Golden Practices Blog

Top 10 Marketing & Sales FAQs for CPA and Law Firm Partners

I wrote these FAQs several years ago for my original website and, when renovating that site, I posted it on a magazine site I used to contribute to. But I just discovered this content is no longer online. Yikes!

It's evergreen material and lots of partners and marketing professionals have said that it's useful so I'm happy to share it again for your reference. 

Top 10 Marketing and Sales FAQs

1. Why do we need to market when we can barely staff the work we have?
2. What is the difference between “marketing” and “selling?”
3. Can I expect a marketer to generate new business leads?
4. How should sales and marketing functions be aligned?
5. What does a marketing person do?
6. How can I tell if our firm needs an in-house marketing person?
7. What level of marketer does my firm need?
8. To whom should the marketer report?
9. When can we expect to see marketing results?
10. How might marketing’s cultural changes affect my firm?

Why do we need to market when we can barely staff the work we have?

Perhaps you don’t.

Personal Marketing Planning - Ideas

Had such an amazing time yesterday in Houston at the Assoc. for Accounting Marketing Houston Chapter's meeting where I have a talk on Personal Marketing Plans. It covered the process and mindset for creating them, as well as execution tips for both practitioners and the marketing professionals that support them. 

The attendees were wonderful and asked fantastic questions during and after the session. In follow up to them, and a resource to readers who couldn't attend, I am linking to my slide deck.

Personal Marketing Plans for Professionals from Michelle Golden

I also have some of the content in the slides (around the pie chart on slide 18) in a different format--a mind map. 

The mind map has lots of ideas for marketing activities that are appropriate for the various categories of:

• Current customers
• COIs or referral sources
• Prospective customers (new biz)
• Credibility building activities 
• Skill development, service improvement (aka R&D)

Further, on the mind map, all the items that are in "red" are items that can be achieved via social media in addition to traditional means. 

Download PMPideas

Lastly, I have a past post "What's in a Plan? Marketing Plan and Budget Development" that's related to this topic. You might find it of interest (it includes an older version of this Mindmap so use this version because it's been updated).  

I would love to hear from attendees (and others!) on your progress and questions are welcome anytime. 

Two Great Honors, Two Amazing Marketers, Two Firms, One Houston Office Building

In June in Austin Texas, something really cool happened.

Two extremely dynamic ladies who work for competing firms in the same city--the very same building, no less--were both honored for their exceptional contributions to the profession of accounting marketing.

At the 2009 Association for Accounting Marketing conference--AAM's 20th anniversary event--Karen Love of PKF Texas was inducted into the AAM Hall of Fame (pdf), and Stacy Soefer of Gainer Donnelly & Desroches was named AAM's 2009 Rookie Marketer of the Year (pdf): awarded to marketers with substantial accomplishments within two years of entry to the profession.

Karen blew us (accounting marketing veterans) away when she created a strong awareness of the importance of community involvement LONG before "corporate social responsibility" was in vogue, and long before other CPA firms, large or small, got serious about it. Through personal and corporate commitment, she elevated awareness of her firm while "doing good" in Houston and beyond. She is a true leader in accounting marketing.

She was among the first marketers who were invited to become owners in their firms and, in 2002 was both AAM Marketer of the Year and recognized by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession.

Stacy, too, is exhibiting leadership and conquering new ground with energy, campaigns, and total "unorthodox" creativity that, I kid you not, had some traditional marketers rolling their eyes. Until they realized she's onto something good...real, honest-to-goodness differentiation of her firm in a very crowded marketplace.

Now other marketers are sitting up and taking notice. And heralding her work. And most marketers are envious of her ability to sell her firm's partners on some pretty non-traditional stuff like, say, conceiving the notion to volunteer as official judges of the International Federation of Competitive Eaters' Inaugural Matzoh Ball Eating Championship for charity.

That two Houstonians received such notable recognition in the very same year is remarkable and maybe even coincidental. But anyone who knows these two lovely ladies knows it's well-deserved on both counts!

Congrats to you both! And kudos to Houston for fostering such great and influential business-women.

Fodder for Convincing Social Media Skeptics

Marketers! Listen up!

How to Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics & Luddites - Tips, Resources & Advice

If you've got an interest in rolling out some social media strategies in your firm, but don't have your senior management on board with you quite yet, the above article is the one-stop shop "make your case" fodder that you need to help you win over your skeptics.

Are you a step further in your implementation? Or just wanting to be sure you head off the "Don'ts" before you "do" one?

From the same great folks at Interactive Insights Group is the Superlist of What NOT to Do in Social Media.

Neither of these are weak little blurbs on the subject. Both are meaty and packed with excellent examples and insights. They will take you awhile to pour through and digest.

IRC Section 7216: Impact on CPA Firm Marketing

There has been a lot of chatter about compliance with this new code released in July 2008, and put into effect January 1, 2009, and what it means for firms.

Directly reading the code, you'll find a lot of scary verbiage about restrictions to cross-marketing or cross-selling of services to tax clients.

This is to be "managed" via annually-required, signed, consent forms, from EACH client BEFORE their tax returns are delivered in order to be allowed to send said client information about ANYthing else your firm does. And you may only ask the client for their consent ONE time.

