how and why to hire a marketing director

11 reasons why and 4 ways to make sure they fail.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

cpas are generally not comfortable with business development and are rarely skilled in implementing marketing plans.

more: marketing plans and why you need one | how to manage the practice development function | 14 marketing activities needed now more than ever | now is the time to activate your referral network | the 4 marketing disciplines
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as a result, many firms go through a phase where the partners say to each other: “we all agree that the firm needs more revenue. we all agree that our partner group sucks at marketing. doing nothing is unacceptable, so let’s get someone to bring in business for us.”

options include:

• hire a marketing director
• hire a marketing consultant
• merge in smaller firms
• invest heavily in discipline 4 (practice development support activities)

let’s address the hiring of a marketing director.

why hire a marketing director?

marketing makes selling easier, helping to identify and create selling opportunities. selling is making sales pitches at face-to-face meetings with prospects, asking for the order, and bringing in new clients. the marketing director focuses on … marketing.

the main reason that firms hire marketing directors is so that at least one person in the firm is 100 percent devoted to revenue growth and not distracted by clients, staff, and other pursuits. here are key components of a marketing director’s job:

• branding
• putting on seminars and other events
• helping partners write proposals
• coordinating business development training
• assisting firm personnel with their individual marketing plans
• managing and updating the firm’s website, social media, and marketing materials (basically discipline 4 activities)

our experience has been that marketing directors are mostly ineffective at firms under $10 million in annual revenue. these firms are better off hiring a marketing consultant. a good marketing director at a firm over $10 million should be able to generate enough activity to justify the investment.

marketing directors do not sell.

let us repeat: marketing directors do not sell.

selling is not their job.

yet too many firms hire marketing directors expecting them to sell. believe it or not, even partners who understand that marketing directors do not sell have a subconscious notion – or hope – that their newly hired marketing director will bring in business.

a few years ago, we created a roundtable of cpa firm marketing directors. we had 12 members and met quarterly for almost two years. the genesis for convening the roundtable came from research done by aam (association for accounting marketing): the average tenure of a cpa firm marketing director was 19 months. what an awful, disturbing statistic!

so i convened the roundtable to learn what these marketing directors do at their firms, why they think the average tenure is so short and what they could do to avoid being casualties themselves. here is what i learned about why the tenure is so short.

4 mistakes firms make with marketing directors

1. the firms tended to under hire; expectations for marketing directors were therefore unrealistic.
2. the marketing directors were not an integral part of the firm’s management.

• • they were not involved in the firm’s strategic planning and visioning processes, so they didn’t know what their firm’s strategy was. and quite telling, the marketing directors didn’t ask.
  • they did not attend partner meetings or retreats.
  • they did not know what their firm’s annual revenue was.
  • they did not know their firms’ revenue growth percentage for the current and prior years.

3. the marketing directors received little guidance from their managing partners. many of them reported to a committee or a firm administrator.
4. even though the partners of the firms employing the marketing directors supposedly understood that the marketing directors were not hired to bring in business, most of the marketing directors believed that there was an expectation, perhaps subconscious, by some firm members that they would.

10 good ways to manage a marketing director

1. don’t create a job description or job expectations in a vacuum. if you don’t know what your marketing director should be expected to do for his or her level of experience, ask other firms and marketing consultants. hire a marketing director to perform duties that are realistic.
2. involve your marketing director in strategic planning meetings.
3. invite your marketing director to partner meetings and retreats.
4. regularly share with your marketing director what the firm’s revenues are, what the increase from the previous year is and what the target growth is for the firm.
5. have your marketing director report directly to the managing partner, not a committee or the firm administrator.
6. clarify how the marketing director will be evaluated and what the criteria will be for the evaluation.
7. don’t let your marketing director waste time with firm members who have no intention of doing business development.
8. make it clear that you do not want the marketing director to be a yes person or a people pleaser. explain that he or she is not expected to agree with every idea.
9. don’t blame the marketing department for lack of new business. instead, the partners need to look in the mirror and ask themselves why they aren’t spending more time on business development.
10. educate your marketing director on these areas:

• • how cpa firms work, the keys to success and profitability, how the firm operates and makes money
  • the accounting profession and trends that are occurring
  • the services and specialties the firm provides

11 ways marketing directors create value for their firms

1. spend more time with the better business-getters than those who are weak at it
2. make firm personnel more comfortable with marketing
3. periodically ping staff with business development suggestions
4. be part of the visioning process and offer suggestions
5. find a champion for each niche
6. raise the firm’s profile on social media
7. hold lunch and learns for the staff; present marketing topics
8. increase internal communication with an internal newsletter
9. convene meetings to discuss new client development
10. train everyone in business development
11. organize webinars and seminars

posted on september 17, 2020