Advisory SuccessStreamline Operations

Are You Advisory Ready? The Seven Capabilities Behind the Gap Between Wanting It & Delivering It

From Leaders in Business Webinar, hosted by Brent Szalay FCPA

This webinar explored one core question: Why do some firms make advisory work — and others struggle to get it off the ground?

After training 120+ advisors, reviewing readiness data across firms, and hearing what accountants say they find hardest — from confidence and communication to structure and facilitation — a pattern emerged.
The firms that gain momentum in advisory share a common set of capabilities. And the firms that stall are almost always missing the same ones.

These capabilities have nothing to do with technical accounting skill. They’re practical, human and structural — and they determine whether advisory feels clear and repeatable… or vague and overwhelming.

From this work, seven advisor-readiness capabilities stood out as the strongest predictors of success.

Here are the key takeaways of these 7 capabilities:

The Confidence Capability

Only 53% feel capable of asking broader, deeper questions without having all the answers ready — yet this is the foundation of strategic advisory.

Advisors often hesitate to go beyond the numbers, staying in safe, familiar territory rather than asking questions that uncover real goals, frustrations and tension points. Strategic advisory requires a shift from expert to facilitator — where curiosity plays a bigger role than having the solution in the moment.

A clear framework gives advisors the confidence to lead whole-business conversations and builds stronger trust with clients, who want to feel understood beyond their financials.

A readiness check:

Where in your client meetings do you hold back from asking bigger questions because you feel you should already know the answer?

2. The Value Capability

More than 90% of advisors struggle to explain the value of advisory because it’s intangible — you can’t “see” it like a tax return.

When value is hard to articulate, it becomes hard to price and even harder to deliver consistently. But advisory isn’t about output; it’s about creating clarity, direction and focus. Clients want help cutting through noise, prioritising what matters and feeling supported as they move forward.

When value is defined as direction and support — not documents — it becomes far easier to package and price with confidence.

A readiness check:

If advisory is hard for you to explain, how clear would it be for your clients to understand what they’re buying?

3. The Structure Capability

Nearly half of advisors say their biggest barrier is having no structure, tools or process — which is why advisory often feels ad hoc and exhausting.

Without structure, sessions rely on instinct, experience and memory. Even the most seasoned advisors feel the pressure when every conversation is improvised. Structure creates consistency, confidence and flow. It enables advisors to guide strategic conversations without having to build them from scratch each time.

And because structure is repeatable, it’s the key to taking advisory beyond the partner and into the broader team.

A readiness check:

If you removed instinct from the equation, would your firm still have a clear process for delivering advisory?

3. The Diagnostics Capability

Only 11% of advisors use diagnostics effectively — yet diagnostics make advisory faster, clearer and far more personalised.

Relying on long interviews or guesswork slows the advisory process and leaves gaps in understanding. Diagnostics give advisors meaningful insights before the meeting even begins, revealing strengths, weaknesses and opportunities instantly.

With clear data upfront, strategy sessions become more focused, targeted and impactful — and clients better understand why certain actions matter.

A readiness check:

If you removed diagnostics from your process, how long would it take you to truly understand a client’s business?

4. The Team Capability

Advisory stalls when it depends on one person — usually the partner — because the rest of the team don’t feel ready or equipped to contribute.

Most firms unintentionally make advisory exclusive: only the most senior advisor can “do it.” But with structure, junior and emerging advisors often excel. They’re curious, facilitative and confident when they have a clear process to follow.

Building team capability not only spreads capacity — it strengthens culture and makes the firm more attractive to the next generation of accountants.

A readiness check:

If your senior advisor stepped away tomorrow, would your team still be able to deliver advisory with confidence?

5. The Human Goals Capability

Seventy-nine percent of firms focus mainly on financial outcomes — yet client decisions are driven just as much by time, stress and personal fulfilment.

Meaningful advisory requires understanding what a client truly wants: more time, less pressure, renewed motivation or a clearer path forward. These human tensions sit beneath the surface and rarely emerge in compliance-focused conversations.

When personal goals are brought into the conversation, the strategy becomes deeply relevant — and far more likely to be acted on.

A readiness check:

Do your conversations uncover what your clients truly want — or only what their financials show?

6. The Packaging Capability

Only 11% of advisors feel confident packaging and pricing advisory — yet packaging is what makes advisory tangible and scalable.

Advisory is difficult to sell when it’s vague. Packaging gives it shape: what the client gets, how the process works, and what outcomes to expect. A structured strategy session — often priced between $1,500 and $5,000 — becomes the gateway to an ongoing advisory relationship.

Clear packaging helps clients understand the value and helps firms deliver it consistently.

A readiness check:

If a client asked you to explain your advisory offering in one sentence, could you do it confidently?

The Radical Truth

Across every firm we work with, one thing is clear: the desire for advisory is high, but readiness is low.
Not because advisors lack capability — but because the structure, clarity and consistency needed to support advisory aren’t yet in place.

Advisory doesn’t grow when it relies on instinct.
It doesn’t scale when it sits only with the partner.
And it doesn’t gain traction when the value is unclear or unstructured.

What advisory does offer is opportunity — the opportunity to deepen relationships with clients, help them in a more meaningful way, expand the firm beyond compliance work alone, and give team members the kind of work they find energising, purposeful and engaging.

Firms that build these capabilities create more rounded services, stronger client loyalty, and richer career paths for their people.