First thought, it's sounding a lot like crazy lawyer state bar restrictions on marketing and advertising. However, the intent is to protect taxpayer information including addresses.

Second thought, in keeping with tradition of most accounting regulatory language, this code is challenging, at best, to interpret. I've asked several tax professionals to give me their thoughts, and each professional has seen its implications differently.

(This explains my silence, to date, on this issue).

The accounting marketing community has been abuzz for the last few months about what the new regulations under Internal Revenue Code Section 7216 (26 CFR Part 301 Section 7216) will mean as they continue existing communication efforts with their clients such as print newsletter mailings, e-mail newsletters, and even seminar invitations for events that cover non-tax topics.

Fortunately, some vendor friends of the accounting industry like BizActions (a customizable e-mail news provider with awesome back-end click-through reporting) and PDI Global (long known for their high-quality print newsletters and planning guides, now offering some e-delivery too) have been sharing some insights on applicability of the code, especially as it pertains to the use of products like theirs.

Definitely look at this because, if you think you will use a mail house or a third‐party to distribute things like print or e‐mail newsletters, you may need to get the client’s consent first. Again, "first" means BEFORE you deliver their tax return to them. So you don't have much time.

LOOKING FOR INFORMATION AND RESOURCES?

I'm proud of my long-time trade association, Association for Accounting Marketing, for compiling this list of resources that partners and marketers can use as they embark on interpreting the code and deciding what approaches are best, for THEIR firms.

See AAM's IRC Section 7216 Information and Resource Page (marked Members Only, but access does not seem to be limited) and be sure to check out the AAM/PDI whitepaper found on that page as well as fellow blogger Rick Telberg's post on CPA Trendlines sharing sample consent forms released by the AICPA.

Happy implementing (ugh).

Appended: Also try the IRS Frequently Asked Questions about Section 7216

How Do I Form a Working Marketing Plan?

A relatively inexperienced marketer, new to the firm, wrote recently with the following situation.

Q. I recently interviewed my partners with a few key questions to begin developing a marketing plan for 2009. However, I'm not sure how to utilize this information and form a working plan. Can you point me in the right direction?

[marketer's questions in bold, partners' answers follow, only some of the questions are listed below]

1. What do you think are the firm's strengths? experienced tax department, consulting services, capable and friendly staff

2. Weaknesses? auditing, not enough work for the qualifications our staff has

3. Where do you believe the challenges and opportunities lie? getting quality clients, developing a niche market

4. What are the firm's short-term goals? more QuickBooks clients, more payroll clients long-term? have work that provides year-round recurring revenue, loyal client base

5. How do you believe that marketing can facilitate a process that helps us reach these goals? obtain leads, offer bundled services, advertise for more work.

6. What are the top three services we want to focus on this year? Payroll, QuickBooks, tax

7. What are the top three services we sell? taxes, QuickBooks, audits

A. There's more info to be gleaned before assuring your plan will have the "right" initiatives and but here are two things to delve into as a starting point:

ONE - regarding number 6, above, ask a LOT of questions about the stated desires to sell lots more “Payroll, Quickbooks and Tax services.” Particularly tax.

Payroll and Quickbooks aren’t usually big fee generators so they are lots of work to market for lower ROI. The only investment I’d make in marketing those services would be to significantly court referral sources so they can do the selling for you. Couple dozen good solid relationships can generate a LOT more new biz than a calling directly on three times that many prospects.

For tax, my concern is that I don’t know too many firms that actually have capacity in the tax department between Feb and April. Most firms are already wearing people down pretty well in these months and adding work in this time-frame is not a good strategy for keeping the team members you value. Maybe your firm is different and you have capacity….

So, in looking at their answer to number 2, it would seem you have the qualifications for more audit work but not enough of this work to justify maintaining those qualifications. What about increasing audit work (maybe there is another concern precluding your partners from suggesting this??) or collaborating with another local firm to let your folks supplement their audit teams or let you audit some of their clients if they don't provide these services.

Just some thoughts to consider. I'd have to know more to give a deeper suggestion about what products would be most profitable and practical to build on.

TWO - Your question number 3, above, "Where do you believe the challenges and opportunities lie?" is great and their answer "getting quality clients, developing a niche market" is a good and a rich place for you to start. But the answers provided need two critical follow-on questions:

A) What is your firm’s definition of “quality clients”? Does everyone agree to the same definition? (probably not) – find out whom your firm would clone (as clients) and then, go deep, and find out why!?

B) What niche, specifically? In your interviews, only services were surfaced. A niche should not be inwardly (product) focused, it should be externally (market segment) focused.

You don’t have to only serve “one” but for the sake of marketing effectively and efficiently, you should target one at a time and make your messaging EXTREMELY focused to that segment. The segment might be a demographic group or it might be an industry.

Some exploratory work should help you and your partners determine what groups make sense, in total, and then to prioritize them, starting with the top one or two in 2009. Add the subsequent ones later as your resources allow. 

Some other posts that may help you as you proceed are:

What's In a Plan? Marketing Plan & Budget Development

Choosing an Industry Niche

Earning the CPF Designation

In 2001, I decided I wanted to pursue becoming a Certified Professional Facilitator: a designation earned through the International Association of Facilitators.

