Each firm is composed differently. Its genetic “make-up” is something that evolves over time and is a reflection of the current partners or a version of what the original owner created.

In every business someone’s hand was the driving factor that shaped the direction, created the culture and set the tone. Pieces of what he or she did or is still doing are reflected in the firm’s literature, web site, the people that work there and the messages the practice is telling clients, prospects and centers of influence.

To improve business development efforts look at your DNA. If you are the driving force behind the firm, what are you really good at? How you run the practice and relate with people is a style embedded in your system. You are “hard-wired” to think and operate a certain way. A brilliant professional may be able to look at a problem and immediately see things others will never be able to recognize. It’s a skill that may be refined from hard work, but it’s their baseline “make up” that helps them make decisions.

Professional athletes are a great example. Many are not physically bigger or better than others, but most can see things differently. A good running back can see holes or anticipate when to make a cut. Of course all professionals are strong, but their strength is not what made them good. Gyms across America are filled with people who can lift more weights. It was their ability to naturally do what they do, their “DNA”, that makes them successful. Their incremental strength was added from training most of us can match, but their ability to react and sense how to play cannot be easily taught.

A firm’s DNA is what causes many practices to struggle. The things that made them successful can also be one of the major reasons they run into trouble or become flat. A CPA starts a practice. It grows by word of mouth. Eventually the CPA who directly serviced the client no longer can be as involved with every engagement. He or she needs to manage other professionals instead of actually doing what they excelled at doing. At this point a “breakdown” may occur in a firm because the same brilliant individual has now evolved to a different position of authority and is in charge of areas they no longer have that “special” inherent ability. A great CPA may not translate to a partner who is comfortable managing others.

Practices can struggle because they may not understand how to manage their marketing and sales resources. Instead the CPA, who is now the managing partner, hires sales or marketing people to “sell” for them. Now the skill set required is managing people who are performing tasks the CPA only knew how to do his or her way. That managing partner may have a hard time learning to judge and trust the sales and marketing people they hire. As a result, turnover in business development representatives can be high or success may be limited. Intellect though does not always convert into good business development leadership. Good leaders recognize strengths and limitations, surround themselves with specialists, and learn to listen and evaluate the ideas of those specialists.

What makes an effective sales person? According to most jokes, the ability to golf, dine, and remain absent from the office. The truth is those are real skills. We know many professionals who golf and dine, but don’t know how to sell. A good sales person who seems to know the location of every restaurant in town may be enjoying their work or finding it grueling. It can be very hard to be the person who is always selling. They have to be “on” all the time, know how to listen, look for openings, learn to recognize weaknesses and above all learn to judge what’s a good prospect versus a bad lead. On top of it all, prospects often buy based on emotional considerations the sales or marketing professional cannot control.

A sales representative with the best product, service and price does not always win. A good sales person is skilled at presenting and packaging their wares to make them look attractive to the buyer. Anyone can sell a product or service in demand. Good sales people can sell items that are harder to sell at a fair price. Pros, the upper echelon of the sales world, are the ones that can sell intangible services or products with no discernable edge at high prices. Those professionals are hard to find. When marketing and selling for a CPA firm you are selling an intangible, difficult to differentiate service, which makes the business development process even more challenging.

How do you recognize a good marketing professional? The first sign is their ability to push back. For example, the CPA who is now the managing partner has an epiphany. His or her peers are all talking abut cost segregation or some other service. They feel their firm is missing out so they should start selling it too.

A good marketing person will get the partner to slow down and ask if “cost segregation” has market appeal for our clients? How many of our clients own their buildings? The dot.com era was loaded with great concepts no one wanted to buy. A good marketing person will review the concept and identify weaknesses and strengths before trying to implement something that may not work in the long run. We get calls from businesses that want to add more clients, but have no plan, offer or any differentiating feature to make a prospect want to take action with them. Push back is a vital skill that can make an effort more successful.

Other key signs of a good marketing professional include:

1. Positioning. The ability to create consistent integrated messages. Are your firm’s messages reflective of what you think they should be or what your prospects want to see? When did you check last?
2. Multiple Market Approach. Someone capable of running more than one effort at a time and capable of prospecting by using a balance of different marketing or sales strategies.
3. Follow-up. This is the second most important aspect of selling. Follow-up is vital to closing business. The only element more critical is having good services and products presented to prospects with compelling reasons to make them interested in buying.
4. Creative Capabilities. A quest to add new, refine existing and implement different approaches using different tools.
5. Repetitive Processes. A common source of failure is touching a prospect once, getting no response, and then drawing the conclusion there is no interest. A competent marketer, hits prospects professionally, with spaced out frequency and does not stop marketing because something did not work out easily. If all it took were to drop a letter in the mail, everyone would be rich.
6. Long-Term Thinking. Marketing is not an overnight turnaround concept. Your marketing executive should be planning next year’s efforts while deploying this year’s programs.

A main reason many practices struggle with generating new revenues is lack of time. Clients always come first. The executives who do not have sales or marketing personnel may never have time to fully implement business development efforts. The firms that have in-house sales or marketing resources may not know how to manage them. It’s really a balancing act.

About the Author
Bob Lewis is managing partner of Visionary Marketing. Mr. Lewis can be reached at blewis@ThinkVisionary.com or at 800.995.9186.

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