|
 |
Targeting Your Clients: The Savvy Accountant's Guide to Marketing Success By Kim Guarino October 2003 (VSCPA) Which response to the question "What do you do?" is more likely to result in an interesting conversation? (a) "I help small businesses reduce their taxes, spot employees who are stealing, and conduct valuations for mergers and acquisitions," or (b) "I'm a CPA?" In the first instance, you're a champion of the little people, a detective and a Wall Street player. In the second, you're a profession. Saying "I'm a CPA" -- responding to "What do you do" by stating who you are -- is a natural response. You're proud of what it took to become a CPA. You took hours of courses in business and accounting to get your degree, you passed a difficult exam and you have to take countless hours of continuing education.
But that simple response -- "I'm a CPA" -- is also an object lesson in everything you need to know about marketing. Unless you already have more business than you can handle and your business has been unaffected by recent corporate accounting scandals, you need marketing. There are three essential elements to effective marketing:
Usually we think only of visibility (ads, signs, brochures, etc.) as the sum and substance of marketing, but unless the spadework of characterization and differentiation have already been done, then efforts spent on visibility will likely be cost-ineffective. Characterization Distill this characterization down to a few concise sentences. For example: "We are a 30-person accounting firm specializing in telecom and cable mergers in the Richmond area. All of our principals have experience working for the regulatory bodies overseeing telecommunications in Virginia."
In contrast to "I'm a CPA," these two sentences convey firm size, industry focus, geographic location and experience. They will also serve as important ingredients for your "elevator speech" -- a 60-second summary of what you do. Differentiation There are more than 12,000 CPAs in Virginia alone. What makes your firm different? How does it stand out so that people want to engage you over all other choices? If you haven't thought much about this, you're not alone. But if you don't think about differentiation, you may not be in business for very long. Answer the following to help differentiate your firm: 1. Why did your current clients choose you? Informally survey your clients to find out why they made their decision. And remember to gently probe their answers. For example, if the answer is ‘because a friend referred me,' find out why you were recommended (specialized expertise, service, speed, fees, etc.) and discover what you can about the referrer. Look for differences in the responses of one-time and repeat customers. And don't dismiss trivial answers like ‘because your office was nearby' or ‘because I liked your ad in the Yellow Pages.' These tell you why someone walked in the front door. Now find out why they stayed. Look for a nugget in all these answers. It could be as simple as ‘you're the only firm that could look at my problem from a small business perspective' or maybe ‘you knew the right people to talk to at the IRS and resolved my tax problem quickly.'
2. Having discovered who you are to your clients, you must decide who you want to be. What can you do that will set you apart? Think about why you started or joined your current firm and what was your vision of success. Then brainstorm. Write down 30 ideas, no matter how outrageous, such as:
Are there common threads to all your ideas, like courtesy, convenience, expertise or strategy? Now combine the who-you-are with the who-you-want-to-be and boil it down to a sentence that begins "We are the only accounting firm that…" When you have that sentence, you'll no longer just be one of 12,000 CPAs -- you'll have the rest of your elevator speech, and you'll never again say, "I'm a CPA." You're on your way to developing a brand. Visibility
Like many other service providers (such as lawyers, doctors and dentists), CPAs are reticent about advertising or heightening their visibility, thinking it is somehow unprofessional.
Remember this: there's nothing professional about going out of business. In this climate, it is no longer sufficient to simply wait for clients. The twin forces of communications overload and a weak economy can quickly crush any business that isn't visible.
Visibility isn't stunts, but rather a wide and rich range of communications, encompassing image, identity, advertising, awareness and more. It's everything from how your business cards look to how you communicate with clients and prospects (newsletters, emails, gifts, reminders); it's your Web site and brochure; it's the décor of your office and your commitment to public service.
After characterizing and differentiating your practice -- either on your own or with the help and guidance of marketing or branding professionals -- now is the time to build a brand identity and raise your visibility. Consider these strategies:
Now that you have a brand identity -- one that engagingly characterizes your business and sets you apart from all others -- you can confidently turn up the visibility burner. Be warned, however, that visibility can be expensive and ineffective unless you have carefully researched the reading, viewing and listening habits of your best prospects. Consider their age, culture, education and needs. Make sure your expectations are reasonable for reach and saturation, and understand the need for repetition and consistent messaging.
Given all these exciting ideas, it's quite clear that declaring "I'm a CPA" really won't suffice.
KIM GUARINO is a partner and vice president of marketing at Hinge, a Virginia brand identity firm creating pivotal brand identities that open doors to new opportunities. She can be reached at kim@studiohinge.com or www.studiohinge.com.
2003 Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. Visit www.vscpa.com
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
