Meeting
A Champion is Assigned
Documentation
Task Assignment
Passage of Three Years

Somehow, in all the confusion of business development planning, some CPAs miss the critical part: How to sell to more clients. While some have stated that the problem is they do not understand how to sell, the real issue is they are likely not getting enough sales opportunities. Their business development plan may detail how many clients the company needs to obtain without mention of how the company is going to get those clients. So the tendency is to depend on referrals.

Learning how to sell is a longer-term process, but beginning selling efforts is not.

Staff is at a greater loss on how to generate new business. They do not have the referral network from years of practicing the profession. So how does a firm manage to expand business development efforts? Most advisors and employees like to generate ideas.

Strategizing is the fun part. Everyone gets pumped up thinking about what to do and feels good about the great things coming. However, strategy does not increase revenues. Someone has to take the time to provide the continual energy to keep efforts going. Below is an example how a typical CPA firm might begin a business development initiative:

1. Meeting. The mandatory meeting occurs.

At a Mid-Sized Firm. Generally it takes a month to schedule a two-hour meeting. During the meeting several people arrive late, totally unprepared or expecting not to say anything. One person will be ready and have 15 pages of recommendations with footnotes. Most attendees are thinking about how they can get back to billing.

In Smaller Firms. It still takes a month to set up a two-hour meeting, but the staff comes on time. The downside is all they can think of is “how much more work is this going to be for me?”

2. A Champion is Assigned. Someone is assigned the task of writing the plan. That person is normally the one who was so outspoken about the firm’s lack of direction, the only administrative person in the firm, or the partner that came in the room last. Often, that individual has great expertise; unfortunately none of it is in marketing or sales for a CPA firm. Three factors should be considered:

Champion Irony.
The busiest person in the firm is assigned to lead the effort.

Champion Apathy.
The person selected was given the task and will treat it as another chore to accomplish when there is time.

Champion Pressure.
The pressure to maintain billings or administrative functions, and create the perfect plan, will be overwhelming. The difference between selling and accounting is in the rules. Since selling has no pre-defined regulations to follow, this makes CPAs try to apply rule-based logic to a business development planning process. This does not work. Adding $25,000 in selling expenses does not mean you will generate four times that in sales.

3. Documentation. Four weeks later, with the best of intentions, that person takes a few hours to write down their ideas. Despite the best efforts of the author, they try to develop a plan with limited input. To demonstrate their effort and justify any time investment, the plan will be fifty pages long. Twenty-five percent of the plan will address a mission statement. Fifty percent of the plan will detail the financial objectives, budget and return on investment. The remaining 25 percent will outline the need for subcommittees made up of members in the firm who could not run away fast enough. There is little to no mention of steps to communicate with prospects or clients.

4. Task Assignment. People will be assigned to meet monthly to develop an action plan for their sub-committee. They will discuss the big picture, agree to the next meeting, and outline a few easy or vague things that should be done. During the next task committee meeting, they will concur on those items. This will happen many times until busy season squarely buries all attempts at marketing efforts.

5. Passage of Three Years. The firm will talk about their need to market for two to three more years until something prompts action. Normally, the change agent is the loss of a big client, slow erosion of the economy or simply an interest to do more interesting work. Finally, the cycle will begin again.

Honestly assess your firm’s business development efforts. Have you sent one direct mailing out this quarter? Firm newsletters do not count. Has anyone made one cold call to a targeted prospect? Does a list of targeted prospects exist? Was an e-mail sent to existing clients describing your valuation services or other advisory service offered? What reinforcing messages have you sent your referral partners?

It is hard to stay focused. It’s easy to fall off track. Time needs to be evenly spent between balancing the planning and the communication. The most compelling letter in world, that does not get off of your desk and into a prospect or client’s hands, has no value.

About the Author
Bob Lewis is the founder of Visionary Marketing, helping CPA firms develop marketing strategies to target new clients, increase existing client revenues and build referral partner networks. Lewis can be reached at 800.995.9186.

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