients.

Like, like give us an example of how a client reacted when you didn't speak their language.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. Totally. I completely agree with you. A lot of business owners will, will will wake up in the morning, check the bank account balance on their phone, and they decide what they can buy that day, or who they need to go out and collect money from, or how many sales they need to make. That's pretty much it. And, you know, and it's as sophisticated as I get it, I think I think we as financial professionals, you know, like you said, there, we we're in the numbers every day.

And so we think that everybody understands. But we have to remember that these the financial reports, the balance sheet statement a cash flows income statement, they are accounting reports. They're not managerial reports. They mean very little to most business owners because they're not looking at them every day. And we have to be able to translate all that data into language that they understand.

They understand so that they could take action on that. Like if I had a moment when I'm one of my first clients several years ago, like almost nine years ago, was a was a chimney repair company. And this guy, he was an expert in chimneys. That's what he did. And, I met him at a networking group, and I told him what I did, and he's like, you're hired.

He said he wanted to grow his business, and, my. Great. The first meeting, I was overly prepared. I had the all that was forecast and all these ratio analysis. And and I knew his, I mean, I had all this data. I had charts color coded and and all these, all this stuff. And I was so proud.

I was overly prepared. And I got to the meeting and I laid everything out on the table in-person meeting, laid everything out on the table, and then started with a report number one, by like report number three, I could tell I lost him. It was terrible. He it was a valuable lesson I learned that day that that that he he did not care about that data.

He just wanted me to understand the data for him on his behalf and just tell him what to do. Very similar to a dentist. You know that I'm not a dentist, but when I go to the dentist, I don't want to have to read a dentist report if there is even such a thing. I'm sure there is. I want the dentist to read it for me.

It's my charge or whatever, and just tell me what's going on. That implies language.

Yeah.

Right, right, right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that analogy. You know, because you're right. I, I would suspect that most people evaluate their doctor based on their bedside manner. Like if a doctor comes in, if you're not feeling well, if your family member is not feeling well and nobody knows what's going on, the doctor comes in and just spouts off all this jargon, medical jargon to the nurse or whoever else and leaves.

You're going to think that, you know, you're gonna have a negative reaction to that. But if the doctor comes in, sits down, clearly explains in plain language in English, what what's going on? And maybe spin it with a little optimism. We're going to like that person a lot more. I mean, it's the same thing with CFO services.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's right. Like, you know, I know another example had a client that owned a restoration company. They like, if the house flooded, they caved in and fixed it. And they were getting a ton of leads. They were getting a ton of leads coming in and for a variety of reasons, but they just they weren't converting those leads to paying clients.

And but but when they hired me and I started digging in and asking them what was going on their business, they were all about getting leads. They even had a billboard at the local baseball park, and they and they branded everything all over town, had billboards, and they were they just wanted tons of leads. I was like, you know, if you stop getting leads for six months and just convert it worked on, or stop getting new leads and just the leads, you keep the the lead, rate the same and just convert it like 10% more.

You would have made more money and they just it was just like their their mouth opened and they just looked at me without saying anything. They didn't know that they'd never like it, just didn't cross their mind because they're that's they're not numbers. People. But they wouldn't take action if I, if I went in there and, and just gave a bunch of reports and said, oh, here's your balance sheet, here's your PNL, let's go through expense by expense and bore you to tears with this line, item by line, item.

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what was the moment with a client?

Give us an example of an moment with a client where you're like, oh, I explained this in a way that made sense, and now they get it. This I think the CFO thing has legs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow. Oh. I thank you for sharing that. There's a couple things in your in in that example in your story that stuck out to me. The first being that that I, for personal experience, I know that business owners just want somebody to talk to in, in and work out things and ask questions. And you did that with them.

Like you, you approached it from a what what do you care about standpoint. And then let's talk about that. But then the second thing and clients love that they, they, they want a confidant, a guide, somebody just to talk to because there's not that many people that business owners can just turn to to talk about things like that.

It's like a therapy session, in a sense, and they get to talk and ask questions and to somebody that's knowledgeable. But the second thing is, is you did also didn't approach it from a financial standpoint. You didn't come into the meeting and saying, all right, we're going to go through the numbers and let's you you've you started the conversation by asking them what they wanted.

And they talk. They they explain the whole, you know, should we expand by the second offer at the second office? But you say you didn't approach it from a financial standpoint, but you used financials to solve the problem without their involvement. You didn't have to put them through the pain of understanding the financials. Right. You said, all right, now let me let me do some digging into the numbers and I'll come back to you.

That's what they want. They don't want to have to become accountants. They just want answers in. And I love that story. Thank you for sharing that. So as we wrap up here, I mean, this is a fantastic conversation because the importance of speaking your client's language is huge. And it's not just in service delivery. It's also in sales and marketing.

Like like if we cannot go to a prospect and speak like an accountant and expect to get a sale, we just can't. Even if you're just offering tax or bookkeeping services, especially with CFO services, you got to talk in a language that they care about. And what do business owners care about? Having a growing and successful business. That's what they want.

Not having better books, making sure their taxes are filed correctly. I mean, they know that stuff's needed, but that's not what they really care about. They wake up each day wondering, how do I have enough money in the bank account to pay payroll? Can I buy this truck? Should I expand the second office? I mean, should I raise my prices?

And those are things that they care about and they will love somebody they talk to.

Hey there, Adam Levine with the CFO project podcast. Are you an employed accountant or bookkeeper that would like to start an advisory service on the side? Well, we have a free training for you called Side Hustle CFO, where we'll show you how to start a business on the side, offering CFO and advisory services to small business owners. We conduct this training every Friday at 3 p.m. eastern and 12 p.m. Pacific.

Go to the CFO project.com and click on Free trainings to register.

Sarah, any last words of wisdom in the topic on the topic of the importance of speaking your client's language?

Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. And I would also add that I completely agree with you. That's brilliant. I would also add that I think when you're asking questions to clients, they love that. I at least in my experience when when clients are allowed to talk and you're asking questions, it shows that you care about them and their business first of all.

But second off, they they want to talk about their business. Even if you don't even answer anything, if all you're doing is asking questions. I, I've, I've found that to be true. Like, I remember one time with this guy, he was probably in his early 60s and he owned a construction company. And the whole meeting, I just asked him a bunch of questions.

This is a this is a I was trying to sell him on a service on the CFO service. I was asking him questions. At the end of the meeting, he stands up and says, wow, this felt like a therapy session. I need this. I didn't give him any. I did not give him any value like in terms of deliverables.

I didn't give him any help other than I just asked him questions about his business. It showed that I cared, but more importantly, it showed that I wanted to know him and what he cared about. That goes a long way. Sara, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Yeah, it's a fantastic conversation. And to everyone listening, if you haven't already, make sure you sign up for our five minute weekly email with practical tips for accountants and bookkeepers to escape the accountants trap.

Just go to the CFO project.com/newsletter. See you next time on the CFO project podcast.