The Tax Interview Mistake That Keeps You Stuck in Compliance

Lee Reams II: Welcome back to another episode of the

Growth Minded Accountant Podcast. My name

is Lee Rees. I am the founder and CEO of

CountingWorks and our sister company

TaxBuzz.com. So, as I've promised, I am

finally going to do hopefully a short

form growthminded accountant that is

focusing on tax season. And what we're

trying to do is just give like little

micro episodes that or there's a few

takeaways that you can actually go apply

today, tomorrow. Um, and the first one

we're talking about is reframing the tax

interview from tax prep to advisor. As

always, Rebekah Barton, our chief

visibility officer, is back with me.

Rebekah, if you could say hello.

Rebekah Winters Barton: Yes. Hello everybody. I'm excited to do

these during tax season with you. I

think they're going to be really good.

Lee Reams II: All right, so let's talk about something

that happens uh hundreds of times during

tax season, the tax interview. Most of

you are still scheduling and using AI to

prep you and maybe perhaps even

delivering intake forms before, but

you're still there not just collecting

data. You're trying to position your

firm and ask questions. So what you're

trying to do here is clients decide what

you are in the first few minutes. So, is

this a compliance discussion or perhaps,

you know, is this just a tax person? Um,

you know, if you start getting

pigeonholed there, it's really hard to

change later. So, clients don't decide

whether you're an advisor based on what

you offer. They decide based on how you

start the conversation. So, that's what

we're going to talk about today. I'm

going to give you some real concrete

examples. We're not going to make this

super long, but let's uh kind of start

with what the mistake is. Again, if

you're going for compliance and trying

to get an advisory, this episode is for

you. So, the first thing is what is the

mistake, right? And I would say jumping

straight into forms, documents, and

checklists. No questions about what's

going on in life, right? Um your your

clients are going to immediately think

this is transactional service, right?

They're going to be thinking, you know,

the the clock is on. How long does this

take to finish? What are they going to

charge me based on the labor side? And

that's kind of the way that I guess

workflow works. But the shift here is

you need to start reframing the

interview as context first. Okay? Number

second. So you're not charging the

service just so that you're not changing

the service. You're just changing the

order of the way you do things. And I

want to give an example of kind of how

this works. And I'm going to start

Rebekah before I jump you in. And I'm

going to do I have an example of kind of

like a uh you know a doctor meeting,

right? And then I want to talk to you

about how we do work with our clients

and even on kind of the the way we

onboarding them and the way we use the

same concept to kind of change the

narrative as well. So um let's think

about this. Two doctors uh Dr. Ray looks

at the chart, asks symptoms, prescribes,

walks out the door, right? How many

times have you had that experience?

Lee Reams II: Right? Dr. be asked about lifestyle,

stress, work, goals, then looks at the

chart, connects the dots. Maybe there

was something, a lifestyle change or a

stressful event at work that maybe is uh

creating the pain that you're in there

for, right? Same diagnosis, different

perceived value. Okay? Uh you know, most

accountants don't act like Dr. A during

tax season. Most advisors uh act like

Dr. be even if the tax return is the

exact same. So I'm trying to just just

slight changes in the way you deal with

client the way you ask questions and

I'll give you some examples here uh in a

reframe but I just want to talk about

how we've done this with our own clients

and even our own processes so we can get

better outcomes for our clients. So when

they come to us, let's say for a website

they think or SEO services they think

kind of reframe this Rebekah on how we

approach this and how it changes the

game on what that outputed narrative

actually looks like and you know

obviously then the the ROI and the

results from it.

Rebekah Winters Barton: Yeah. So when I sit down with a client,

a new client, a conversion client,

really anyone, our goal is not to get

the technical data first. We're not

going to ask you what's your domain

name? Do you have Google Analytics? Uh,

do you have a Google business profile?

We'll get to all of those questions, of

course, but that's not what we do out of

the gate. Out of the gate, we're asking

you, why did you get into this business?

Who are the clients you serve? Who's

your ideal client? Um, what is your goal

for your business within the next 5

years? Once we have that foundation

where we've established who you are, why

you do what you do, why you love what

you do, and who you're passionate about

serving, then we are able to create a

much better website for you. we're we're

able to put out much better SEO and geo

services for you because it's all

interconnected. And the more we

understand who you are as a business

owner and who it is that you want to

help with your tax and accounting

services, the better we're able to

provide that foundation for you before

we get into the boring technical

commodity type of information. Um, and

the same thing applies just like you

were saying, Lee, with a tax interview

or with a medical appointment. anything

can kind of fall into this bucket and a

lot of it is just in how you approach

the situation. Even though at the end

you're going to get the same

information. It's how you come at things

that makes all the difference in how

you're perceived.

Lee Reams II: Well, and and what we're trying to do is

position ourselves more as an agency

than again you were throwing out SEO,

GEO, all these terms. The accountant,

our client doesn't care and your client

doesn't care either. So, I'm going to

reframe this for an actual tax

interview, right? So you know instead of

starting with hey let's walk through

your documents that's usually the first

thing that is you know most firms that

is their workflow that is their process.

