{"id":74378,"date":"2020-05-09t12:01:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-09t16:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=74378"},"modified":"2020-05-09t20:35:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10t00:35:49","slug":"how-marketing-systems-produce-business-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2020\/05\/09\/how-marketing-systems-produce-business-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"how marketing systems produce business growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>systems enable your plan to reach its potential. by marc rosenberg<\/i> \u00a0<\/strong>we\u2019ve explored key components of the overall framework for cpa firm practice development.<\/p>\n more: <\/b>14 marketing activities needed now more than ever<\/a> | how not to develop your practice<\/a> | 6 keys to developing new client prospects<\/a> | now is the time to activate your referral network<\/a> | does your firm recognize all its skills?<\/a> | protect and grow existing clients<\/a> | the 4 marketing disciplines<\/a> now it\u2019s time to address the final piece of the overall framework: the enabling systems that will optimize a cpa firm\u2019s success in achieving its growth objectives. yet one of the main activities for increasing revenue and indeed, for operating a cpa firm successfully and profitably, is generating new business.<\/p>\n firms must address this apparent disconnect: cpas’ reluctance or failure to sell versus the fact that the lifeblood of a successful firm is revenue growth. the best way to bridge this gap is for firms to adopt programs to train their people in business development. when we say \u201cprograms,\u201d understand that there are no magic pills or shortcuts and no substitutes for doing your homework and studying.<\/p>\n cpas learned their accounting skills in four or five years of undergraduate study, perhaps postgraduate work and countless cpe courses taken over many years. learning business development skills is no different. i\u2019m not suggesting that cpas must get years of classroom education in business development, but they must continuously<\/strong> provide their personnel with sales training. attending one half-day seminar or reading a book on selling will not cut the mustard.<\/p>\n we recommend that firms begin their business development training programs with partners and managers before involving staff below managers. staff can be impressionable and will mimic what they see the partners and managers doing. you want to perfect your training program with high-level personnel before exposing staff to it.<\/p>\n create individual marketing plans. <\/strong>this is basically step 1a to training in business development. most people wouldn\u2019t get an accounting degree if they weren\u2019t going to work in the accounting arena. the same holds true for sales training. it makes little sense to invest in sales training without getting \u201cstudents\u201d to put into practice what they learn in the classroom.<\/p>\n says lisa tierney, a nationally known marketing consultant to cpa firms: \u201cindividual marketing plans identify a clear path for attracting target clients by outlining specifics such as how and where they will spend their time, money and energy. these plans should be customized to the individual\u2019s natural ability and strengths and to tap into the person\u2019s sense of their personal brand.\u201d<\/p>\n everyone should have a written, individual marketing plan that serves as a game plan for bringing in business. most likely, if a firm has 30 people who are active in business development, there will be 30 different game plans.<\/p>\n most of the individual marketing plan components will borrow from one or more of the four disciplines:<\/p>\n remember, people<\/strong> create growth, not \u201cother\u201d things.<\/p>\n mentor and coach in business development. <\/strong>can you think of an older, more tried-and-true form of learning than mentoring, coaching and on-the-job training? it\u2019s enormously helpful for young cpas who have never sold a thing in their lives to watch a pro do it. in this case, the pros are usually the partners. and they should do this not just once, but over and over (taking a tip from malcom gladwell\u2019s research). all cpas need to develop their own style of selling, and there is no better way to develop it than to watch others who are good at it.<\/p>\n one firm we worked with had an opportunity to pitch the work of a large museum. the partner took a senior with him on the pitch. as they were leaving the museum, the senior was upset with herself because she didn\u2019t think she had gotten her points across in the best possible way. she wished she had spoken more eloquently. a few weeks later, the director of the museum called the partner to say his firm had been awarded the project. the partner asked what made the museum choose his firm over the competition. the director responded: \u201cyou were the only one who let your senior talk.\u201d<\/p>\n many cpa firms have an unofficial rule (only unofficial because there is little accountability for enforcing it) that partners should take a staff person with them on sales pitches. one managing partner of a large firm told me, \u201cat our firm, if partners go on a pitch alone<\/strong>, they get shot.\u201d<\/p>\n whenever staff attend any<\/strong> kind of sales training, internal or external, their mentor should make it a point to sit down with the staffer, review what was learned and coach the person on how to put to use in a live setting what was learned in the classroom.<\/p>\n offer financial incentives and rewards for marketing. <\/strong>there are two strongly interrelated points to be made:<\/p>\n for staff, the incentives usually take one of two forms.<\/p>\n setting a marketing budget. <\/strong>talk to any firm active in marketing and they will tell you that one of the greatest challenges is to control the irresistible urge to spend, spend, spend. that\u2019s why firms have marketing budgets.<\/p>\n the following metrics are from a recent rosenberg map survey. they show the percentage of revenues spent on marketing:<\/p>\n note that this figure excludes the compensation of dedicated marketing personnel, whether full-time or part-time. if marketing personnel are included<\/strong>, <\/em>this metric averages 3-4 percent.<\/p>\n it’s interesting to note the gap in revenue growth depending on firms\u2019 size: growth rates for firms over $20 million are 45 percent to 100 percent higher than for firms in the $2-10 million group \u2013 every year! (growth rates for the larger firm group are affected by a higher level of merger activity than for smaller firms, but the growth gap is still huge after mergers are factored out.) although it\u2019s difficult to correlate marketing spending to revenue growth for any<\/strong> business, it\u2019s clear that the larger firms are bigger believers in the marketing function than smaller firms.