The rules of the game have changed.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

There was a time when all you needed was a roll of nickels and a phone booth, and you were in the PR game. Of course, all clients expected then was that you get their names in the paper. For most of the publicity clients in those days, that was sufficient.

MORE: When Bad News Happens to Good Firms | Why Accountants Should Be Nice to Journalists | Ten Keys to Crafting Ads | Four Things to Know About Social Media | Internal Communications Are Underrated | Four Things Better Than a Company Song | Let’s Lose the Word ‘Image’ | The Risk In Not Understanding Risk | What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

“Those days” were the late 1920s and 1930s, before PR became public relations, and before we were beset with such glorious concepts as “image,” and “positioning,” and “niche marketing.” Today, public relations is infinitely more sophisticated than that, as is the public relations client. The public relations program for any modern corporation is to its publicity ancestor as desktop publishing is to hieroglyphics. And of course, the public relations program for the professional firm is different, too.

But to have a sophisticated public relations program requires not just a sophisticated practitioner, but a sophisticated client. A firm, if it knows how, will always find a good public relations practitioner or consultant, but a consultant is only as capable as the firm he or she serves.
READ MORE →

It’s key to client retention.

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services

Let’s explore ways to provide additional services to existing clients. Here is a short checklist that will help you obtain additional services for your clients.

MORE: Client Acquisition Never Stops | Make Sure You Know What You Will Get from Your Marketing | Three Pillars Support a Successful Accounting Firm | Clients Have Six Reasons for Needing You | Six Ways to Market Your Technology Consulting Practice | Sixteen Marketing Activities to Try | The Four Steps of Your Personal Marketing Process | How Does Your Firm Measure Up? | Six Questions Before Asking for All the Referrals You Deserve
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

1. Other than accounting and tax services, what additional services do you provide to this client? Create a spreadsheet listing the type of service, the fees, the year of service, the engagement leader and the client’s satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5. If your list of additional services is lengthy, you are providing good service to the client. If it is short, continue to the following questions.

READ MORE →

Four business development steps that are worth your while.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development On a Budget

I’ve taken many accounting firm partners through this process, and it’s quite common for them to balk a little at the pipeline idea when they see the amount of work involved.

MORE: Five Questions for Grading Prospects | Be Clear About Your ROI Proposition | It’s Time to Prepare the Next Generation | Who Are You More Committed to, Your Firm or Your Clients? | Nine Checkpoints Before Every Prospect Meeting | Three Questions about Conversion | Six Keys to Turning Prospects into Clients | Don’t Overlook Internal Communication | Four Reasons People Struggle with Communication
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

They see it as just another call on their time when they already have far too much to do, and they ask me why they can’t just write down a list of prospects and go to work on them.

Is that what you’ve been thinking? Well, here’s why that doesn’t work.
READ MORE →