More Than Quantity. The Quantity vs Quality Debate: How Better Preparation Leads to Better Clients

Many accounting firms are surprisingly hesitant to talk about sales, growth, or business development, even though it sits directly behind long-term advisory work and revenue generation - not only for their business, but also for their clients.

Perhaps it’s because these terms are easily associated with “more customers,” more compliance work, and ultimately more pressure in an already highly demanding and regulated profession.

Sales don't happen by accident. Whether you're retaining existing clients or attracting new opportunities, business development is simply part of running a successful practice.

Numbers have their place, but activity alone doesn't drive growth. What separates high-performing firms is not the volume of conversations they have, but the quality of those conversations.
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What Makes a Better Client Conversation?

The answer is surprisingly simple: preparation.

The quality of a client or prospect conversation is often set before the meeting even begins. Reviewing prior notes, understanding the client’s business, and identifying relevant developments allows you to move beyond surface-level discussion and create real value.

Preparation doesn’t need to be complex. Even a few minutes reviewing notes, emails, or recent updates can significantly improve the quality of a discussion.

Before any client or prospect call, ask:

• What was discussed last time?
• What’s changed since then?
• What opportunities or risks exist now?
• What outcome would make this conversation valuable?

When you’re prepared, you naturally ask better questions, listen more effectively, and uncover issues that might otherwise go unspoken.

For accounting firms, this often leads to deeper discussions around advisory needs, cash flow, succession planning, and strategic direction - areas clients rarely raise unprompted.

Preparation demonstrates professionalism. It shows clients you understand their world, helps you ask better questions, and leads to more meaningful insights.

Just as importantly, capturing those conversations properly ensures each interaction builds on the last.

When preparation and note-taking become part of your business development discipline, conversations become sharper, relationships deepen, and conversion rates improve.

In professional services, it’s the quality of the conversation, not the volume, that drives growth in revenue and depth of relationship.

Preparation Doesn’t Stop at the Meeting

Few things frustrate clients more than repeating information they’ve already shared.

Every interaction whether a review meeting, prospect call, or advisory discussion should feel like a continuation of the relationship.

Good notes help teams:

• Understand client goals and context
• Track key decisions and commitments
• Maintain continuity across team members
• Identify future opportunities
• Strengthen client understanding over time

Would you leave out a cost centre when preparing a quarterly report..? The same discipline should apply here. Both objective details (what was said, agreed, or committed to) and subjective context (tone, priorities, concerns, level of urgency) matter in building a complete picture.

When information is captured and used well, clients feel heard and relationships naturally strengthen.

Client Fit Over Client Volume

Not every opportunity is the right fit.

Many firms become stretched by pursuing work based on revenue potential rather than strategic alignment.

The strongest firms focus on clients who fit their service model, values, and capability.

This reduces:

• Resource strain
• Scope creep
• Low margin work
• Team frustration

And allows more time to be spent where the firm can genuinely add value. Business needs change over time, so if a client is no longer a good fit, it may be time to respectfully step away, freeing up capacity for better-aligned relationships.

The Hidden Value of Good Notes

Note-taking is often treated as administrative work. In reality, it’s a core business development tool.

Strong notes:

• Improve client experience
• Enable better follow-up conversations
• Support cross-selling and advisory growth
• Improve team alignment
•  Protect institutional knowledge

Most importantly, they ensure relationships don’t depend on one individual. Work smarter, not harder and use digital tools to support this process (as an example, we like Otter.ai for voice-to-text), and ensure notes are stored and accessible in your CRM for full visibility across the Company.

Every interaction documented well becomes future value, sometimes months or years later!

The Takeaway

1. Sustainable growth doesn’t come from doing more but from doing the fundamentals better.
2. When firms prepare properly, capture meaningful notes, and focus on the right clients, conversations improve and so do outcomes.
3. In professional services, quality of conversation will always outperform quantity of activity.

A huge thanks to Kirsten Karbowiak of BDM By The Hour for providing us with this article. Want to learn more? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us or directly to the team at BDM By The Hour.