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To grow your practice - do you need more or less KPIs?

6th Jan 2014
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I was reading the comments in response to some tips shared by myself and Jon Baker, which were then shared on the Aweb post 'Get your practice in order for the year ahead'. 

As I've come to expect, there were some fairly strong views about the KPIs, particularly the marketing KPIs, that need to measured by small practice owners. I quote:

"In reality marketing is about getting and keeping customers. There are all sorts of ways to do this and to monitor how well we are doing it. If we aren't doing much marketing at all (that's the picture for lots of very small businesses - not just accountants) then no amount of KPIs will help."

"KPI's - 

Monthly P&L

Debtors

Cash in the bank

Marketing? 

Nothing really other than doing a good job for clients and giving them a nudge every now and then to remind them I'm looking for more clients.

Might pop along to 2/3 networking events this year - mainly to catch up with clients."

This attitude is fine if you are happy with the size of your client portfolio and have no ambitions to grow your practice. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people who thinks that you can't be successful in business (or running your own practice) if you don't have ambitions to build an empire. If all you want to do is be a solo practitioner, that is absolutely fine by me. Why have the stress of managing a team of people if you don't need to? Whatever you do with your business, it needs to make you feel happy and satisfied. That to me is success, more than what goes into your bank account every month.

Moving swiftly on!

Unfocused marketing hampers future growth

When myself and my business partner Jon Baker start to work with a practice owner who does want to grow their practice, many of the barriers to growth have arisen because of the unfocused attitude to marketing that is illustrated perfectly by the quotes I have pulled from the commenters.

Of course, the basis of any good marketing is doing a good job for your current clients. That is pretty much the first lesson that any successful solo practitioner or larger practice owner needs to learn. But, if you want to grow your practice in the right way so you don't burn out in the process, then you do need to be more focused with your marketing, and this means monitoring and measuring KPIs.

Any good accountant will regularly pick up leads, just by doing a good job with their existing clients. There is no argument here. However, if this is done in an unfocused way often results in a long tail of small clients. Small clients, which as the firm grows, either become very time consuming or unprofitable. This long tail can often lead to large peaks and troughs in the practice's workload which prevents the firm from consistently marketing itself. 

Highly effective marketing need not take a large amount of time, but takes commitment

Having spoken to many small practice owners who are focused on growing their firm, it is fascinating that they are all trying to find ways of saving time in order to do more. The bottom line is that when they become busy it is their marketing and business development - such as networking, following up leads, or good account management practices, which stops. Then it is the admin of the practice which starts to slip... 

One of the solution to this time problem is to actually do less marketing, but in a more focused way. This means you have to measure and monitor to see what works. i.e. where are you getting your leads? which clients have the potential to grow or refer? how well are you converting your leads? Otherwise, how can you tighten up the efficiency of your marketing? 

Eliminating the stop-start nature of business development

What we see happening in many small practices is what I call stop-start business development. I.e. you start doing it when the workload is light, and stop doing it when the work-load increases. Marketing when it is most effective is done on a 'drip-drip-drip' basis, rather than occasional big shouts or attendance at networking events. One of the ways of stopping the stop-start business development is actually knowing the causes and effects of your actions on your new client acquisition. When you know this, you can actually do less marketing or business development and just do enough to hit the financial goals of your practice. 

But once again, if you don't measure what you are doing with your marketing, how will you know this?

One of the simple techniques we use with all our accountancy clients is something we call a tactical marketing plan. It is often the reason our clients double or triple their monthly revenue within 12-18 months. Calling a 'spade a spade', this is very simply a document where our clients commit to the marketing activity they will do, and the impact of this is measured against their new client targets. It builds in accountability, helps to refine the marketing effectiveness. In short, it works.

Download now our free Guide to writing your marketing plan (email required) to help build your tactical marketing plan and eliminate stop-start marketing.

Author Credit

Heather Townsend helps professionals become the Go-To-Expert. She is the author of the  award winning and best-selling book on business networking, the ‘FT Guide To Business Networking’ and the co-author of ‘How to make partner and still have a life’. Over the last decade she has worked with over 300 partners; coached, trained and mentored over 1000 professionals at every level of the UK's most ambitious professional practices.

Heather blogs regularly at How to make partner and still have a life and Joined Up Networking.

Heather works with owners of small professional practices, as well as  future and current Mid-tier and Big 4 partners.

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Replies (2)

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Nigel Harris
By Nigel Harris
17th Jan 2014 13:50

Overcome with pedantry

I imagine you mean "more or fewer KPIs".

At least you didn't put an apostrophe after the I! Oops - spoke too soon, you managed to slip one in in the body o he article.

It's no good, all these tax returns are getting the better of me - great article though Heather!

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Heather Townsend - accountant's coach
By Heather Townsend
22nd Jan 2014 19:33

My editor despairs of me sometimes...
Thanks Nigel. Sometimes my training as an engineer shows through in my less than perfect grammar and punctation.

Good luck with the tax returns

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