{"id":4354,"date":"2018-05-30T16:51:32","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T20:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=4354"},"modified":"2024-07-23T12:09:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T16:09:46","slug":"access-level-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/access-level-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create access-level agreements \u2013 free guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/accountants\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Accountants<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to create access-level agreements \u2013 free guide\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2018-05-30T16:51:32-04:00\">May 30, 2018<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"How to create access-level agreements \u2013 free guide\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/access-level-agreements\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/ed-kless\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/10\/Ed-Kless.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" height=\"40\" width=\"40\" fetchpriority=\"high\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Ed Kless<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1959, Peter Drucker coined the term &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2014\/10\/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020\">knowled<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2014\/10\/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020\">ge<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2014\/10\/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020\"> worker&#8221;<\/a> in his book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow<em>.<\/em> Simply defined as workers&nbsp;whose main&nbsp;capital&nbsp;is&nbsp;knowledge, misunderstanding of this term and the implications has caused abject confusion especially among professions such as accountants who still view themselves as working in professional service firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowledge workers, unlike service workers, do not sell their services as is often thought, but rather they sell access to or transfer of their knowledge. This access or transfer cannot be purchased by the hour, yet for years countless professionals have struggled with this self-concept especially with regard to pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-creating-access-level-agreements\">Creating access-level agreements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For the last decade, I have devoted my career to helping professionals see themselves as a knowledge worker and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/value-based-pricing-for-accountants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">adjust their business model<\/a> accordingly from one of \u201cwe sell time\u201d to \u201cwe sell knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> distills some of the best thinking from myself and other knowledge leaders with which I have worked into a digestible nugget of knowledge. While it is written for accountants, the principles adapt easily to other professions as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Professionals should be designing agreements that offer their customers choices. As human beings, we are predisposed to like the idea of having choices. It is quite surprising then that most professional firms do not offer their customers choices on a regular basis. Instead, they are locked into the idea of providing a billing rate and a range of hours as an estimate. However, the price is driven by the perceived value of the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To most customers of professional organizations, the \u201cfeature\u201d that drives the most value from their perspective is how quickly the professional will return their call. In other words, not the service itself, but rather the level of access they have. This means that professionals should be designing agreements that offer their customers choices and highlight the response time as the first element in each of these offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The switch to access-level agreements can be rewarding to both the professional firm and the customers you serve. Meeting the needs of your customers will create happy customers, and keep you ahead of the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1959, Peter Drucker coined the term &#8220;knowledge worker&#8221; in his book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow. Simply defined as workers&nbsp;whose main&nbsp;capital&nbsp;is&nbsp;knowledge, misunderstanding of this term and the implications has caused abject confusion especially among professions such as accountants who still view themselves as working in professional service firms. Knowledge workers, unlike service workers, do not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":128,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"business_type":[312],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[57,55],"persona":[150],"imagine_tag":[222],"coauthors":[644],"class_list":["post-4354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accountants","business_type-accountants","industry-financial-services","industry-professional-services"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Ed Kless","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/03\/MadridOffice_Spain_290813_293-1024x683.jpg","imagine_tags":{"222":"Accountants"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}