No successful accounting firm should attempt to grow their business without a solid sales and marketing strategy. Here are some tips from Lee Frederiksen, managing partner of
1. Research your ideal client and what value your firm can provide
The best strategies are reality-based, not starry-eyed conjecture. It’s vital that you align what you’re willing and able to provide with what the market and your target clients really want and need. However, once you’ve done your research and established market and prospect preferences, your work is not over. It’s important to conduct regular research to avoid missing shifting requirements and developing trends. Studies have shown that firms doing regular, periodic research grow faster and more profitably.
Thorough, proper research will help you develop a better picture of client needs and priorities, service purchasing preferences, competitors’ strategies and activities, even how your own firm is perceived in the marketplace. All of this knowledge will help reduce risk, produce opportunities, and provide you with the vital information you need to make ongoing improvements to your strategy.
2. Use your research findings to inform your business strategy
• Will your current sales and marketing strategy allow your firm to accomplish what it wants to?
• Are you interested in organic or acquisition growth, or both? How much?
• Are you contemplating a major leadership change?
How you answer these questions will establish what your strategy needs to accomplish and how you can measure its effectiveness.
3. Take a look at your available resources
• What internal resources are available to execute a strategy?
• What sort of talent is already on board?
• What level of training do they have?
• Do the doers understand sales?
• Does the marketing staff understand the services you offer?
• Do you have the marketing infrastructure you need to pull off an inbound strategy?
• How about sales tools such as marketing collateral or case study videos?
Answers to these questions will provide an understanding as to what you can reasonably expect to accomplish internally, without outside help. The information gleaned from this exercise will also reveal strengths and weaknesses that you can exploit or address as you begin crafting your accounting sales and marketing strategy.
4. Develop a comprehensive strategy
5. Putting your plan to work
• Do you have the right sales and marketing tools?
• Is the right infrastructure in place, such as a customer relationship management or marketing automation system?
• Is there any talent that needs to be hired or outsourced?
• Any additional training required?
• Have you established a marketing calendar to schedule and manage activities?
• Have you developed metrics that will enable you to evaluate and adjust the strategy?
• Is there an official implementation schedule, budget, and responsibilities list?
Researching and developing an accounting sales and marketing strategy is two-thirds of the battle. The final—and most critical—third is implementation. Without focused, consistent implementation, no strategy will succeed. Just a little more effort is all it takes to make the difference between success and failure.
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