At that time, there were fewer than 200 CPFs in the entire world (now there are about 700).

As I began down the path to gather the training I'd need, I was expecting my now 6 year-old daughter and pregnancy complications hindered my ability to travel for the training and CPF assessment. So I set aside the goal for when I was more able, and less busy.

Ever notice how "less busy" never arrives?

This year, I became bound and determined to do it. I just returned from beautiful Ottawa where, on Monday, I passed my CPF assessment and earned the designation I've worked toward (slowly) for as long as I've raised my little girl.

You'd think after 7 years, I'd feel it's the end of that journey.

Instead, it is oddly fitting that I returned from Ottawa last night and, this morning, I put my daughter on a school bus to eagerly embark on her first day of first grade at a new school.

The CPF credential isn't the "end" I thought it might be. It is very much like topping a hill and seeing a lot more road ahead...a beginning of a new phase of evolving my facilitation style, methods, and purpose. 

The entire assessment process (May-Aug) was a deep learning experience and I'd like to share more about that in some future posts. In the meantime, here are a couple stories from others who've gone through the CPF process in Australia (scroll down a bit to "Stories from those who've undertaken the CPF journey").

Additionally, I strongly recommend receiving some formal training in basic facilitation skills for any marketing professional. Since one person (or department) cannot actually accomplish great marketing in isolation from all other aspects of a company's operations, group facilitation is essential for getting everyone in sync to accomplish and sustain dramatic results.

More and more companies have internal facilitators who are trained to do this--why not be the first one in your firm to have this skill set so you can advance the success of marketing (and lots of other things) in your firm?

Photo courtesy of flickr

AAM 2008 in San Diego

It's lovely to be here in San Diego this week for the Association for Accounting Marketing Conference!

I'm here learning and am (as this posts) presenting on "The Web Now. What CPA Firms Need to Know" to about 150 marketers and partners of firms from all over the US and abroad.

Attendees of the session can download my slideshow (password protected, sorry other dear readers). Download AAM2008.pdf

Lovely photo of San Diego is taken by "psychojet" at www.traveladvisor.com, one of my favorite sites.

Sad, But True - the Life of a Marketer

A terribly funny You Tube video is making the rounds among legal marketing blogs. It's the 8-9 minute clip filmed to launch the recent LMA Conference (that's the Legal Marketing Association).

It's a great satire (or reality piece...?) of life as a marketing director in a professional service firm.

Particularly funny to me was the jab at how firms give great credibility to a consultant's advice after declining that same recommendation from their internal marketer. It's so true! I've experienced it myself when I was in-house. (Firms, don't do that!! You should listen to your marketers!!) .

Jeff Reade, president of Cole Valley Software, must've had a great time playing the difficult and somewhat clueless managing partner. Kudos to the LMA for opening their conference in such a fun and innovative way to effectively bring their 1000 attendees--from all their different perspectives--to a "common place" so they could relate to each well throughout the event.

And hat tip to Larry Bodine for a great write-up about the video.-

Don't Separate Marketing from Strategy!

A cool marketing blog, Unconventional Thinking, makes a fantastic point about separation of "marketing" from a company's strategies and operations. The post is called The Most Dangerous Term In Business and that term is "marketing department."

Never mind that most marketing actually sucks and fails to stay focused on those key goals. There is another equally ominous danger here. That is, establishing a marketing department effectively balkanizes marketing ideation and implementation from the development and execution of the company’s core business strategy. This cannot be allowed to happen. Marketing is the process of growing a business. To separate it from the development and execution of business strategy means that you are effectively diminishing the impact marketing can have on the company.

I see this soooooo often. Some firms struggle to understand my frustration at their approaches to strategic planning that are many steps removed from their marketing professionals. I've even had a law partner tell me that "marketing has nothing to do with strategic planning." HUH??

Mark continues:

You know how it goes: the top people in the company, be it the president or a management team, develops a plan for how they want to grow the business, and once that is set in stone, they turn to the marketing folks (some think of them as marketing flakes, which they often deserve, because they do not force themselves into the business-building process). The tools and initiatives required to grow the company have to get force-fed into a strategy that has already been signed, sealed and delivered by the powers that be. What an idiotic mistake.

What to do about it?  Mark's first three suggestions:

• Stop allowing your marketing people to be balkanized into a department.
• Instead, make the marketing people part of the management team.
• Weave the marketing people through all of the company’s processes from the beginning

His whole post, and the comments, are worth a read.  (And if you're a marketer, don't let yourself be a "marketing flake"!!)

Where Can a Marketer Get High-Level Continuing Ed?

Got a great e-mail yesterday. A request for resources.

Q

Hi Michelle! I am subscribed to your blog and read Golden Practices often. I am a marketing coordinator in [an 80 person office of a 600 person CPA firm located in 6 states]....We have a marketing director, graphic artist, copywriter, etc. in our headquarters and marketing coordinators in our major offices.

All that to ask...do you know of any good 'marketing professional services' training I can attend in 2007?

I am a member of the Association of Accounting Marketing, but my [boss thinks] their conference is a little too introductory and geared towards smaller firms...and would like me to do some research and attend at least one conference, but I can't find anything applicable, so thought you might have some ideas. Thanks for your help!

