it’s an age-old problem, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it.
by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services
if only there were a silver bullet to solve this problem! but unfortunately, there isn’t one.
more: analyze your firm to keep it current | what makes a great website? | four strategies for building your practice | market technology services through workshops and training | the secrets of great business developers | dodge the four curses of a production orientation | client acquisition never stops | ‘sales’ is not a four-letter word | maybe what you need is a marketing audit | three types of marketing message, and which is best
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
getting partners to market and to love doing it has been the achilles’ heel of the accounting and consulting professional for as long as i can remember. what does it take to make progress in this area? here are some ideas to help you move forward:
- what is your firm’s culture when it comes to marketing and new business development? if you have never put much emphasis on these tasks, ask yourself why. if you are getting all the new business you need and want, this is not an issue. however, for many firms, this is not the case. developing a marketing culture is the most important thing you can do to keep your firm vital. such a culture comes from the top of the firm, not from the bottom.
- set firm goals and individual goals. start with your partners. ask each one to develop their own goals. make sure that the goals are realistic and that the partner has the skills and sets a goal for $200,000 for the coming year. you need to ask yourself, is this realistic for this partner? what will this partner do in the new year that is different from last year? what new skills has the partner developed that will enable him to go out and generate this much new business? if your answers to the above questions are either “no” or “nothing,” you may need to develop training marketing and sales programs for this and other partners immediately.
- determine what training programs need to be developed or purchased. business development requires a lot of different skills that the average technical person does not possess. ask your partners what training they feel they need and then develop or purchase programs to address them. on-the-job training will have the longest lasting impact on your people. encourage your younger partners to go out with seasoned ones on business development calls. your clients will be delighted to meet with their personal cpa and with a new person from the firm.
- make sure that the goals become as important to your partners as their monthly billing and collection efforts. new business development plans need to be tracked and reported on, just like production time. you need to give new business plans the same importance. you can do this at monthly business development meetings and publicizing individual activities and results. this will certainly keep your partners more accountable. after all, a partner standing in from of his peers with an empty score card, month after month, has to feel like he’s not meeting his goals or contributing to the firm’s success.
- tie some part of compensation to business development. business development can come from both existing and new clients. it doesn’t matter which one. compensation tied to new business should be in the form of a year-end bonus. the amount needs to be set at the beginning of the year, and it should be meaningful. a $10,000 business development bonus is not meaningful to a partner who is making $400,000-plus per year. perhaps a $40,000 or more bonus would more likely get his or her attention.
implementing these basic ideas will take you a long way toward getting your partners to market.