So start with hey before we dive into

the numbers I want to understand what

changed for you this year and then more

importantly what's coming next right and

then I would say hey start giving some

examples of context questions so these

are like uh you know any decisions this

year or next year any big decisions

right uh we're moving we're thinking of

selling our company oh my that

completely reframes the conversation

from a compliance tax return to like

sophisticated tax planning right you

know is your income steady growing or

changing, right? Uh anything that

surprised you financially last year.

These are questions that are leading

questions that are going to get input

and knowledge that again AI tools have a

hard time getting. This is where your

relationship building happens, right?

And you know, you really only need to

take a couple minutes to do this. Once

you start with these leading questions,

your clients are going to start talking.

But what it does is it changes how

everything else is interpreted. So

advisory isn't a service you sell after

taxing. is the posture you take during

tax season. Okay, so after April 15th,

you know, there's ways to systemize

this, but right now, let's just start

with kind of seating. We at CountingWorks

Pro actually take it a step further. So,

I just gave you a quick takeaway. These

are steps I would do in your tax

appointments right now, right? But the

thing that most firms miss, the tax

interview is the spark, right? But what

really transforms you from compliance to

advisory is reinforcement. And what I

mean by that, it's it's if the only time

you sound like an advisor, it feels a

little salesy, right? Um, you know, if

you're only doing it through that three-minute

opening conversation, it really won't

stick. Is if you were talking about it

in your blogs, you're talking about

forward-looking uh planning. You're

talking about compliance versus

advisory, right? If your newsletter

explains decisions before they become

tax problems. If your social media posts

highlight strategy, not just deadlines.

Are you kind of following this a little

bit? And now you're not just saying,

"I'm an advisor." You're educating your

clients like one. You're thinking like

one. You're showing up like one. And

that's when powerful things happen. So

by the time a client walks into the tax

interview, they already expect a bigger

conversation, right? You've seated it

over time. And Rebekah, let's talk about

repetition real quick and then I'll

finish this up. We want to keep these 5

to 10. But what is the importance of

repetition? Whether that be a political

campaign or, you know, even a a webinar,

but how many times does a concept have

to be heard before it starts taking

place?

Rebekah Winters Barton: Psychologically, it's typically believed

that seven times, seven touch points is

kind of what people need around seven in

order to really have information

cemented. And it can be more than that.

It can be a bit fewer just depending on

the person's individual psychology. But

it's very very important to keep

repeating your points because not only

do these become what your brand is known

for, these sort of maybe trio of talking

points or whatever it is that you happen

to have with your brand, but the more

you repeat the same things, the more

people start to associate you with

whatever those touch points are.

Furthermore, algorithmically, the more

you post those same points over and over

on social media, on your blog, etc., the

more the internet is going to start

associating you with those things, and

therefore, it's going to recommend you

and refer you more frequently to the

right types of clients as it starts to

understand who your firm is and what

you're really about.

Lee Reams II: Right? So, they've already read about

income shifts, cash flow, they've

already seen you talk about planning

ahead, right? They've consumed content

that frames you as a guide, not a form

processor. This is really important as

you move to advisory. So when you ask,

hey, what's changing next year? It

doesn't feel different. It feels

consistent with what you've been saying

in all of your branding, all of your

marketing. Okay? And that's how you move

from the compliance to advisory. How it

makes it much easier, much more

comfortable, much easier to convert

clients to the new advisory type of

product. So, you educate at scale

through your blogs. Uh, you reinforce

this through your monthly newsletter.

Everyone should be sending a monthly

newsletter. You stay top of- mind

through social media. Easiest way to

push content and your messaging, your

thought leadership to your client base.

And obviously now with ChatGPT, you're

able to do the same thing. So, Google

AI, Chat GBT, as Rebekah said. So, by

the time you're doing your tax

interviews, you're just confirming the

role you've already earned through all

the other information you sent out

there. So advisory doesn't feel like a

pivot. It's a narrative repeated

everywhere. It becomes part of your DNA.

Lee Reams II: Okay? So when the narrative changes,

your firm changes. You become an

advisory firm because you've said it.

Lee Reams II: Okay? And you've repeatedly said it. So

uh you know, keep breaking down. We're

going to keep breaking down how this

works. I have a bunch of episodes.

Again, we're going to try to keep these

slower, but for now, start here. Reframe

the interview. Reinforce the message.

Repeat it everywhere. I think you'll

have a much more successful move from

compliance to advisory. Good luck this

tax season. We'll talk to you next week.

Again, we're going to keep these

hopefully short and concise. Um, keep

your comments and suggestions,

subscribers going. We really appreciate

it. So, that is this week's growthminded

account. Until next week, uh, have a

safe and enjoyable nonstressful

tax

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