A

It's unfortunate to hear that AAM's conference seems too introductory—this is something AAM has grappled with for several years:  how to appeal to the most experienced marketers when so many new marketers continue to enter the profession. I'd not heard anyone suggest that AAM is geared for smaller firms—I'm not sure I agree—the issues seem largely the same whether small firm or large, though resources for initiatives are certainly vastly different. 

Still and all, AAM is a good conference for accounting marketers—I would just urge attendees and members to challenge the speakers and organizers more for new and deeper topics. And, if needed, topics that address the unique needs of larger firms. As a volunteer driven org (and conference) people like you can and should become organizers and establish things like a "large-firm track" at the conference. It is, after all, "your" organization. :-)

I really don't know of anything else specifically geared for accounting or even legal marketers that will truly get you to a much higher level than you receive at AAM or its legal equivalent, LMA. Some say they do, but I've not found that. What I have found is that looking outside the industry helps a lot.

It's really healthy to look outside of our "professional services" niche and explore teaching that is geared for the rest of the world, too. People, in general, become really good at "navel gazing" and benchmarking against each other which immerses us in mediocrity. We need to be climbing mountains, not staying comfortably in our valley.

(The challenge comes when bringing ideas back to the firm and convincing partners to try things that no other firm is yet doing! I've had those conversations—still have them, and they aren't usually easy. But when you succeed in making the case, it is awesome! And so are the results).

Not knowing what your particular job focuses are, your whole marketing department might enjoy "dividing and conquering" a la carte education such as the stuff below. Then maybe each of you can come back and share the "best of" with each other in a one day retreat or periodic half-day gatherings. As Stephen Covey says, we learn best when we teach what we've learned to others.

Some topic oriented education to explore might be:

• http://www.ana.net/about/  they have conferences and regional meetings all year long...it's one to watch and it's where the big boys play for branding/advertising and other external marketing initiatives
• http://www.prsa.org/ public relations
• http://www.iabc.com/ business communications
• http://www.iaf-world.org/ facilitation (skills for facilitating teams internally or focus groups, etc)
• http://www.womma.org/ word of mouth marketing
• http://www.amanet.org/ see just their marketing seminars here
• http://www.corante.com/  they have conferences later in the year. Here are last year's Innovative Marketing Conference, CMO Summit and Marketer's Forum to get an idea of what is offered
• http://www.emarketingassociation.com/2007/index.htm  e-marketing association has 2 events per year

I'm posting this on my blog so that others can expand the list with comments! Thanks for a great question...

Commenters: if you plug a conference or source of education, please keep it relevant to accounting or law firm marketing and please indicate what type of learning will be gleaned. Please no product or consulting spam. We're looking for legitimate recommendations, preferably from other marketing types.

____________________

Appended 30 Jan:

Cameron Fuller with accounting and law firm associations TIAG and TAGLaw, respectively, recommends the Marketing Partners Forum that some of their members find to be of value in addition to their own periodic marketing director fly-ins and monthly webinars or teleseminars.

A marketer wrote in to add Society for Marketing Professional Services

Debra Helwig at accounting association, IGAF Worldwide, wrote in:

I would strongly suggest they check out their firm's general association membership to see if there are resources for marketing directors. For example, we have a robust Marketing Directors Group with a strong peer network that engages in regular email exchanges, monthly conference calls, and an intense and high level annual [marketing] conference.

Most associations provide at least some level of support to their member firm marketers. What's more, most of the time these services and offerings are at least partially included in a firm's general association dues so marketing directors may have access to these resources either free or nearly free. One of the things I've observed is sometimes association benefits stay trapped at the partner level and information doesn't get to the marketing staff who may not learn of all the things that are offered. So find out who your firm's accounting association is, and if they offer marketing director support, take advantage of it!

Organizations like Debra's and Cameron's do offer continuing education for their marketers, both in person and virtually. When I was in-house, my accounting firm's association was an enormous resource for me in many ways and, to this day, I'm still close to several of those marketers and partners though many of us have changed roles, and even professions in some cases.

Thanks for writing in!

So What?

A powerful question, isn't it?

Barbara Walters Price on her Marketing U blog picked up on the thread about marketing experts (or not) that David Maister started Who Are the Marketing Experts in Professional Businesses? and she mentioned my first response to David's post.

I took exception with the premise of David's post because I believe that most firms don't do cool marketing things not because they don't get innovative suggestions from their marketing professionals, but because they don't accept those suggestions or allow the marketing to move forward for one reason or another. In other words, they are often too conservative.

Barbara's post, PSF Marketers: Experts or Irrelevant? is strong. In it she challenges my list -- not its accuracy, with which she concurs, but its relevance. And she's right. So what. She wrote:

Michelle's top ten list is pretty much right on the money yet, again, so what? You sign on as a marketer for a professional service firm and you mostly know what comes with the territory. You do your best to get better every day. If things don't work out for you or if you're not valued, then you work like a dog to change your circumstances or you go elsewhere. I know it sounds harsh, but it's true.

I think firms are the first to admit they live in a state of complacency. Marketers tend to be change agents. When they first start in a firm, they have their greatest advantage and should set expectations appropriately for the sort of support, infrastructure (budget) and creative license they will want and need to be effective and to stay intellectually/creatively stimulated in the process.

