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Accountants vs. Lawyers: Who Wins the Marketing Battle?

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Does one size fit all? A slate of experts weighs in.

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.

It’s not a race, nor are there prizes for the winner. But it has been suggested that the lawyers are light years ahead of the accounting profession in marketing.

MORE: The Risk In Not Understanding Risk | How to Build a Marketing Culture | Have You Planned How to Service Your New Revenue? | Why Is Change So Hard for Firms? | Why Value Pricing Works | Why Competition Matters Most
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It’s nonsense, of course. Is one profession indeed better at marketing than the other? Well, no. Each profession is different, and to try to make the comparison would be an apples and oranges game. But silly as the idea may be, it opens a vast and intriguing question. Are there significant differences between the professions that affect marketing? Indeed there are.
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Is Your CAS Practice Trapping You?

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Look for these five signs and implement simple changes to get back the life you want.

By W. Michael Hsu

Are you working tirelessly but not seeing the benefits and results you deserve?  Essentially, do you feel trapped in the cycle of your business? If so, you’re not alone.

MORE W. MICHAEL HSU: Seven Principles to Work Less and Achieve More |  How Do Firm Leaders Learn? | Why Your Approach to CAS and CFO Services Is Wrong | When it Comes to Pricing, it’s About ‘Can’t Afford Not To’ | Your Client Base Is Global |

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Many firm owners and the entrepreneurs they serve feel exhausted by their businesses, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

But we can identify common signs that your business is trapping you and show you how to optimize for freedom. By addressing these issues and implementing some simple strategies, you can reduce stress, achieve more, and live a life you love.

5 Ways Your Firm Is Trapping You READ MORE →

Track Six Figures to Test Your Marketing

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It’s time to break out the spreadsheets. Hurray!

By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms

One way to help accountants embrace marketing is to fill training sessions with spreadsheets and numbers, things that most accountants love working on. There’s a lot of insecurity around learning marketing, but when accountants hear they need to do some spreadsheets first, they dive right in.

MORE: Five Ways to Acquire More Clients | Get Your Name in the News | Five Ideas for More Summer Revenue | Four Ways Small Firms Can Beat Large Ones | Why You Need a Link-In-Bio Tool | Five Emotional Skills for Entrepreneurs | Transform Your Marketing with CRM
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Here are six numbers we suggest you track:

1. Closing ratio

As qualified leads come from your marketing efforts into your sales funnel, it’s a good idea to track how many of these leads you’re able to close into business. Your closing ratio is the percentage of successes divided by the total number of qualified leads you make proposals to.
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How Partner Buyouts Work

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https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=77973Three big issues must be decided.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

One of the benefits that new partners receive in exchange for their buy-in is that they will receive a buyout when they retire. This amount can be in excess of a million dollars at many firms. Receiving a retirement buyout is one of the major reasons becoming a partner is so lucrative.

MORE: 11 Best Practices for Partner Compensation | Fifteen Steps to New Partner Buy-in | What Buying In Actually Means | Why Buying Into a Firm Is Such a Great Investment | Four Philosophies for Managing a CPA Firm | How Partner and Staff Actions Impact Profits | The Business Side of CPA Firms
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The flip side of this is that new partners must agree to buy out older partners when their day comes. Therefore, any plan for bringing in new partners must include a provision for a partner retirement/buyout plan.
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Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa. 

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If you can’t change your pricing or your customers, it doesn’t matter how efficient you are

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Jody Padar, the author of The Radical CPA, has been shaking things up in the accounting world for years. But today, firms are at a boiling point, limited by supply and demand. “You only have so many people doing the work. And what are you going to do? You can’t make the work up. It’s got to get done,” Padar said.

MORE: Jody Padar here

PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices | Hector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt Wilkinson | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt | Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? | Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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The old business model was taking whoever walked in and billing by the hour. But today, we don’t have the capacity. “There’s so much work out there,” she explained.  “I have not heard any accountants say that they are looking for work. They’re all saying, ‘Stop, go away. I don’t have the resources to serve you.’”
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Four Core Principles of Elite Wealth Management

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You may have to reorient your thinking.

By Russ Alan Prince

The four core principles are not malleable or debatable for accounting firms that want to provide the highest quality wealth management expertise and an extraordinary experience to clients. Let us take a closer look at these four core principles.

MORE: Why Accountants Don’t Get Referrals from Wealth Managers | The Biggest Obstacle to Taking Your Firm Upmarket | Wealthy Drive Expansion of Family Offices | Build Your High-Performing Family Office Practice | Are You Missing Maximum Potential?
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Core Principle #1: The Primary Goal of an Elite Wealth Management Practice Is to Help Optimize the Financial Lives of Clients

The goal of an accounting firm’s elite wealth management practice is not to generate more revenues for the firm. That will undoubtedly happen, but that is not the goal. With elite wealth management, providing financial strategies and products is the way to help optimize clients’ financial lives.
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Help Clients with Employment Compensation

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older man and younger man in meetingYou might find yourself negotiating a contract.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Build a Stronger Tax Practice

This service includes employment contract negotiations and executive compensation review and planning.

MORE ON MARKETING: How to Guide Clients through Divorce | How to Assist Investment Clubs | When Clients Remarry | Seven Questions to Suggest Estate Planning | Four Reasons to Perform Tax Projections
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Who needs this service

Every client employed by a mid- to large-size company or a public company will need some sort of employment compensation assistance.
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How Back Office Support Adds Value

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Woman using tablet in front of laptop and desktopBONUS: A case study of how NOT to do things.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Accounting businesses have historically provided a range of “after-the-fact” compliance services including year-end accounting and tax return preparation. Many firms also provide “write-up” services, which involve the recording of business transactions based on documents generated by the client, such as invoices, checks, deposit slips and documents provided by third parties, such as bank statements and payroll reports. Write-up work is typically done once a month, after the fact.

MORE: AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Today, major innovations in technology are giving accountants the opportunity to expand their services and to provide much more comprehensive, timely and useful information to their clients.
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