<\/p>\n every firm needs to put together a marketing budget, broken down by major categories. this helps the firm focus on those activities that are likely to have the greatest rate of return. the most common marketing expenditures are these:<\/p>\n in 2017, hinge research institute and the association for accounting marketing conducted a marketing budget benchmark study. here are the top spending categories, expressed as a percentage of marketing expenses excluding<\/strong> the salaries of marketing personnel:<\/p>\n interestingly, higher-growth firms spend most of their money on<\/p>\n and the larger firms spend less money on advertising, sponsorships and individual partner business development activities.<\/p>\n what does this tell us?<\/p>\n most effective marketing activities. <\/strong>the most effective<\/strong> marketing activities are, of course, different from the most commonly<\/strong> used ones. hinge\u2019s survey cited these as the most effective<\/strong> marketing programs:<\/p>\n accountability. <\/strong>the way the story is told, a firm experienced flat growth for a year. the managing partner convened a partner meeting solely dedicated to getting everyone\u2019s commitment to step up their individual marketing efforts. the partners seemed pumped up and pledged their full cooperation. various ideas were shared. everyone left the meeting convinced that the firm\u2019s revenue woes would soon be over.<\/p>\n what happened? nothing. why? because there was no accountability for any of the partners to actually do<\/strong> anything. the partners knew that nothing would happen to them, financially or otherwise, if they did nothing to bring in new business.<\/p>\n here\u2019s my favorite definition of accountability (because it\u2019s mine!):<\/p>\n if there are no consequences to failing to achieve a goal or an expectation, it is less likely that the goal will be accomplished.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n if your firm is serious about executing the four disciplines, you must establish accountability for people to achieve their marketing and business development goals.<\/p>\n one of the best ways to get this accountability is by clarifying, in writing, what actions for business development are expected of each partner.<\/p>\n hiring an external marketing consultant. <\/strong>a classic line from one of clint eastwood\u2019s \u201cdirty harry\u201c movies is \u201ca man\u2019s got<\/strong> to know his limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n quite often, after years of trying to organize and execute a marketing strategy and achieve revenue growth, firms fail at achieving their growth objective. many reach the point, painfully, where they see their limitations and acknowledge that they don\u2019t have the skills to do practice development on their own. that\u2019s when they engage an experienced, well-known cpa industry marketing consulting firm. the consultant essentially becomes the cpa firm\u2019s outsourced marketing director. firms under $10 million in annual revenue will likely see better results if they use the services of a marketing consultant instead of hiring their own marketing director.<\/p>\n the importance of making time for business development. <\/strong>being successful at just about anything important in life depends on devoting a enough time to the endeavor at hand. business development is no exception.<\/p>\n cpas, especially partners, have a natural tendency to focus on their clients and the work performed for them above all else. no one would argue that taking great care of clients is critically important. but the partners have to do all the work. the clients, the firm and the staff are much better served when partners leverage themselves by building great teams beneath them.<\/p>\n it\u2019s important for partners to leverage themselves to free up time to bring in new clients to the firm, cross-sell existing clients and nurture referral sources. time spent on these activities is far more valuable to the firm than doing staff-level work. having the discipline to carve out time for business development drives revenue growth.<\/p>\n firm management.<\/strong> the #1 factor in the success of a cpa firm is effective management. why? because it makes everything else happen: marketing, training, developing great staff, technology, profitability, strategic planning, quality control, succession planning and mergers.<\/p>\n crm <\/strong>stands for customer relationship management. a crm system is a database tool for managing a company\u2019s interaction with clients and business development prospects. it leverages technology to help organize, automate and sync business activities, such as marketing, sales and client technical support. the ultimate reason for having a crm system is to increase revenue and positively impact profits.<\/p>\n says becky livingston, president of penheel marketing, \u201cyou know you need a crm when your list of contacts has outgrown your rolodex. you remember what a rolodex is, right? another indication is when you begin to forget important information about your clients, notice your communication with them has dwindled or find it difficult to keep track of followups in your pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n able.<\/strong> the growth partnership has developed a crm system specifically for cpa firms. it\u2019s called able, and it taps into tgp\u2019s two decades of experience working with cpas. able serves as a firm\u2019s crm, pipeline, content library and accountability dashboard.<\/p>\n users of able are able to<\/p>\n the point of enabling systems<\/strong><\/p>\n a firm can create the smartest marketing plan that ever existed, but if there are no enabling systems, \u201cthe best-laid plans of mice and men will go awry\u201d (adapted from the poet robert burns).<\/p>\n if firms are truly serious about revenue growth, then these enabling systems must be in place. without them, disappointment and frustration will almost certainly follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nthe rosenberg practice management library<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nexclusively for pro members. <\/span><\/strong>log in here<\/a> or 2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\ntrain staff in business development (selling). <\/strong>most cpas will tell you they didn\u2019t select accounting as a career because they wanted to become sales reps. their education and work experience most likely included no sales training. the term \u201cselling\u201d was not in their dictionary and if truth be told, the mere mention of the word often produces debilitating anxiety.<\/p>\n\n
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