Using Your Professional Intuition with Your Clients
So much of the work of a CPA and CFO is tied to numbers, data and metrics. Quantifiable results. Calculations for every hour of the day. Neat and tidy spreadsheets.
Those are the tools of the trade.
They aren’t the only things, though, that helps a business survive, grow or thrive.
What does? The professional intuition that guides you in interpreting what all those results really mean, how they work together (or not) – and then how to use them to forecast the future.
Why It Matters
In a profession that is nearly hard-wired to worship data as THE THING that tell us what we need to know, intuition is rarely discussed. And yet, it IS the thing that the best CPAs and CFOs have as their secret weapon.
We call it experience, inference, expertise and even analysis. Those things are all true. But without professional intuition, they still fall far short of being able to fully understand what is really going on inside the results, behind the scenes and how to make it make sense to the client.
The same actual business results can mean totally different things for different businesses. Or even the same business but different team members. And, yes, as CFOs we must be aware that our intuition should be backed by data. Metrics and financial performance don’t exist in a vacuum and neither do gut feelings. Professional intuition mixed with the data and the experience is the unbeatable combination that makes you a world-class provider and valued business advisor.
Lots of people can see black and white numbers…and look only at history.
Lots of software will automate every metric, KPI and KRI that has ever existed (or will).
Your clients don’t likely need more of that. They need insights and interpretation. They need your professional intuition and guidance. They know what happened in the past. They need help knowing what is going to happen in the future and how to plan for that without relying on a crystal ball.
Where It Already Shows Up
If you think your clients aren’t relying on intuition already, I’d argue that it happens all the time. They say things like:
“It just feels like we are busier.”
“I get the sense that we are going to be slowing down soon.”
“We’ve been feeling the anxiety of the team increasing.”
“The economic indicators (Federal Reserve comments, housing starts, economists presentations) are concerning and keeping me up at night.”
You can easily placate a client with generalities, commiserations, and platitudes. You can get immediate data to calm their nerves for a short time without really addressing what’s driving the issue. You can add examples of when this has happened before and how they can deal with it the same way.
Or you can take data, what you know about your client AND use your intuition to address what they are really saying which is more like…
“Are we really busier or is there something else going on? Can you help me figure that out?”
“What is the best information we have available to know if business will be slowing down in the next 3 to 6 months?”
“How do we determine what macro economic data really applies to our company?”
Your client isn’t going to ask neutral questions like that when they have a gut feeling something is going awry. They need you to do that. They need you to be able take their reactions and turn them into these actionable questions. Questions that can have data-backed answers – and potentially new plans. They can be the basis for financial scenario planning and business case analysis. Your professional intuition and experience with the client will guide you to the right next step.
You just have to use it.
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