By Katie Thomas.
Advisory services are on the radar for many accounting firms that want to create a bigger impact for clients while adding steadier revenue streams. These services are growing at a double-digit rate of 17%, but success requires more than simply adding new services and hoping for the best.
It requires intentional marketing. However, when firms market advisory services, they often run into three common issues: they do not use the right language, they do not use strong enough visuals, and they do not have enough time to create effective marketing consistently.
The good news is that each of these challenges can be solved, and in this article, I will show you exactly how.
Why Your Language Matters
Many firms default to broad phrases like:
- Strategic advisory services
- Trusted financial partner
- Comprehensive accounting support
While these phrases may be “accurate,” they don’t often align with the buyer’s language. Buyers are saying things like:
- I never know what my margins are
- Cash feels tighter even though revenue is up
- I’m making decisions but I’m not sure how they impact my numbers
That difference is where marketing and sales often break down.
If your prospects are worried about cash flow, margins, and uncertainty, but your messaging stays generic, they are less likely to feel understood. And if they do not feel understood, they are less likely to take the next step.
The good news is that you do not have to guess at the right wording. In most cases, the language you need already exists inside conversations your firm is already having.
Data Mining Discovery Calls to Reveal What Buyers Care About
Your discovery calls are one of the best sources of marketing insight your firm already has. They show you how prospects describe their frustrations, what they want to improve, and what finally pushes them to ask for help.
Rather than inventing polished language that sounds good internally, you can use the wording prospects are already using when they look for solutions.
When your messaging reflects real buyer language, your marketing becomes more specific, more credible, and more likely to convert. You stop guessing what might resonate and start building around what you already know matters to your audience.
Create a Repeatable Messaging System
Once you begin using your discovery calls as your source of insight, it’s time to turn these insights into a strategic system. This helps ensure consistency across your marketing. This system includes:
- Capture discovery calls: Create a system that logs all of your discovery calls that you can then use later to review and mine for data.
- Extract buyer language: Use tools (more on this below) to extract buyer language.
- Build a message bank: Using the buyer language you extracted, create a message bank that you can keep referring to for your messaging.
- Create marketing assets: Build out your marketing assets based on your messaging.
- Support sales conversations: Train staff to have conversations using the language you extracted.
- Measure what resonates: Track your results over time to discover what’s working with prospects and what’s not working as well as expected.
Firms that have a successful marketing system follow real patterns from actual conversations that they use to create marketing material. It takes a little effort up front, but it is far more effective than staring at a blank screen and guessing what to say.
Show Future Clients What Is Possible Using Visuals
Prospects might have heard the word “advisory” before, but they often don’t understand what it means in practice. You might say, “We provide better insights,” but what does that really mean? It’s too abstract and doesn’t have the same power as a show and tell.
A picture can really be worth a thousand words here.
When you show prospects what better reporting, visibility, and decision-making look like, the value of advisory becomes much easier to understand. For example, using a product like Reach Reporting, you can start showing prospects in your marketing materials and on discovery calls sample dashboards and other visuals such as:
- Management reports
- KPI visuals
- Margin trends
- Cash flow views
- Side-by-side comparisons
These visuals help prospects connect the dots. Instead of simply hearing that you can help them make better decisions, they get a clearer picture of what that support actually looks like.
In other words, visuals let you show what advisory means rather than just telling people about it.
Use Technology Like Claude Cowork to Extract Insights Faster
Even when firms understand the importance of buyer language and visuals, there is still one major challenge left: time.
With AI today, that too can be overcome.
AI assistants like Claude Cowork can turn days or weeks of going through discovery call transcripts into minutes while extracting recurring:
- Pain points
- Objections
- Desired outcomes
What might have taken days to sort through manually can now be organized much more efficiently. That does not mean AI should replace human judgment. AI should support the process, not own it. You’re still in charge of owning your positioning, verifying accuracy, and building the trust that ultimately drives client relationships.
The Takeaway
Firms that win more advisory client work aren’t always the ones publishing the most content or doing the most marketing. Winning firms are the ones that use real buyer language, align marketing and sales, and show buyers what the results mean for their business.
If you use technology to support the process, it only amplifies your results.
Your goal is simple: Solve problems by spending less time guessing what to say and more time analyzing the language your prospects are already using.
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Katie Thomas, CPA, is a 40 under 40 CPA Practice Advisor recipient, Top 50 Women in Accounting recipient, Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting recipient, and the owner of Leaders Online, which helps accounting professionals increase their impact, influence, and income through thought leadership and digital marketing. To get in touch with Katie, schedule a time at: https://leaders-online.com/.
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Tags: advisory services, AICPA, CAAS, CAS, firm growth, Firm Management, firm marketing, Marketing, sales
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