{"id":26917,"date":"2013-03-11t21:48:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-12t01:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=26917"},"modified":"2024-09-01t14:49:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01t18:49:19","slug":"just-because-youre-smart-enough-to-be-an-accountant-doesnt-make-you-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2013\/03\/11\/just-because-youre-smart-enough-to-be-an-accountant-doesnt-make-you-one\/","title":{"rendered":"just because you’re smart enough to be an accountant doesn’t make you one… [pro member exclusive]"},"content":{"rendered":"
six rules of professionalism that accountants need in their marketers. by bruce w. marcus<\/em> there\u2019s a wonderful cartoon in which a guy in a business suit is looking over the shoulder of an artist at his canvas. the caption, spoken by the artist, is \u201ci used to dabble a bit in accounting, too.\u201d<\/p>\n then there\u2019s the guy who said to me, \u201cif you\u2019re smart enough to be a cpa, then you\u2019re smart enough to do your own advertising.\u201d to which i replied, \u201cyes that\u2019s true. you\u2019re also smart enough to be a nuclear physicist — but it doesn\u2019t make you one.\u201d<\/p>\n there\u2019s the guy who read a book about tightrope walking. he knew everything about tightrope walking — except how to do it.<\/p>\n more professional services marketing 3.0:<\/strong> all great strategy starts with \u201cwhy\u201d<\/a> \u2022 can you hear me now?<\/a> \u2022 managing knowledge as a growth and management tool <\/a>\u2022 the secret formula for getting new clients <\/a>\u2022\u00a0\u00a0what we\u2019ve learned since accounting marketing was legalized<\/a> \u2022 do accounting firms really want an \u2018image\u2019?<\/a> \u2022 what accounting firms need to learn from personal financial planning specialists<\/a> \u2022 the delicate art of positioning your firm in the mind of the prospect<\/a> \u2022 even a random disaster can be controlled with risk management<\/a> \u2022 <\/em><\/p>\n the point is that while marketing may not be nuclear physics, it does have its craft, its artistry, its techniques, its experiences, and its history. and if you\u2019re not within the realm of all those things and more, you don\u2019t know much about marketing. marketing mythology doesn\u2019t count for much.<\/p>\n and it\u2019s not just accountants and cpas who fall prey to the egocentric nonsense that they can do it because, after all, they have graduate degrees. a large number of people in business feel the same way.<\/p>\n every marketing professional can tell you a story about a client or employer who retained the marketer for the marketer\u2019s expertise, and then drowned him or her with useless second guessing. a favorite starts with the words, \u201cmy wife says\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n but perhaps the real problem is not the presumption of knowledge where none really exists, it\u2019s in the drive to an unwarranted expectation that leaps over a large mound of reality. every marketer has a story about being hired by a professional who says, \u201cwe\u2019ve been a small firm for 15 years, and now it\u2019s time for us to be a big firm. help us.\u201d followed by a large fee or salary, which, unfortunately, always makes it harder for even the wisest of us to say no.<\/p>\n too bad, because what usually happens is not only acute second-guessing, but entrenched ideas steeped in marketing mythology. your marketer says, from the depths of experience, \u201cthis is what we have to do,\u201d to which the reply is, \u201cbut we\u2019ve never done it that way. let\u2019s do it the way we always have.\u201d the tenure of the marketer in that situation is rarely longer than three months, at which point the client goes out to find another marketer, and the cycle is repeated.<\/p>\n the client, truth told, may think he or she wants to be big \u2013 but doesn\u2019t want to go through the rigors of getting <\/em>big. don\u2019t dislodge the status quo.<\/p>\n what, then, should clients or employers know about what they don\u2019t know \u2013 in order to really benefit from the knowledgeable, experienced, and thoughtful marketer?<\/p>\n a lot, but let\u2019s start with six:<\/p>\n as a professional, you should have some inkling about how expensive it is to hire marketers whose work you don\u2019t understand or appreciate, only to have a frustrating parting of the ways. it\u2019s even worse when you have a strong feeling that marketing is something you have to do in this competitive environment, but aren\u2019t quite sure about how to hire, much less understand and live with, that peculiar breed of professional services marketers.<\/p>\n
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\n professional services marketing 3.0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n