How Accountants Should Price their Services with Geraldine Carter

Geraldine Carter runs She Thinks Big Coaching where she helps CPAs do less without sacrificing revenue. Although her target market are CPAs, she actually has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Cornell University. She was also a cycling guide for Backroads and now hosts her own podcast called The Business Strategy for CPAs.

In this episode, she talks about the structure of pricing in the accounting industry and the reason why most CPAs are underpriced. She then discusses her so-called "effortless value" where accountants could earn more without having to do extra work. Finally, she shares her tips on how accountants could earn more by having expertise and charging their clients more.

Why you have to check out today's podcast:

• Learn why you should have a deep expertise instead of being a generalist
• Acquire techniques on how to increase your value without doing more
• Discover the reason why charging more is better for you and your clients

"It's good for your clients to charge them more"

– Geraldine Carter

Topics Covered:

01:33 – How Geraldine got into pricing

03:10 – The problem of pricing in the accounting industry

05:24 – What is Menu Pricing and its difference from Subscription Pricing

09:16 – CPAs are not a subscription

10:11 – How "billing" works in CPAs

11:56 – The prevailing mindset among CPAs

13:11 – Why having a deep expertise is essential in getting better prices

17:04 – The mindset that needs to be changed in the accounting industry

17:54 – What is "Effortless Value"

20:49 – Geraldine's bicycling pricing story

24:06 – Pricing table topics: Subscriptions have three revenue buckets: win, keep, and grow. Manage all three.

27:51: Geraldine's pricing advice

Key Takeaways:

"You can legitimately be given the marketplace and the absence of segmentation, become an expert and have expertise that the client cannot find anywhere else, either in their zip code or on the Internet. It just doesn't exist. There's so little competition that if you in fact do have deep expertise." – Geraldine Carter

"Effortless value is this idea of going through your business and looking at all the ways you could improve. You could add value to your clients experience without it being more work." – Geraldine Carter

"Your buyers take your price as a signal of quality. And if it is not high enough for what they are expecting to pay, they will keep on walking." – Geraldine Carter

"If your delivery is dialed in and your clients are delighted and you make good on your promise, they will continue to stay." – Geraldine Carter

People / Resources Mentioned:

• She Thinks Big Coaching: https://geraldinecarter.com/
• Smart Strategy for CPAs: https://www.businessstrategyforcpas.com/
• Jonathan Stark: https://jonathanstark.com/
• Ron Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronbaker1/
• Selling Value: How to Win More Deals in Higher Prices: https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Value-Deals-Higher-Prices/dp/1737655217

Connect with Geraldine Carter:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldine-carter/
• Email: gc@geraldinecarter.com
• Website: https://geraldinecarter.com/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mailto:mark@impactpricing.com