Should the position deteriorate to anything less, then that is something that the marketer should take responsibility for and address. The most successful professional service firm marketers do this from time to time as necessary.

Unfortunately, most of the rest would be the first to tell you that they sink to a level of being less effective than they'd like...adapting to the firm's complacency rather than counseling the firm out of it.

Thank you Barbara for challenging the complaint list. So what, indeed.

The World In-House Marketers Live In

Over at David Maister's blog is a conversation about PSF marketing people and their sophistication (novice versus expert) called Who Are the Marketing Experts in Professional Businesses?

I have some pretty strong feelings about the topic of in-house marketers, having been one, and from being in very close contact to hundreds of colleagues in my present business and 11 years with Association for Accounting Marketing. Maybe it's just me, but the conversation seemed to be missing a large part of the picture of the world in which in-house marketers work. I added a very long comment that I am posting here (with some additions). And I'm very interested in the feedback of other marketers.

Also, if you're a leader of a firm, see if you can spot some of these problems in your firm...

____________

Where to begin...as a former in-house marketer in both accounting and law firms, and as a member (and leader) of Association for Accounting Marketing since 1995, I think I have some perspective on this that hasn't yet been shared.

1. Most firms don't know what to look for (skill wise) when they hire marketing professionals. Most are hiring one because their competitors did. Most marketers weren't hired for a particular job description. Many don't even have job descriptions. Some don't even know to whom they actually report (a committee). And many report to people who have no idea how to utilize or measure their efforts, evaluate their recommendations, and no authority to approve their initiatives until the "next partner meeting"...whenever that might be.
2. Firms (since the early 1990s at least) tended to hire over-qualified people given the low complexity level of (approved) projects and budget they gave these people to work with. In other words, they hired people with very creative ideas and they proceeded to stifle them by rejecting the most innovative ideas, failing to provide dollars to fund the initiatives, and not allocating support persons to help the pros--then they were surprised when these people left...
3. Then firms began replacing those "first" directors--more experienced persons--with less expensive new marketing grads or hiring folks from the other low paying industry: non-profits. To this day, the marketing salaries in accounting firms lag $30-40K/yr behind comparable positions in law firms. In fact, avg salaries for marketing people are still between $45-75K for both professions. These numbers are way behind corporate marketing positions.
4. Now firms are again hiring more experienced people, and paying a little better (not much), and even approving some slightly more creative ideas. But veteran PSF marketers are presently leaving firms in record numbers and going to more progressive industries.
5. Budgets for the marketers to work with (if they are even formalized) are ridiculously low compared to all other industries. The average firm allocates only 1.5-2.5% of PY gross revenues for the subsequent marketing year. This amount includes many items that the marketer tells the firm will have little or no ROMI such as obligatory sponsorships, sporting tickets used mostly by employees and friends, etc. -- usually expenses over which the marketer has little or no control or input. And many marketers don't even have access to their firm's financial information including revenues by sector and historical or projected marketing expenditures.
6. Marketers get sucked into non-client activities in the firm such as party-planning, morale building, and recruiting (not that marketers shouldn't be involved in marketing the firm to new employees, too, but it is a distraction from new biz development).
7. Marketers in law firms are less micromanaged, less required, on a daily basis, to "prove your worth" than in CPA firms, but both positions operate in environments in which feedback of any sort is scarce, written marketing plans and budgets are the exception and not the rule, and getting "face time" with decision-makers is not easy or timely.
8. Most firms consider and approve marketing initiatives as they arise rather than planning them in advance. But these approval processes are often long and tedious. In many cases, the optimal timing for the initiative is long passed by the time partners get around to approving them.
9. Partners, managers and key team members have little or no incentive or motivation to participate in marketing efforts because they are rewarded for production over all else. I don't care how good a marketing professional is, he or she can only do so much on his or her own to market IN LIEU OF the firm's practitioners. Many of the initiatives approved that involve partner/manager time (such as those great suggestions in Trusted Advisor) fall flat due to capacity constraints and other organizational barriers including lack of prioritization of, and accountability for, these things.
10. Firms stop listening to their in-house marketers and will celebrate the same advice from an "outsider" that they snubbed from their own marketer. I see this often and experienced it from the inside, too. It is astounding.

I could go on and on. Basically, there is little alignment between (or forethought about) what a firm wants versus what it needs both with regard to marketing talent. And it's just as great a problem when firms hire high level people and hamper their abilities as it is when they hire newbies and expect them to be Coca-Cola level marketers (without the budget, of course).

__________

Those are my thoughts...what are your thoughts?

__________

For resources on salary, see my prior posts on why are CPA marketer salaries so far behind law? and CPA firm marketer salaries:

For resources on how to identify what type and skill level of marketer to hire, and what to expect from him or her, see my website for Top 10 Marketing & Sales FAQs.

Designing for Accountants and Lawyers

Anyone who has ever designed anything, either print or electronic, for a CPA or Law firm, will certainly appreciate the "Microsoft redesigns Apple's iPod packaging" video.

Enjoy!!

Tip for marketers:  SHOW your people this video when trying to explain why less is more!

