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And the role it plays in client retention.

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.

How do a firm and its people become part of Professional Services Marketing 3.0?

MORE: Professional Services Marketing Requires Flexibility | What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do | Have You Planned How to Service Your New Revenue? | How to Set Marketing Objectives | Nine Reasons That Prospects Say Yes | How Marketing Evolved to 3.0 | Accountants Don’t Sell Soap. | Why Competition Matters Most
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Part of the answer resides in building a marketing culture within a firm, which means that everyone in the firm understands that he or she has an active role in marketing and practice development and understands what that role entails.

It means that professionals have an attitude that grants enthusiastic hospitality to marketing.
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As the client changes, so must the accountant.

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.

The emerging relationship between professional and client, and between the marketers and the professionals, is further complicated by the changing nature of the professions themselves, in which several phenomena are redefining the nature of the professions.

MORE: What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do | Have You Planned How to Service Your New Revenue? | Why Is Change So Hard for Firms? | Why Value Pricing Works | Why Competition Matters Most
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

In planning for both a firm and its marketing program, there are three factors that should be understood.
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All the marketing effort in the world will rarely produce a client. It can only produce a receptive prospect.

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.

The tools of marketing are not a program – they are simply tools.

MORE: Have You Planned How to Service Your New Revenue? | How to Set Marketing Objectives | How Marketing in Accounting Has Evolved | Accounting Marketing 3.0: New Rules | Nine Fundamentals for a Healthy Marketing Culture in an Accounting Firm
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A marketing program, then, is not simply a catalogue of tools. It’s a plan – a strategy and a tactical plan. It’s the sum total of all relevant activities, supporting one another, and not just random activities designed without objective nor relevance to the needs of the prospective client.
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Six marketing considerations. ALSO: Nine goals beyond getting new clients.

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.

Firm objectives are the context for marketing programs, which are, in turn, the blueprints for achieving firm objectives. To think of marketing otherwise is to court marketing programs that are irrelevant and unproductive.

MORE: How to Set Marketing Objectives | Nine Reasons That Prospects Say Yes | How Marketing Evolved to 3.0 | Accountants Don’t Sell Soap.
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The word market warrants some clear definition. A market is a group, of any size, with a common need or purpose. A market is a group that can be reached by common media. A market group is dynamic, subject to change, to reorganize, to respond to such external forces as the economy, law and regulation, and social factors.
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Firm and marketing plans must be intertwined.

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.

Because a professional services marketing program must do more than accumulate clients, and because it must function in a dynamic world that’s constantly in flux, an effective marketing program can’t be a static list of activities that use a static list of marketing tools. It must have clear objectives that are flexible enough to accommodate the dynamic nature of the market. It must focus specific aspects of a practice, predicated on the distinctive needs of each aspect of the prospective clientele.

MORE: Nine Reasons That Prospects Say Yes | Why Is Change So Hard for Firms? | Why Value Pricing Works | Why Competition Matters Most
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

For example, a marketing program to attract high-asset individuals is different from one to attract corporations. A program to attract real estate developers is different than one to attract builders.
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