Thinking of
jumping the gun by hiring a marketing expert before you have
a system for him to run?
 Sometimes
the seemingly-obvious solution for marketing is to hire a marketing
expert for developing a successful marketing campaign for your
Accounting firm.
And so it is
that mid-sized Accounting firms (with 1-3 million in annual turnover)
can easily afford to pay 30-50 thousands a year for the privilege
of having their own top expert.
Unfortunately,
they're likelier to end up losing a lot of money with little
or no results to show for it.
Now, I know
that if you're all hot about the idea of solving the problem
of "no marketing" in such a way, you're not pleased
to hear this.
But let me
explain.
Hiring a person
to engage full time in marketing is a GREAT idea in itself.
But ONLY
if you've PREPARED thoroughly for his arrival.
And only if
you've acquired a system for him to use... for anything else
is an invitation for disaster.
There are many
points to consider before advertising for a marketing in-charge.
Let's go through these points and hopefully you can save tens
of thousands in needless costs... to say nothing of ensuring
that your project will be a success instead of a disappointment.
In terms of
employing people, marketing is very different activity than Accounting
The first important
point is to see how marketing differs from accounting in respect
to hiring personnel.
Accounting
is an exact science which your new recruit will have studied.
The generally accepted accounting procedure is applied to work
in your firm just the same way as in any other firm. Thus, with
any experience from another Accounting firm, your new Accountant
will be able to perform the duties expected of him successfully
(and immediately).
Marketing is
an inexact science for which there is no
valid formal training, despite many claims to the contrary.
There are no
"generally accepted marketing procedures" to follow
and the strategies of YOUR firm will HAVE TO BE unique
and totally different from those of your competitors... IF you
ever wish to get results.
There's little
point in repeating what competitors do, is there? It won't get
you clients.
Thus, marketing
is something that's very much TAILORED for your firm... and there's
no-one better to decide HOW it is done than you.
In Accounting,
there are standard tools and rules — GAAP, accounting software,
rulings — but in marketing, there aren't.
Well, there
ARE... but to expect your expert to create a successful marketing
system from nothing is very unrealistic. It takes YEARS of full-time
development from a TEAM of experts working together with dozens
of practices to create such a system.
Hiring a chauffeur
with no car for him to drive?
Marketing of
Accounting services is a lot more than inventing clever slogans.
To get RESULTS, your marketing-in-charge must have a full SYSTEM
to use if you ever hope to get new clients out of his activity.
It's just like
if you wanted products delivered and hired a chauffeur for the
job... and then forget to provide A CAR with which he could drive
those products to wherever they need to be delivered.
And don't even
entertain an idea that your employee will CREATE such a marketing
system. Doing so involves fundamental decisions which can
only be made by the top management of your firm... and if
you let someone else make those decisions, you'll be very
sorry... and probably sooner rather than later.
Let's take
just one part of creating such a marketing system... the packaging
of your services.
The reality
of competition requires you to introduce a service concept
that no-one else (in your immediate area) has to offer.
Otherwise you're asking for the impossible and your marketing
in-charge won't be able to GET any new clients.
See. Every
desirable future client out there is currently using someone
else's services and, to have ANY chance of tempting these businesses
to CHANGE Accountants, you must package your services into something
they're NOT receiving from their current Accountant.
In order to
offer something that business owners WANT (but aren't getting
from their current service provider) you must PACKAGE your services
based on the exact wishes and needs of your target audience.
Now, all apart
from the fact that this is a MAJOR task, it's also something
only YOU — the owner or principal partner of the firm —
could (or should) do.
Packaging is
going to affect your firm to a very great degree. Such a service
must align with correct procedures and its profit must be good...
all of which are decisions you definitely DON'T want your employee
making on his own.
Let me give
you another example.
In marketing,
success comes from doing the things that work.
In the chain
leading a heretofore unknown business owner to sign onto your
services, there are on average 10 major steps... which
each contains on average 10 smaller steps.
Thus, an effective
marketing & sales system contains around 100 separate smaller
actions or steps, all of which need to be there and in correct
sequence... and each performed with sufficient success in order
to get a new client.
Do you really
believe that it's worth your money to have someone experiment
these 100 parts until they (possibly) get it right?
Also, these
steps define and present your firm, its services, its policies
and attitudes, forming an irreversible IMAGE of you in the mind
of each business owner.
Thus, it's
not only a question of whether your marketing expert gets any
results in form of new clients. He WILL get results, all right...
one way or another.
If he doesn't
get POSITIVE (wanted) results — in form of interested potential
clients thinking highly positively about your firm and signing
onto your services with a high success ratio — then he will
get NEGATIVE results.
See. He WILL
create an irrevocable, unalterable IMAGE regardless of whether
it's a POSITIVE one. And you can only be certain that the image
he puts out there is indeed positive IF HE GETS CLIENTS.
Do you really
want your marketing person making these decisions on the behalf
of your firm... assuming that he COULD create a fully functional
marketing & sales system from scratch?
