Are you ready to elevate your accounting firm? Many accounting professionals excel at providing top-notch financial services. However, marketing and sales can often feel like a daunting puzzle. What if you could amplify your reach, attract ideal clients, and boost your firm’s growth?
Roger Knecht, President of Universal Accounting Center, dove into this topic with Kenny Harper, a marketing and sales optimization specialist, on a recent episode of the Building the Premier Accounting Firm podcast. Kenny shares valuable insights on differentiating marketing from sales, the power of niche marketing, and understanding the customer journey. Let’s dive into how you can transform your approach and amplify your firm’s success. Listen to the episode in full here:
Marketing vs. Sales: Understanding the Difference
Often, the terms “marketing” and “sales” are used interchangeably, especially within the accounting profession. However, Kenny emphasizes that understanding the distinction is essential for effective business growth. According to a HubSpot study, 63% of companies say their biggest marketing challenge is generating leads and traffic. This is often because marketing is narrowly defined.
Marketing is about putting the value you provide in front of your ideal customers. It’s about communicating how your services can solve their challenges and help them achieve their goals. It’s broader than just advertising; it includes networking, content creation, and even how you engage with current clients.
Sales, on the other hand, is about helping people access that value. It involves asking the right questions, understanding their needs, and enrolling them in the possibilities your services offer. It’s about building relationships and guiding potential clients toward a solution that benefits them.
Marketing Beyond Advertising: Reaching Your Ideal Clients
Many professionals equate marketing with advertising, but Kenny clarifies that marketing encompasses much more. Consider a scenario where you attend a conference and someone says they don’t need to market their business. By being there, engaging, and sharing their expertise, they’re actively marketing.
Marketing is about conveying how you can alleviate your clients’ pain points and help them achieve their aspirations. This can be achieved through various avenues: advertising, networking, and nurturing relationships with existing clients. It’s about ensuring your message resonates with those who need your services most.
The Power of Retention: Marketing to Existing Clients
Don’t underestimate the power of marketing to your current client base. Many firms have the potential to significantly increase revenue simply by better communicating the value they can provide to existing clients. According to Bain & Company, increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.
The common myth is, “If my clients need it, they’ll ask.” However, clients often don’t know what they don’t know. By proactively asking better questions and highlighting the additional services you offer, you can uncover unmet needs and create new opportunities for both you and your clients.
Reframing Sales: From Pushing to Sharing
Bad sales experiences, like the dreaded car-buying scenario, often taint our perception of sales. Kenny argues for reframing sales as an act of sharing and enrolling rather than pushing. It’s about asking the right questions and demonstrating how your services can help clients achieve their desired outcomes.
Instead of pushing your services, focus on understanding your client’s challenges and aspirations. By doing so, you position yourself as a trusted advisor. This approach transforms the sales process into a collaborative effort, leading to more satisfied clients and enduring relationships.
Sharing with Intention: A Real-World Example
Kenny shares a story about Gina, a CPA who felt worn out by dealing with non-ideal clients. Gina’s process was simply providing a quote when someone asked for a service, often undercutting competitors. Kenny identified that Gina could provide much more value.
Kenny encouraged Gina to share the broader range of her services during initial meetings. By asking questions about the clients’ overall business needs and sharing how she could assist with business advisory and exit planning, Gina began attracting better clients and increasing her lifetime customer value. This shift not only improved her business but also created raving fans who appreciated her proactive approach.
The APE Method: Achievable, Profitable, and Easy
Universal Accounting Center teaches a valuable concept called the APE method: Achievable, Profitable, and Easy. When sharing your services, emphasize how they will help clients achieve their goals, increase profitability, and simplify their processes.
Communicating that your services are achievable, profitable, and easy to implement resonates deeply with clients. It assures them that you understand their needs and can provide effective solutions, making them more likely to choose your firm.
The Customer Value Journey: Building Relationships
Business is fundamentally about people and relationships. Rushing into a sales pitch is like asking someone to marry you on the first date – it’s too much, too soon. Similarly, doing nothing leaves potential relationships stagnant.
The customer journey involves several stages: awareness, engagement, and conversion. First, potential clients need to be aware of your existence through marketing. Then, you engage them with valuable content and build trust. Finally, you invite them to take the next step, such as a consultation or demo. This gradual progression fosters strong, lasting relationships.
Niche Marketing: Speaking Their Language
Many accounting professionals struggle with the idea of niching down, fearing they’ll limit their potential client base. Kenny clarifies that you don’t have to niche your entire business, but you should consider niching your marketing. According to a study by MarketingProfs, niche marketing can increase customer engagement by as much as 50%.
Niching your marketing allows you to speak directly to a specific audience in their language, addressing their unique challenges and aspirations. This targeted approach resonates far more effectively than a generic message aimed at everyone. For example, instead of saying “We can help any business,” focus on a specific industry like construction, addressing their specific pain points like projecting costs.
Overcoming Mental Blocks: Finding Your Niche
One of the biggest hurdles is the mental block that comes with niching. It can feel counterintuitive to limit your focus. However, specializing can lead to significant growth and recognition.
Kenny, who initially helped various businesses, found greater success by focusing on accountants, CPAs, and tax planners. By understanding their specific needs and challenges, he could provide targeted solutions and optimize their marketing efforts. This specialization led to speaking opportunities and a reputation as the go-to expert for accounting professionals seeking growth.
Personal Connections: The Power of Shared Interests
Kenny’s background as a musician adds a personal touch to his professional expertise. Sharing these personal interests can create deeper connections with clients and make your firm more relatable.
Hobbies and passions humanize your business, making it easier for potential clients to connect with you on a personal level. This authenticity can set you apart from competitors and foster stronger, more loyal client relationships.
Key Takeaways and Actionable Steps
Here’s a summary of key points from the conversation:
- Marketing is about conveying value and reaching your ideal clients, while sales is about helping them access that value.
- Marketing to existing clients can significantly increase revenue by uncovering unmet needs.
- Reframing sales as sharing and enrolling builds trust and fosters lasting relationships.
- Niching your marketing allows you to speak directly to a specific audience and resonate more effectively.
- Understanding the customer journey is essential for building relationships and guiding clients toward your services.
Final Thoughts: Amplifying Your Potential
Kenny leaves listeners with a powerful message: embrace a fresh perspective to uncover untapped potential within your firm. Just as you can identify financial opportunities that clients overlook, a marketing specialist can reveal growth opportunities you may not see.
Take action today. Get a free advisor’s playbook to help you identify actionable steps for improving your business. Be inspired, take new actions, and become the amplifier you were born to be.
Accounting success is universal, and by mastering these marketing and sales strategies, you can build a premier accounting firm that thrives.
