you need goals, not just a desire to get new business.
by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor
question: we are a 20-person firm and are thinking of engaging a marketing consultant for training on how to get new business.
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have you heard of anyone in particular for cpa leadership training? what does your firm do regarding this? an internal program or do you use outside consultants?
answer: we used an outside consulting firm a number of years ago and they did a good job for us. we periodically engage outside consultants for marketing and strategic planning consulting. these people bring a different perspective to us that is broader than doing it internally and it is cost-effective when compared to the “costs” we would incur in lost billing and business development opportunities by those leading the project. internally we do a big job with mentoring at all levels – from partners in charge who mentor the partners in their office, all the way down to supervisors who mentor entry-level staff. we also bring in outside people, usually senior, retired or managing partners of firms larger than we are – we have 500 people – to speak and run programs at our annual partner retreat.
with firms your size i find that marketing is not the most important issue – although that is a comfortable way of approaching growth and rationalizing that the firm is “doing something.”
in many situations with firms such as yours i think that the partners need to be clear on what they want their future to be and then develop a plan to accomplish that; and if they need to, engage a consultant to assist them in their plan. part of this assistance could be to help the partners individually and together articulate, develop and agree on what the firm’s long-term goals should be.
this consulting process would be goal-driven so that needs to be done first. then the consultant would assess:
- the dynamics of the practice,
- relationships with and management of your staff,
- client servicing, realization and profitability,
- the development of a plan for the practice’s strategic cohesiveness and
- a method to implement any changes you agree need to be made.
marketing is actually a small part of the growth plan. it is a vital part, but not the main part and should be an ongoing activity with a plan tailored to each partner and senior staff individually. for instance a tax partner would need a completely different plan than an audit partner or manager who is a quality reviewer. however, irrespective of their contact list, abilities and personalities, they can and should all do important marketing albeit each having different priorities, goals and budgets.
assuming there are a number of major issues confronting your practice – marketing, succession, systems and processes, uses of technology, staff training and development, client service, referrals from existing clients, branding, growth, being more profitable, partners working less with reduced pressure and having more fun, and partner relationships with each other, to name a few – it is the partners’ collective responsibility to isolate the most important long-term issue and put their energies to work on that first.
irrespective of what i just said, some of these issues require “big picture-focused” resolutions and a long-term plan, but they all require a daily effort since you are running a business. the daily work should not be subrogated to the process that works toward developing the big picture, goal-driven effort. the daily work must be done or you will not continue to earn your livings. the big-picture goal needs to be arrived at so the firm can break out of a cocoon it might have comfortably fallen into.