First Things a New Marketer Should Know and Do

When starting in a new firm, the key starting point is that which should apply to all new jobs:

Inventory your situation and identify your resources.

In a professional service firm, a huge part of this is to know, "Who is each player and what is his or her game?"

To start this, make an effort to understand the business in general and to gain a sense of the talents of each of the individuals with whom you now work. Here's how.

Schedule a 15-30 minute interview meeting with each practitioner in your firm—from new grads to seasoned senior partners.

Scheduling will probably be a hassle and it will take a lot of time to conduct all these meetings if you have a large firm. But it is worth it. When I was in-house, I had six offices and 180 attorneys, so it took about two months with meetings 2-3 days a week (I did still have to get other work done, too, after all). I still say it is well worth it!

Purpose
For many of your interviewees, this will be their first one-on-one conversation with you and an important first impression for you both. You'll begin to develop relationships that are crucial to your success in the firm.

You will learn more about your firm's profession than you might imagine and you'll be able to speak the firm's language much more quickly.

You will identify who is experienced at what. This is invaluable for proposals and internal referrals (until you establish an experience database to go on your Intranet, that is...). And you'll gain a good understanding of each person's personality type.

Meet in their offices if at all possible so you can take a visual inventory noting personal interests, family, client memorabilia, clutter versus extreme organization, etc. These insights can help you find common ground for your developing relationship.

The purpose for the meetings should be described as 'brief information gathering so you can better understand the practice nuances of each person.' Believe me, they all have them and they'll be eager to share and flattered you care.

Continue reading for Meeting Scheduling, Prep, and what to do During and After the meetings...

Essential Career Advice for Professionals

I appreciate how, in a single, brief post, Maister imparts career advice that covers:

• how to be trusted by your employer (partners, colleagues, etc);
• how to build a loyal and appreciative customer-base;
• why sincerity must underlie your service mentality; and
• what commitment really means

Consider his post entitled You Gotta Serve Someone wherein he discusses core beliefs and pure service mentality.

Part of why a vast majority of partners don't delegate or cross-sell others' work is because this mentality is lacking:

Whenever a superior, a customer or client gives you something to work on, you have their affairs, their reputation and their future in your hands. If you mess up, the embarrassment you will feel is nothing compared to the mess you will land them in. You are being trusted with someone else's baby. Deserve it. Being good is important, being trusted is essential.

What can you do to increase others' trust in you? Maister addresses this:

It can be difficult to accept the "server" mentality. Dale Carnegie once wrote that "You'll have more fun and success by helping other people achieve their goals than you will by focusing on your own goals."

When I first read that, as a college student in England, I was shocked. It sounded like communism, or at a minimum, a self-sacrificing religious principle. However, as I progressed through the real world, I realized Carnegie was right. His principle is actually the vary (sic) core of exchange capitalism: I will give you what you want if you give me what I want.

To make this work, you must be sincere in trying to help the other party. It's not just a bargaining process ("You give me this, and I'll give you that, and then we'll go our separate ways.") Human beings don't work like that. We look for relationships, even in minor transactions.

'Bare minimum' work doesn't instill value. Value comes from genuinely WANTING to better someone's situation or result. He explains:

If I hire somebody to do something for me (clean my house, handle my divorce, do my taxes, diagnose and cure my ailments), I don't want them to focus only on the bare minimum of fulfilling the contractual terms. If they do, I'm going to focus on paying them the bare minimum - and no-one's going to be happy.

What I'm looking for is someone who wants to help me, and will deal with whatever arises. Such a person will get paid well, hired again, and promoted, and referred to others. If I hire you, never forget you're there to serve me. If you're not willing to do that, I don't want you.

Are you committed?

Another key attitude is commitment. Commitment is not numbers of hours you work, the sales you generate or the rates you charge.

It means placing other people - the client and your colleagues - first in your professional life. Commitment means attention to details, not because you might get caught, but because you want to provide the best product or service available and you relish the opportunity to step up and take on responsibility. 

Maister concludes:

It's the paradox of professionalism: the more you put yourself first, the less people want to work with you and the less of life's rewards you get. The more you focus on serving others, the more they want to be with you and give you what you want.

People (bosses, colleagues, clients, subordinates) can spot immediately those who bring a truly professional attitude to work, and reward those who do. 

I'd like to say I agree with these last two paragraphs. They sound great, but they aren't entirely true.

I do sometimes see self-serving people get ahead in life. And sometimes I see firms reward those who aren't as deserving as others who are overlooked. Life IS unfair sometimes. Thankfully, such situations are the exception and not the rule.

Overall, David's advice is spot on. The real stars in firms, those who progress and build strong practices, often aren't "marketer types" -- they are service types. Throughout their careers, these stars get more business from in-house peers, outside referral sources, and client word-of-mouth. Almost entirely because of attitude. (The rest is skill, of course.)

Remember, skill without good attitude is worth far less than great attitude with marginal skill.

And David has nailed the elements of the sort of attitudes that make this success happen. So, now we know. The choice is ours.

New Marketers Should Set Appropriate Expectations

David Maister provides good advice for the new in-house marketer asked to speak to the firm about what he or she can and cannot do to help the firm's professionals with their marketing efforts.