It's a different
order of magnitude to CREATE a system than to USE one successfully,
see?
Trust me, it's
hard enough to get someone to USE a successful system PER INSTRUCTIONS
so that he goes through the initial phase where many mistakes
will be made.
To have a good
chance of succeeding, he MUST have a tested and proven system
READY to use.
You don't want
an untested and untried system, to say nothing of starting to
create one from scratch.
For that's
going to cost you SO much money and aggravation you won't BELIEVE
it!
And you won't
have any realistic chances of actually getting something in return
because of the human factor...
Two ways of
success and failure in hiring a marketing expert for your Accounting
firm
There are two
kinds of people in terms of employment: Those who want to produce
the results you've set forth for them... and those who don't
care one way or the other.
Speaking of
the first category (which the majority belong to), we have a
very specific time window during which he must succeed or else
he will leave.
Whenever a
person is hired to do a specified task, he starts on an invisible
schedule that I like to call "motivation reserve to fruition"
scale.
His (hopefully
high) startup capital of MOTIVATION is all that he has
to carry him through until he starts SUCCEEDING in his task.
For instance,
if his task is to obtain new clients then he must get SOME results
before his reserves of motivation, enthusiasm and confidence
are used up totally.
If he does,
then that's great — he will stay on and you've got a productive
member of staff for years to come.
If he doesn't...
he will lose his confidence and motivation... and you'll see
how he starts failing even in those basic tasks (such as prospecting)
that he used to do well in the beginning.
Success provides
ENERGY for a person holding a job.
Failure saps
a lot of energy.
The starting
capital of energy must carry him through to success or else he
will give up. Failure is what he can expect in the beginning...
and it's your job to ensure that he has the best possible chances
of succeeding FAST ENOUGH.
Otherwise,
he will become apathetic and stop believing it is at all POSSIBLE
to succeed in what you're asking him to do.
And if it gets
that far, his chances of succeeding are diminished drastically
and you're left with the two unpleasant options — you have
to either sack him or hold onto a demoralised employee with little
results forthcoming.
To maximise
your chances of getting the marketing in-charge succeeding fast
enough, you must ensure he has a tested and proven SYSTEM to
use... and that the system is according to your own policies
and preferences... and that you know exactly how to get him started
fast.
Make no mistake
— he has to succeed fast or he won't succeed at all.
|
NOTE: "Fast" here
means two things. For the first, if you have a clearly defined
system which he can see will lead him to success, his motivation
lasts longer... so you have MORE time at your disposal.
For the second,
different people have different tolerance for failure and the
length of time it takes to succeed. For most people, it's only
a few days. But with an existing system you can clearly lengthen
it so you have several weeks to make it go right. |
Once on track
and with the first success under their belt, this type of employees
will keep on going, producing more and more results and staying
on for a considerable length of time.
Now, let's
briefly discuss the second category of marketing experts. This
is the one you want to steer clear of.
The second
category of marketing people are experts on selling themselves...
but, unfortunately, not so well equipped to get the kind of results
YOU are after.
There are people
who don't realise that they're hired to produce something that
can be exchanged for money — which, for marketing, means
NEW CLIENTS — but rather feel they're getting paid
for good manners, bright new (untested, untried and usually inapplicable)
ideas... and for generally behaving in a supportive and respectful
manner toward their boss.
This type of
person often finds many faults in any system that's there for
producing results. He wants to "improve it" by changing
it endlessly. It's the old idea of "form over function"
— everything has to be absolutely perfect before anything
can be done.
Unfortunately,
nothing will get done that way because one can perfect actions
only through practising it.
With this type
of employee you can expect many interesting discussions and pleasant
moments but little or no results in terms of new clients. But
despite all of this, he is doomed to fail in what you originally
hired him for.
Why not improve
the odds by getting a tailor-made Accounting service marketing
system first?
If you want
to ensure the best possible results for your marketing in-charge,
why not get a system that HAS been built on what clients want
and then tested and piloted with more than 50 practices until
it was proven to produce the expected results?
That's what
you get with your Modern Accountancy Marketing & Sales
Course — the proven successful actions written up on
the only practical marketing & sales system for Accounting
firms ever created.
It comes complete
with a special added-value starter service for clients proven
to tempt business owners to change Accountants (click here
to read about Monthly Financial Consulting Service), it includes a full
set of tested ready-to-use tools (click here to read about these ready-to-use
tools)
and it contains all that you'll ever need to get your employee
to succeed — training materials, troubleshooting lists and
tools for monitoring his progress.
Obviously,
you can choose which tools to implement and add your own instructions
to any part so it all aligns with your own policies.
It's a small
price to pay for ensuring the best possible success ratio for
your marketing expert.
Click
here to read about Modern Accountancy Marketing & Sales Course.
Get the tools
for your marketing expert so he can succeed!
Alternately,
see
the presentation of our intro telephone consultation which could well be
used to clarify your objectives before you hire a sales gun.
Best wishes
Harry Kafka
HDK
Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
CONTACT
FORM
E-mail: info@accountancymarketing.co.uk |