Don’t you hate it when someone asks you a question, looking to get something for no charge? You know the answer to their question and you’d like to help. But you also feel taken advantage of. But you may not realize that you have done this to yourself for as long as you have been in practice – giving away something valuable for free.

For over 30 years of working with accountants, I’ve often asked why they got into accounting. In short order, most acknowledge that helping clients is a major driver for them. Answering questions and finding the right answers has long been the standard for the profession because that was what clients needed. But what if that standard no longer helps clients the way it once did? What if clients can access almost all of that information without you? Does that mean you aren’t needed anymore?

Even though clients can get much of the information they need without you, that doesn’t mean they can succeed without you. Your clients still have to weigh their options. They still must wrestle with short and long-term risks and consequences. They still need to consider the impact of their decisions on themselves, their people, and their customers. And they still value reassurance from someone who knows them and in whom they trust. Those things help your clients more than you realize. The problem is that you’ve been giving that value away forever.

At one time, you believed clients were paying for the accurate, timely information you provided through your technical knowledge and experience. And they were. But they also valued your insights, perspective, judgment, and relationship. You just never charged for those things.

Now that your technical contributions are becoming less valuable, you must reorient your thinking. It’s not what YOU think is valuable that matters most. It’s what your CLIENTS think is valuable. Because that is what they are willing to pay for.

That’s quite a mind shift. It makes traditional billing systems irrelevant. It reorders your priorities. And it changes the skills you need to develop. In fact, that’s what is changing the profession. Not AI. Not the workforce. Not new ownership structures.

Which brings us back to the answer I heard. Helping clients shouldn’t change. How you help them should. How are you developing the skills to help them differently?