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Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards
by Mark Miller
The American Psychological Association's Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award winners for 2008 represent the best from among winners recognized by its affiliated state, provincial and territorial associations. The winner in the Small For-Profit Category was Atlanta-based accounting and consulting firm, Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM). I spoke with Laura Snyder, PKM’s Director of Marketing, about her firm’s award.
Best Practices for Building and Marketing a Niche Practice
By Heather Cohen As the marketplace seeks CPAs with specialized knowledge and experience to serve its needs, firms continue to follow a business model that includes the development of niche practices. Niche practices don't just happen. Building them takes elbow grease; marketing them takes persistence; profiting from them takes patience.
Succession Planning Grows Increasingly Crucial As
Aging Baby Boomer Partners Contemplate Retirement
by Julie Lindy of Hudson Sawyer
As Baby Boomer leadership at the nation’s accounting
firms ages and prepares for retirement over the next decade, succession
issues loom over many accounting firms like an intimidating tidal wave.
Almost 32% of firms responding to IPA’s 2004 benchmarking survey
report that the average age of their partners is over 50, yet most of those
firms don’t have written succession plans.
Industry Standards and Benchmarks Provide A Framework for Comparison
by Martha Hess, Marketing Manager, Belfint, Lyons & Shuman, P.A.
In the world of accounting, even marketing and business development professionals must be able to deal with numbers. Specifically, successful marketers recognize that they must use statistics and quantitative numbers to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs...
Driving Rain: Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers In Your Firm
by Lisa Dickson, Bland, Garvey, Eads, Medlock + Deppe, P.C.
Disconnect between partners and the next generation; perceived and actual lack of commitment from younger professionals; anger and resentment; intergenerational leadership and rainmaking skills transfer disconnect...
How An Audit Partner Thinks
by Martha Hess, Marketing Manager, Belfint, Lyons & Shuman, P.A.
The book Men are from Mars Women are from Venus helped people understand the differences in the way men and women think and act. In much the same way, Russ Molinar’s presentation “How an Audit Partner Thinks,” sought to help accounting marketers understand how an audit partner’s background, personality and frame of reference play into his or her decision making process.
A Marketing Plan for the Local Firm
by Katie Tolin, Marketing Manager, Rea & Associates, Inc.
How does a marketing plan for a local firm differ from that of a regional or national firm?
It’s much simpler.
In Abram J. Serotta’s presentation to the Association for Accounting Marketing conference attendees in June 2004, he took attendees back to the basics of relationship marketing.
How
to Get Action On Accountability
by Cheryl Smyers, Marketing Manager, Stambaugh Ness, PC
Accountability. As we all know, each firm struggles
with the constant challenge of inspiring every member of an accounting
firm to be responsible, or accountable, for the success of the
firm. We all know everyone isn’t accountable
for everything that happens or should happen. But the very best
and the most prosperous firms make sure all members of the firm
know what they are accountable for.
The
Business Discipline of Practice Growth:
Winning Significant Opportunities in Today’s Environment
by Gale Crosley, CPA Recent events in
the profession will continue to result in more and larger clients
evaluating a potential change in their CPA firm over the next
couple of years. Firms which invest in the expertise necessary
to win significant opportunities have a once-in-a-lifetime ability
to grow their revenue substantially.
Making
Marketing a Part of Your Firm
by Lisa Dickson, Marketing Coordinator, Bland,
Garvey, Eads, Medlock + Deppe, P.C. Making
marketing a part of a CPA firm may be a larger task than anticipated
by many marketing directors. As a marketing professional, it’s
easy to understand the importance and validity that a good marketing
plan holds.
How
to Use Client Interviews to Cross-sell Services
by Art Kuesel, Director of Marketing
and Business Development, Brown Smith Wallace LLC Your
clients expect you to survey them periodically to evaluate your
performance. This is a tremendous opportunity to get not only
good information about your performance and their satisfaction,
but also to determine how you can better serve them by meeting
their needs with your firm’s service.
Creating A Killer
Marketing Program
by Lisa K. Jannsen, Marketing Director,
Jannsen & Company, S.C. “Let
me tell you how great we are.” Certainly as marketing professionals,
we would never think of using this as our tagline or as our firm’s
marketing message. Yet, according to Ross Fishman, Chief Exceleration
Officer of Ross Fishman Marketing, Inc. and a recent presenter
for the Wisconsin Chapter of AAM, that is exactly what many accounting
and professional service firms are doing today.
Fishing
For Column Inches: An Insider's View of Media Relations
by Laura Bardey Sparks, Editor, CPA Marketing
Report If you want to catch a fish,
you have to think like the fish. And if you want to snag the attention
of a reporter or editor, you have to think and act like a journalist.
Leveraged
Marketing to Family Businesses
by Emily Cummins, Wachovia Bank The
family business niche is fruitful for regional and local CPA firms
not eligible to practice before the SEC. The majority of family
businesses are sole proprietorships or closely-held businesses
entities operating as limited liability corporations (LLCs), limited
liability partnerships (LLPs) or subchapter S corporations (S-corps).
Consulting
Services Are Needed by Clients: Traditional Accountants Overcoming
Fears to Enter Strange, New Territory
by Karen Bergh, Sr. V.P., RainmakerPro, Inc. CPAs
have traditionally been a business owner's most trusted advisor.
Because of that trust, CPAs in the past few decades have been
able to expand beyond traditional accounting and tax services
to deliver a range of consulting services. Final Four or not,
today’s accounting firms—down to the sole practitioner—are
still being asked to deliver solutions and advice that enable
clients to remain competitive and profitable.
Tapping
the Untapped Market for Traditional Services
by Larry Bildstein, The Whetstone Group If
you ask most CPA firms about their strategy to grow their audit,
account and tax client base they’ll tell you the way to
do that is through referrals and networking. It’s all about
timing, right? You need to be the CPA firm companies think of
when they’re ready to switch firms. It’s who you know.
You have to be in the right place at the right time.
Building
A Marketing Culture
by Sally Glick, Director of Marketing, JH Cohn
As the accounting marketing industry “matures,” more
firms are turning to professional marketers for assistance with
branding, cross selling, niche building, new business development,
market research, and a myriad of other integrated strategies designed
to help them become, and remain, profitable.
Relationship
Management: A Must For the Accounting Profession
by Heidi Hookstadt, President, The Trieschmann Group Accounting
firms are turning to sophisticated vendors to provide them with
valuable information on their clients for better management of
relationships. In addition, they are starting to use information
technology to house this information in a single location, and
leverage that information to share with others in the firm. What
really is relationship management?
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