marketing & sales

building a culture of growth and aspiration

seven simple skills every professional can develop. six powerful reasons practice groups, not lone rangers, win the long game.

by bruce w. marcus

building a culture of growth and aspiration (pardon the word “marketing”) is a process that requires four elements:

  1. top management support
  2. good marketing professionals
  3. marketing education of appropriate firm professionals
  4. a sound and professional marketing structure within the firm

let’s look at each.

management support

merely to have the managing partner say, “ok, let’s do it” is not enough. whatever the management style – lead by example, exhort, mandate – it’s not the same thing as being able to understand and then explain why marketing activities are essential for the growth of the firm; that people will be rewarded for marketing activities; that a measure of non-billable hours applied to marketing is not only acceptable but cherished; that marketing activity is a factor that contributes to measuring partners, associates and other professional staff compensation. top management support means inculcating into the firm the concept that in all professional activities, the client is at the core. top management support means more than acceptance of marketing – it means leadership.

good marketing professionals

someone once said that if you’re smart enough to be an accountant, you’re smart enough to do your own marketing. sure. and you’re probably smart enough to be a nuclear physicist – but that doesn’t make you one.

marketing may not be nuclear physics, but it is a profession with its own practices, experiences, skills and techniques. the good marketing professional is trained in the tools and mechanics of marketing, in its ideas and concepts, in its highly focused point of view. experience tells the marketing professional what may work and what may not work. if the marketer is imaginative and deft in using imagination, you get a program that’s thoughtful and specifically relevant to your needs. and the good marketer understands your profession and its needs.

the good marketer understands the distinctive nature of accountants, and is capable of working well with them. he or she has more than a passing understanding of the legal or accounting profession – how it functions, how it serves clients, how the firm is structured and the professional wishes of the partners and staff. and understands as well the character and personality of the accountant. as a professional, the good marketer belongs to, and is active in, aam – association of accounting marketers, benefiting from the experience of peers, and contributing as well.

the good marketing professional is also a teacher, who knows how to impart the meaning and techniques of marketing skills to accountants who are not themselves trained marketers. the good marketer is a leader, capable of leading professionals in marketing activities and concepts, and of managing marketing staff. as a communicator, the marketer must establish and maintain a good working relationship with the partners and staff, and keep them informed of marketing activities and aware of each professional’s responsibilities in the marketing program.

remember, the tools of marketing are available to everyone. what counts, then, is the experience and imagination the marketer brings to those skills. it’s more than the sum of the skills and mechanics, it’s the artistry with which they’re used. when you’re hiring a marketing professional, then, don’t hire the mechanic – hire the artist.

the professional’s role

the marketing professional can build the marketing program that enhances name recognition and reputation, and that can project the accountants’ skills and special capabilities, but ultimately, the client has to meet the person or people who are going to perform the legal or accounting service. the bond between client and practitioner – the trust needed in a professional relationship – is a personal relationship that no salesperson can engender for a professional.

but the marketing activities that the accountant can do, particularly under the aegis of the marketing professional, are essential. for example:

  1. the professional – the accountant – with the marketer’s help, can write articles, can participate in seminars, can make speeches.
  2. under the marketer’s guidance, the professional can improve networking skills, particularly under a carefully devised networking program.
  3. the professional can learn to contribute to such marketing activities as writing articles for a firm or firm practice newsletter.
  4. the professional can learn how to follow up a contact made by direct mail, or by attending firm seminars and networking afterward.
  5. while the professional who is not an instinctive salesperson is not likely to become one, any intelligent professional can learn the selling skills necessary to convert a prospect into a client. the process is a relatively simple business transaction.
  6. a professional can learn how to keep a client, once the client is in the house.
  7. a professional can learn to understand the broader marketing program, and his or her role in it, without having to become a professional marketer.

these are things that merely broaden individual intelligence and education for the  accountant at no cost to professionalism.
when a firm’s professionals participate in these activities, and each participant accepts responsibility for performance, you have three things – involvement, motivation and a firm marketing culture.

the practice group

while there are many approaches to structuring a firm for marketing and improving client service, perhaps the most successful, as defined by patrick mckenna and david maister in their masterful book, first among equals, is the practice group. for any firm with more than a few professionals, the practice group is proving to be the most effective way to manage a practice. it recognizes that each practice area has a different target audience. the practice group allows the professionals in that group to address the specific practice and marketing problems of the practice, and to manage them effectively.

among the advantages of the practice group are:

  1. it’s defined by a specific practice within a firm, or a specific target audience. it could be a real estate group, or a tax practice, or a group offering computer services – anything defined by a discrete practice or market that’s served by professionals within the firm. the advantages are that every member of the group shares a common set of skills with the others in the group, addresses a common market and, most significantly, has the intellectual capability to help develop a distinctive marketing program to attract that market.
  2. it can enhance the skills of its members.
  3. it can share the burden of a marketing effort. for example, if the group publishes brochures, newsletters or blogs, each member can participate in writing. each member can participate in seminars, or speeches. each member can participate in one of several organizations that are part of a networking plan.
  4. it can be a vehicle for communication with other practice groups within the firm, thereby eliminating unnecessary communication difficulties, while sharing ideas for a common goal.
  5. it motivates reluctant participants by having them share in the responsibilities for the group’s marketing efforts.
  6. it can monitor the group’s plans in the firm’s marketing program, to assure correct focus.

if, on the other hand, the nature of your firm doesn’t lend itself to practice groups, you might consider designating a partner as the marketing partner, with the responsibility to oversee the program, coordinate the efforts of marketing professionals with the partnership and act as a monitor and motivator to oversee participation in the program by individuals in the firm.