Practical Ideas for Growth

Perspectives from the 2022 Marketer of the Year

The importance of marketing at accounting firms continues to grow as the profession evolves like never before. Allison Schlegelmilch, CDMP, PCM, director of marketing for RKL in Pennsylvania and the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) 2022 Marketer of the Year, joins Sarah Johnson Dobek to share her secret to securing buy-in and alignment while maintaining momentum - and much more to help accounting marketing and business development professionals support their own firm - on our next Practical Ideas for Growth!

Developing a Growth Culture

More and more managing partners are firm leaders who are focusing their efforts on developing a growth culture. Calvin Hedman has more than 30 years of experience in the accounting profession and historically has been the only rainmaker at the firms. Learn what his a-ha moment was that drove him to establish a growth culture among his team.

Are You Afraid of the Sales Process?

It’s pretty common to hear accounting professionals say they’re afraid of the sales process. What may surprise you is that everyone fears selling, not just the professionals who haven’t done it or those who haven’t had formal sales training and coaching. Yes, that includes managing partners down to first-year staff members. So let’s face our fears and have a conversation about the sales process. 

Does Your Firm’s Client Experience Set You Apart?

We know accounting has always been a relationship-based profession, but firms have really started to put a major emphasis on their client experience strategy in the past few years, so let’s talk about why – and how firms can elevate and leverage their client experience to support growth.  

Where Do Buyer Personas Fit In the Sales Cycle?

Accounting firms are selling differently these days. Coupled with the profession-wide staffing shortage, firms are becoming laser-focused on their core services, expertise, and capacity to ensure they’re devoting the right time to the right clients. However, many firms’ qualification processes don’t align with their ideal clients – if they even know who that is. Without that insight, creating a strategy that will result in more of the correct type of clients is impossible. We hope you already have established buyer personas, so in this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth, Sarah Dobek and Christian Moises discuss how buyer personas support your sales efforts.

Online Reputation Management in a Spam-filled World

We’ve been seeing an increase of bots/spam accounts or accounts that may have been hacked, commenting on website blog posts, and social media profiles that contain deceptive or spammy messaging. It has never been more important for accounting firms to protect and manage their online reputation as they try to target the right clients and the right professionals for growth. Find out what Sarah Dobek and Katie Renelt have to say about protecting your online reputation and brand in this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth! 

What’s Trending Among Accounting Firm Marketers and Business Developers?

It's no secret that the two hottest topics in the accounting profession today are retention and recruiting and DEI. Are you curious how other accounting firm marketers are tackling these topics?

Find out what Sarah Dobek, president and founder of Inovautus Consulting, and Rhonda Clark, executive director of the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM), are seeing how accounting firm marketers tackle these issues.

Do You Know How to Find the Right Clients for Strategic Growth?

Are you attracting and retaining the right clients at your accounting firm? Are you working with the right ones? Do you agree to new clients hoping they grow but actually don't? Find out what Sarah Dobek and Ty Hendrickson have to say about bringing on the right clients that complement your team and your growth goals - and aligning yourself strategically with your referral sources - in our latest Practical Ideas for Growth.

Are Your Marketing and Business Development Efforts Aligned?

Marketing and business development successfully align and drive growth when professionals know how to contribute to the accounting firm’s growth. Unfortunately, these two critical functions that should be aligned aren’t always. Some may be wordsmiths who turn technical information into actionable content but aren’t at ease asking for the business. Others may enjoy being out of the office regularly meeting and talking with new people. So how can business development professionals work with marketing professionals to ensure both sides get what they need to be successful and align around a firm’s growth plans? Find out in this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth with Sarah Dobek and Adam Klein.

The Power of Peer Networks

Small groups collaborating were always popular, but COVID accelerated the trend over the past two years. Whether professionals use them to learn how their peers are doing things in a rapidly changing environment, bounce ideas off other professionals outside their place of employment, or just to feel connected in the new remote environment, peer networks (also called roundtables, communities, AAM Circles, etc.) are now a mainstay in the accounting profession. It doesn’t hurt that they’re easier than ever to facilitate via online meetings. Find out how firms and professionals are using the power of community to grow themselves and their firms, what benefits they are getting from these, and how they are bringing the profession together in this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth with Sarah Dobek and Heidi Holmberg.