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Excellent piece Trent. After all the marketing tips I have received over the years, it is refreshing to now be told "be yourself" - the key is clearly to then engage with people.
Chris
"be yourself" is probably why a lot of Accountants don't use the "tools" that are available to them.
Trent have you heard the phrase "too many cooks spoil the broth". Well too much marketing turns people off, especially Accountants.
Totally understood JJ, Accountants don't like the idea of marketing. And the firms that experience that manage to overcome this are the ones that a thriving. This isn't isolated to the UK. Firms all over the world, generally don't like the idea of marketing because it's foreign for them and it's something they've never had to do before. With the new challenges ahead for the industry, firms need to overcome the fear. There's always a case of some will, some won't. Some will do it well, some will not. If anything this piece is designed to give accountants the starting block. They don't have to be experts, but it's better to be available to the world and the opportunity it presents themselves, then not. Again, every accountant will be in a different state, some want to grow, some don't. This article is directed specifically at those that want to grow. Thanks for your comments though. I hear you!
You may well "hear" me, Trent but it's not a question of Accountants not liking marketing, it's a question of, there is no place in the Accountancy world for marketing.
Accountancy is based on professional work and advice based on training and experience.
Once marketing creeps in then say good by to professionalism. You only have to look at the banking scenario and how much it cost them. No doubt they were sold PPI as an "added value.
Look at MTD. That was probably sold to HMRC as all singing, all dancing.
Accountants don't sell, they offer their experience and professional know how. If they need marketing to do that, then in my book they're in the wrong profession.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Technology is changing how firms can find new clients. Geographical barriers are lowered. Firms can realistically service well beyond their physical base of operations and firms are doing that already now. They can't do that by hoping their referrals and news of their professionalism travels distances greater then where their existing client base lies. Marketing plays a part in all industries and accounting is no different. Agree to disagree.
I fully understand where you're coming from, Trent, however marketing means sales. Marketing has to be paid for and that can only come from sales. Once you start going down the route of sales minded then you lose focus of what you are there to do. The banking scenario is a classic example of this. Yes marketing when you are selling something is very necessary, but Accountants aren't selling anything. Firms have always serviced clients some distance away so marketing is not needed. Up until not too long ago Accountants weren't even allowed to advertise.
Dentists doing botox etc. etc.
Yes I agree here. Marketing is enabling you to make more sales. But it's not impossible to switch to a customer centric marketing approach. By which the goal is to tell your message about how you help service people in front of as many people as possible. Your paying money to help tell your firms story. Even new service offerings these days are based on customer centricity. The art of innovation, great read, is a fantastic example of how firms can build new successful new services, that customers will love. For me this all ties together. Firms want to speak with more potential leads, not all firms but most. In order to do that they need to be able to get in front of more people to tell their tale about what they do, how they do it and why they believe they are the best for it.
I don't believe there's a right or wrong answer here. Just different strategies and views for firms in the future.
"build new services that customers will love". Says it all, Trent. You really haven't got a clue what Accountancy is all about. Having said that there certainly is a need for the gap to adapt to new cloud software to be bridged. Or should we just not bother and stick to what really works?