{"id":22509,"date":"2012-09-18t09:35:41","date_gmt":"2012-09-18t13:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=22509"},"modified":"2024-11-16t15:37:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16t20:37:27","slug":"accounting-firms-rapple-with-radical-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/09\/18\/accounting-firms-rapple-with-radical-change\/","title":{"rendered":"what accounting firms need to understand to grapple with radical change"},"content":{"rendered":"
hint: and it won’t get any easier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n by bruce w. marcus<\/em> in planning for both a firm and its marketing program, there are three factors that should be understood:<\/p>\n more professional services marketing 3.0:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> <\/em>six reasonable goals for cpa firm marketing<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0\u00a0 the tools of marketing are not a program \u2013 they are simply tools<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0\u00a0 is your marketing program really a program?<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0\u00a0 six metrics for marketing roi<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0\u00a0 how to formulate the right marketing goals for your firm<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0 \u00a0 get real: 15 questions for achievable growth<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0 \u00a0 if you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, how do you know how to get there?<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0 \u00a0 eight tips for staying one step ahead of the competition (and maybe the client, too)<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0 \u00a0 nine things we know for sure about how to grow an accounting firm\u00a0\u00a0 | \u00a0 <\/a> \u00a0 the cpa\u2019s castle is crumbling these factors, then, add up to the reality that if cpas are to compete successfully in today\u2019s marketplace \u2013 if they are to function successfully in the changing arena of professional services \u2013 there must be a shift in emphasis from the tenets of the old marketing to the realities of the new. <\/p>\n how does this translate into practice? what must be done to the strategic professional services marketing 3.0 plan to assure cpa firm survival in the coming decades?<\/p>\n it starts not with a radical redesign of the traditional firm \u2013 that will come of itself \u2013 but with assessment that springs from the old and goes to the new. it will not be imposed \u2013 it will emerge.<\/p>\n for example:<\/strong><\/p>\n the sticking point here is the need that both commerce and society continue to have for the objectivity, the independence, the probity of the cpa. but change need not put these factors in jeopardy.<\/p>\n rather, cpas can readily find ways to innovate without losing these important virtues. six examples of what i mean:<\/p>\n 1. what must also<\/strong> be re-examined is the structure of the cpa firm itself. no longer is the traditional hierarchical structure of the cpa firm adequate to the needs of the contemporary marketplace. the range of management skills needed to run the contemporary firm have outgrown traditional structures. the partnership structure tends not to make the best uses of management skills, and impedes the pace at which management decisions must be made. the practice group structure, with certain safeguards built in, seems a likely structural path for the near term, but may not be adequate in the long term, as economic changes compound.<\/p>\n 2. the cpa firm<\/strong> must now be recognized for what it is \u2013 a structure to deal with the market it serves. it must recognize that it no longer exists for itself, but as an instrument to get and sustain clients. public accounting is merely the service provided to fill the channels opened by the needs of the client. a full and comfortable room in the house must be opened for the professional marketer. at the same time, the professional marketer must know more than traditional marketing, if he or she is to adequately serve the cpa. the marketer must understand the cpa, and in ways that surpass the traditional understanding of product.<\/p>\n 3. it is astonishing<\/strong> that every cpa knows that livelihood and career growth depend upon the ability to deliver and keep clients. and yet, there is virtually no accounting school that recognizes that there are skills the professional must know to survive. but sink or swim is no longer a viable preparation for any cpa. the elitism of cpas festers at accountancy schools must be rooted out if the cpa is to thrive in the coming decades.<\/p>\n 4. continuing cpa education<\/strong> is no longer a service to the profession alone \u2013 it is an obligation to those served by cpas. nor should it be limited to only the skills of the profession. there is too much to be known about commerce and industry and the needs of clients in a dynamic economy. there are too many skills that cpas need to know that they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n 5. the management skills<\/strong> needed to run a cpa firm are a different set of skills from those that are needed to merely sit at the head of a firm. a cpa firm is a business. a cpa firm that competes is a marketing entity. there are new problems in motivation, in hierarchical structuring, in strategic planning, in human resources management, in client relationships, and in relationships to a new market. the demands of this new kind of management bring the skills of management to a new realm of artfulness \u2013 one for which the traditional cpa is rarely trained.<\/p>\n 6. and the ultimate lesson<\/strong> to be learned is that the catalytic element of tomorrow\u2019s cpa marketing is that the relationship that begins with the market \u2013 the client \u2013 now includes the cpa. as one moves and changes, so too must the other.<\/p>\n the tools of marketing are of themselves immutable. except perhaps for the use of the internet, nothing much has changed in generations. we still have networking, and public relations and speeches and seminars and articles. we still understand the need for fathoming the markets we serve, and the strategy for using the tools to reach that market. but the difficult lesson to learn is that the value of the tools is not in themselves, but in how innovatively, persuasively, imaginatively they are used.<\/p>\n but it is only when we understand the changing relationships between the cpa and the client, and the need to nurture one’s ability to function in that relationship with flexibility and agility, that cpas will be able to adapt and survive the coming generations.<\/p>\n that is professional services marketing 3.0.<\/p>\n
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