While seasoned marketers are more equipped to do some of the things David suggests this fictitious marketer would not, a rookie marketer (new, at least, to professional service firms) is well advised to take this realistic approach.

These are certainly truths that will come to be apparent over time no matter what the original expectation. Hopefully, this approach will be apparent to the marketer's boss in the interviews, though, or at least in advance of the meeting! For the boss to learn/hear this the first time in the first big pow-wow might not be such a good move...

Here are some snippets (I have consolidated some):

• As your new marketing director, my job is to support YOUR efforts to attract, win and retain clients. I cannot do that for you; I can only help you do it better.
  
• It's not my job to tell you to get involved in business development. -- If you are energized and motivated to want to get involved in developing your practice, I will be available to offer advice customized to your practice, your personal situation and your ambitions.
• I can offer advice and execution assistance on a wide variety of marketing activities...However, I will not give blanket recommendations about which of these tactics to use, nor how each of them can best be used. In all cases, the best technique will be one that both fits you and will appeal to your clients. We will discover what these specifics are through personal discussions, or not at all.
• Part of my job will be to help you understand what it will take to accomplish the goals you say you want to achieve. --  Occasionally, this will mean that me pointing out that you are aiming for unreachable goals, or that the amount of effort and resources you are willing to dedicate will not get you where you say you want to go. While I will do my best to help you achieve your goals, I will not encourage you to launch half-measures if I don't think they will work.
• In order to serve you well, I will need the privilege of giving my opinion and sharing my knowledge about what works. I will be your advisor, dedicated to your success. I will not just do what you tell me to do if I think you will be wasting your time.

Visit David's blog for the whole post: The New Marketing Director Speech.

Marketing Salaries Reflecting ROI

An eyebrow raising post today on Larry Bodine's blog posits that the salaries of law firm marketers are dwarfing firm administrators' salaries.

Bodine cites two surveys that indicate median administrator salaries are in the $70-80K range and he references numerous legal marketing job ads offering $100K+ (and some in the over $400K range). The median salaries aren't quite that high, but if you visit his other site's job openings you will, indeed, find many jobs for senior marketers and even writers, editors, and knowledge managers in the over $80K range.

Bodine says:

This is GREAT news for the marketers, because it means they've worked their way out of the "overhead" category in law firms.  The marketers are able to say, "If you invest $5 with my plan, you'll get $20 back.  I can prove return on investment." 

About different roles earning different pay, I'm reminded of a wonderful bit of advice shared awhile back by Julie Lindy, editor of INSIDE Public Accounting, on the Assoc. of Accounting Marketing discussion list. She said:

Nobody is paid what they are worth. They are paid what their *jobs* are worth. As human beings, an NFL player is not worth more than a 5th grade teacher, but in our culture, the NFL player's job is valued more, so therefore, he is paid more....You can't take salary personally: It's all about what the job is worth to the person writing the checks.

I agree entirely with Ms. Lindy.

Beside the law firm administrators discussed in Bodine's post, there's another group paying close attention to the legal marketers' escalating salaries...CPA firm marketers.

I cannot help but wonder what most accounting marketers must be thinking when they see the salaries their legal counterparts are earning. The median salaries remain significantly lower (at least $20K behind) in the accounting industry. Actually, I have a pretty good idea of what accounting marketers are thinking.

Something to the effect of: "Can it be that much harder to work with lawyers?"

Uh, well, yes and no. Totally depends on the firm, the culture, and the support marketing, in general, has within the firm. Overall, lawyers aren't that much different from CPAs. In some ways they are more open about what they think and, ultimately, more open-minded about trying new things. In other ways, they are far more trying because they challenge everything (and for fun, I think!).

So...are the disparities in salary reasonable?

Top 5 Traits of a Marketing Professional

Yesterday, Harry Joiner had an interesting post about what he (an executive recruiter specializing in placing marketing professionals) considers the "Top 5 Traits" he looks for in a good candidate for a marketing position.

I like Harry. He has a no nonsense approach and he thoroughly understands the marketing function. Numbers 1 and 4 are particularly important in law and accounting firms. The other three are common sense for any position, I think.

His list:

1. Business orientation.  Marketers must think holistically about their business and address their company's constraints to growth:  There's no point in developing a slick "brand promise" that cannot be brought to life with your company's current operating model.  Everything from legal, to finance, to accounting, to purchasing, to manufacturing, to warehousing, to logistics, to customer service, to marketing and sales must be in alignment with your company's Unique Selling Proposition.  And if your company's sales process is out of step with how the customer actually buys -- forget it.  That's why the best marketers are literate in all areas of business.  These are the pros who truly understand that marketing is a means to an end -- not an end unto itself.  No margin, no mission.


2. Humility.  If you have a massive ego, forget it.  I don't say this because I can't handle people with big egos.  I say this because marketing people with big egos always think they know better than their customers.  That's "death" in the marketing business.


3. People skills.  I do my job on the phone, which means that I am effectively blind.  Minus the corn rows, there's no difference between me and Stevie Wonder.  Therefore, if you aren't warm and empathic on the phone, then it's hard for me to imagine that you will be warm and empathic in person.   People, including my clients, want to do business with people they like, and they always do a phone screen before bringing a person in for an interview.  So relax and have fun.  Otherwise, you are wasting your time.  See the paradox?  Have fun or you're dead!


