Always Start With A Strategy

In the last few weeks I have started to conduct a number of seminars entitled ‘Marketing For The Modern Practitioner’ as part of a continuing professional education program for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

I am traveling across the province (okay, that’s not quite true, I am holding them in London, Markham and Ottawa) and so far, have found a very common theme among the audiences.

Many have been frustrated by previous attempts at marketing their practice.

“I placed a series of adverts but didn’t get a single phone call – marketing doesn’t work.” concluded a disgruntled CA attending the course.

“Our marketing is based on client referrals.” observed another.

“It’s so tough, trying to win new business. Why isn’t my marketing working?” asked another.

And these are just a few comments from smart practitioners who are becoming more and more frustrated by a lack of success in developing their practice.

“Well, what strategy did you set at the outset and what are all the activities that you are doing to market your firm?” I asked each of them.

“Strategy? You mean I need a marketing strategy?” they asked.

Yes you do.

Before we get into that, let’s think about what marketing really is. And let’s not get confused. Marketing is not selling. Selling is what happens after the marketing has done its job – creating a meeting between a prospective client and a Partner in your firm.

Marketing the services of a public accounting firm is usually a long cycle. We rarely meet someone for the first time on a Monday and become his or her accountants on Friday.

Marketing is all about building relationships. Not surprising, as we are in the relationship business. The role of marketing is to:

1. Create awareness of who you are and what you do
2. Develop a unique positioning for your firm compared to others
3. Invite prospective clients to meet with you

But who are our potential clients?
Well, depending on which firm you are with, the answer will differ.

We cannot and should not try to be ‘all things to all people’ so we need to make some decisions in order to start to be successful at marketing. Decisions like:

· What size business is my ideal client?
· Which industries do they operate in?
· Where, geographically, are they?
· What services do they need?
· What level of fees are they prepared to pay for those services?

Having answered those questions, we can start to move forward with our strategy.

At this point we have an important question to ask… where do these ideal prospective clients hang out?

Well usually we will find them at the Board of Trade, Rotary and so on. But if we have chosen a niche market, we have to be more creative and look to trade associations as our networking venues.

Having decided whom we want as clients and where they can be found, the next decision is, how are we going to connect with them?

That’s where we can be as creative as our professional body’s rules allow.

As you might have read in recent issues of The Bottom Line, we’ve seen some very creative ideas already from public accounting firms in our Annual Public Accounting Marketing Awards.

So now, if you’re still with me, we’ve arrived at the stage where the strategy is set, and it’s time to select which tools we are going to create and use to market our firm.

Some obvious ones might include:

· Brochure
· Web Site
· Newsletter
· Business Cards
· Advertisements
· Direct Mail
· Networking
· Getting Articles Published

Which ones you develop and use are entirely up to you. It might be an idea to get some professional help in order to get the biggest bang for your marketing buck, or maybe you have someone in the firm who has a creative edge to them. Either way, making that commitment to setting a strategy and using some marketing tools will help you become more successful in your marketing efforts.

Setting some goals and working towards them with an effective strategy will usually pay far better dividends than simply placing adverts and waiting for the phone to ring.

© 2004, MFA Group Inc