How the best firms grow in tough times. by David Bergstein CPA, CITP Director of Strategic Relationships, CCH CCH Intelligent Solutions blog The best firms are rewarding staff — all staff — for bringing in new clients and new revenue, … Continued
Clients want to see niche-focused expertise and a heavy marketing spend.
by Joel Sinkin
Accounting Transition Advisors
We see two tactics being used by the best firms.
Due to the competitive environment and the flat economy, acquisitions of other practices is a primary growth strategy for many firms today.
But, to spur organic growth, most of the best firms are targeting their marketing and service offerings at specialized target audiences either through industry or service niche offerings. READ MORE →
Winning new business is a team sport. Spectators need not apply.
by Gale Crosley, CPA
Crosley+Company
The best firms are involved in the relentless pursuit of creating a firm-wide growth culture. READ MORE →
Break out of the compliance commodity trap.
By Randy Johnston
Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey
The best firms are offering new services packaged at flat rates.
For example, performing bookkeeping/write-up services for $2,000 to $3,000 per month and including the tax returns, or picking a specialty service or niche and wrapping a set of services around that.
All marketing in these firms has the same focus: READ MORE →
And are they ever coming back? A seismic shift is shaking the accounting profession: an acute and worsening shortage of clients. A sluggish economy has knocked a lot of traditional clients — individuals and business alike — to the wayside. … Continued
What’s your best advice for winning the battle for new clients?
by August Aquila
AQUILA Global Advisors
Today’s economic environment poses unique problems for CPA firms that want to bring in new clients. There is no single solution to growth in the present situation. Firms must look at multiple ways to bring in more business.
The three main strategies that firms must embrace, which are not mutually exclusive, are:
1. Growth through acquisition/merger
2. Improve client retention
3. Bring in new clients
Client retention falls to winning new business as top issue for firms.
In a signal that the competitive wars among CPA firms have only just begun, a new survey of practitioners shows client retention and even revenue growth are taking a backseat to a desperate grab for new clients.
Adding new clients ranks No. 1 for firms employing 2 to 5, 6 to 10 and 11 to 20 professionals, according to the 2011 AICPA Private Companies Practice Section’s CPA Firm Top Issues survey, last issued in 2009. READ MORE →
Clients report little change to their external audit fees in 2010.
Publicly held companies surveyed this year paid on average $3.3 million in total audit fees for fiscal year 2010, which represented an increase of 2% from the audit fees that these same respondents paid for the prior fiscal year audit, according to the Financial Executives Research Foundation, an affiliate of Financial Executives International.