4. An inquisitive nature.  I'm no genius, but I have gotten by on my obsessive compulsive desire to learn.  Marketing is too dynamic a field to be stagnant.  If you think you can skate by on the "Four Ps" you're wrong.  Keep learning.  We are just in the top of the second inning of this Internet thing, and it promises to completely change not only marketing -- but the way we think about marketing.  Don't get attached to any one marketing model or "one-size-fits-all" way of thinking.  Think integrated multichannel marketing ... and remain channel agnostic.


5. A track record of accomplishment.  You can't talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.  If you have job hopped, or if you have walked off a job, or whatever, then no amount of my God-given sales talent is going to help you land a job.  If you hate your marketing job, stick it out until you generate a sensible alternative for yourself.  Nobody wants to hire a diva or a baby.

For law and accounting firm marketers, though this probably won't be determinable at hiring, I'd like to add another requisite skill to Harry's list:

7.    Confidence in the form of a thick skin.  I'm not talking about ego and having to be right. What I am talking about is the ability to retain faith in yourself and the quality of your thinking and your ideas even after your suggestions are declined time and again. Skepticism and rejection of change are par for the course in these firms so you have to be able to maintain your confidence and continually motivate yourself to be creative and get back on the horse in order to improve at effectively presenting and selling your ideas--even in the face of frequent push-back and flat out rejection. I believe this is the one skill that determines a marketer's success and longevity in their firm.

Be sure to stay tuned to Harry's blog because he promises to post more on this subject over the next few days.

Career Advice for Marketers

While I agree with a lot of what Barbara Walters Price posts on her blog, this week she had a post that I don't agree with at face value: "Marketing Directors: Great Advice for Your Career"

Ms Price says Eric Gagnon is "right on target' with an article he wrote entitled Two Big Things: How to Achieve Lifetime Job Security in Your Marketing Career.

I don't dispute the potential validity of the points in typical B2B companies, but I challenge the "job security wisdom" for CPA and law firm marketers. It seems to me that Mr Gagnon has probably not personally worked in-house in these unusual environments.

The first point the article makes--

Job Security Tip #1: Marketing is Mostly Tactical

Sure, the high-concept elements of marketing strategy are important - positioning, trends, pricing, distribution, etc., but once they're set in your marketing program, the rest is all tactical: The process of marketing execution that drives all of the deliverables and activities of your marketing program. Tactical marketing execution is where the game of marketing is won or lost.

My concern with this point centers around the simple fact that most firms don't adequately (if at all) address "positioning, trends, pricing, distribution, etc."  That "once they're set in your marketing program" assumes it is a given. In professional services, I think that's a dangerous assumption.  PS firms tend to shortcut that essential marketing strategy part.

Many firms' tactical goals are based either on gut instinct or copycatting tactics used by other firms, perhaps touted as "best practices."

The advice, above, puts the bulk of responsibility on tactics. Fine. But, without strategy, the tactics may be all wrong.

Ms. Price summarizes:

It's all about execution.  Don't give your partners fancy talk about branding, instead, do those things every day that make the phone ring.

I counter that with all the buzz about branding (and other popular concepts) over the past decade or so, it is often the PARTNERS wanting to pursue branding and other such trends, not necessarily the marketers.

Marketing IS about execution. But it's about execution of the RIGHT things.

Partners are more aware of marketing than ever, but can have preconceived notions of what they must or should do. Since marketing is not one-size-fits-all between firms, so-called "best practices" should be viewed with some caution.

Even when firms have knowledgeable marketing people, there can be a strong tendency to "override" the marketer's advice with partner opinions (see my recent post "Hire a Marketing Director and Substitute Your Opinion for Theirs. Not.").

Marketers, for your job security (and measurable marketing success), don't quietly accept it when management suggests curtailing critical planning and research steps in order to have you instead work through the standing "wishlist" of marketing tasks partners compiled in a partner meeting or collected from other firms over time.

Don't dismiss the wishlist, but work to prove or disprove the wisdom of pursuing each item on its own merit and in accordance with the firm's strengths, weaknesses, capacity and marketplace.

The second point in the article--

Job Security Tip #2: Never Forget that Marketing is Accountable to Sales...

When a marketing manager is working with their sales VP to develop ads, mailings, and deliverables that effectively sell their company's product, and these marketing activities are keeping the company's sales team supplied with a steady stream of high-quality leads, and the marketing manager is out in front, looking for ways to open new business opportunities in the marketing program, the marketing department is never asked to justify itself.

Note the final words [my emphasis]. (Ha! Clearly Mr Gagnon has not worked in-house in a CPA firm...)

Marketing departments are asked to justify themselves continuously whether there is a sales person/team or not. Further, the "sales people" are usually the partners...often with little or no specific sales training and the first to admit their closing rates should be much higher.

It is true that marketing, when good strategies drive the initiatives, facilitates the delivery of leads. But it must be remembered that a core responsibility also lies with the "closers" to do pre-sale due diligence on the prospect (a step usually skipped) and conduct themselves effectively in the sales process.

Where marketing is accountable to sales, "sales" should also be fully accountable to the firm and marketing, too, ensuring an effective process is in place when marketing turns over its leads.