Are CPAs Selling the Right Things?

We recenly spoke to Sage’s Ed Kless to talk about outcomes vs. outputs, why he joined the agenda at AccountingWEB Live Summit, and what you can expect from his revolutionary session on Selling Your Brain, Not Your Time on day two of the event.

I met Ed very early on in my time covering the accounting profession. One thing that always stood out was his ability to see the profession more holistically, and not just one aspect of it.

He and his long-time colleague Ron Baker, keyed in to the idea that accounting professionals were too focused on the concept that their time was what clients were paying for, and not their knowledge and expertice. The practice of selling time, basically in the form of hourly billing, is something practitioners continue to struggle with and it’s been a bit of a misison of Ed’s to help break that cyle.

Moreover, he believes accountants have far more to offer than their time and their practices are indeed like the businesses they themselves help to survive. As such, he is an advocate for accountants to get the most out of their practices and regularly works to help them shift their mindsets from the amount of what they do to the value of what they do.

Of late, Ed has embraced the concept of, and advocated for, accounting professionals to engage in the practice of having clients subscribe to their firm. The concept is not so foreign in our on-demand age of subscribing to a variety of services in our personal lives: from entertainment channels to car services and airlines.

But enough of my words, I’ll let Ed share some of his thoughts on these matters, why he chose to be at Summit and a bit of a teaser on what you’ll learn there.

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Join us in San Diego, California, May 9-12, 2022, for AccountingWEB Live Summit, a brand-new in-person conference and networking event for accounting professionals. 

Hear from many experts in the profession, like Ed Kless, on the future of accounting, discover new fintech for the digital age, and attend CPE accredited sessions to move your business forward. After two years of lockdown, you can spend time meeting like-minded professionals discussing tips, tricks, and the challenges you face at breakfast briefings, networking lunches, and an unforgettable off-site dinner event. Learn more at https://www.accountingweblivesummit.com