Two pressing issues for Shareholders at CPA firms

My clients are relaying a stronger need around finding talent to do the work that's been coming in and also assisting with transition plans for senior partners.

They really do go hand in hand, as retiring partners struggle with identity issues and establishing a new role at the firm;  conversely, since younger partners will be taking on more, it will naturally trickle down to a need for more talent.  Empowerment issues will take center stage as Baby Boomers face their hardest challenge yet – letting go and stepping back.

Shareholder of all ages will have to engage in some serious, thoughtful, honest dialogue around new compensation structures that will support both the succeeding workload while rewarding business development efforts.  Talent at all levels should be educated about leveraging relationships, technologies and internal process to support both of these initiatives.

It won’t be easy but will be a significant and unavoidable change that will occur over the next 10-15 years.  I predict at the end, we will see:  more value-based pricing models, more flex-time at all levels, more outsourcing and more strategic alliances.  Compensation (traditional and incentive-based) programs will also look at lot differently and most likely be simplified as well.   

Next week marks my 15th year at the national AAM Conference. I will share some tips with you that might help you maximize your experience:

1. Have a well-formed outcome that is reasonable.  I would suggest that you decide up front that you will identify 1 or 2 goals/objectives (no more – eve though you will be excited to take on more after all the sessions you will attend) that you would like to bring home and apply to your firm.  If you are not sure what those main initiatives might be (or should be) that’s OK.  That will be your goal – to figure out the TOP 1 or 2 things that you need to focus on and bring to fruition at your firm.

2. Get yourself a butt-kicking buddy.  During the conference, look out for someone who matches your skill level/experience around accounting marketing – someone you would enjoy developing an open, honest, non-competitive relationship with.  Approach them with a clear proposition:  How about we schedule bi-monthly teleconferences so that we can hold ourselves accountable to each other to work toward specific goals that we help each other set?  This person can be in a different market, time zone than you and can be older or younger;  your skill set can reflect different areas of strength so you can educate each other on certain endeavors – a buddy system works – I have found friends for like using this approach.

3. Skip a session and go have FUN!  Shhhh…don’t say I told you to – but they are long conference days out there –so don’t work TOO hard.  100 degrees in Vegas so I’m not sure about a sight-seeing tour on foot during the afternoon but you can find me at the pool on Tuesday afternoon as I have promised myself 90 minutes poolside to relax (my favorite place to be!)

Have a great conference everyone – if you see me, make sure to say “Hi”

Top Marketing Initiatives Defined - results from my survey of over 100 CPA firms

In March 2013, I surveyed 113 members of management (Managing Partners, Partners, etc.) and marketing professionals (CMOs, Director of Marketing, Marketing Mangers, etc.) at CPA firms from across the United States in order to ascertain what their top initiatives were:  some gave 3-4 main initiatives;  a couple said they had none.  The top 6 main marketing initiatives for last year were:

• Websites
• Niche-focused marketing efforts
• Branding (or Re-Branding)
• CRM
• Social Media
• Lead Generation

Some interesting insight I also obtained was around what the main obstacles were during implementation - and how (when/if ) they were overcome. Turns out the collaboration between marketing and management was the problem (i.e. communication, well-formed outcomes and interaction overall) kept things bottle necked and stifled.

So what is blatantly wrong with this picture?  Three of the top initiatives are passive marketing activities and three are active - do you know the difference?

Partners should NOT be spending their time on these passive marketing activities because these will not directly impact the bottom line - ahem, revenues, new business - at their firms. So what we need is a redefinition of the roles and responsibilities that these accounting professionals should assume in order to ensure their effectiveness at marketing.

Next up is what the number one key factor to succeeding at their CPA firm is for the partners....do you think you know what it is?

Stay tuned...