Practical Ideas for Growth

In this LinkedIn Live episode, host Ty Hendrickson discusses Tom Sant's “Persuasive Paradigm” with Chad Person.

On this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth podcast special series Non-Traditional Contributions to Growth,  I am excited to have Sean Smith joining me for this conversation.  Sean is the Chief Marketing Office for Schneider Downs.

On this episode Practical Ideas for Growth podcast special series Non-Traditional Contributions to Growth, I am thrilled to have Joe Brocato joining me.  Joe is the author of the soon-to-be-released HIT IT OFF:21 Rules for Mastering The Art and Science of Relationships in Life and Business. Joe is also an attorney and partner at Gozdecki, Del Giudice, Americus, Farkas & Brocato LLP in Chicago.

On this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth podcast special series Non-Traditional Contributions to Growth,  I'm speaking with Jennifer Cantero.  Jennifer is the Director of the Sensiba Center for Sustainability. 

To most accountants, branding can just seem like colors and fonts. Sometimes we even see frustration trying to keep things like proposals “on-brand” because it can take more time, but branding is so much more. When firms decide on a brand, they are deciding how they want to be perceived and recognized. A good brand gives your customers clarity on who you are, it gives you a personality, and positions you in a specific way in the industry. We will talk with Heidi Holmberg about just what it takes to maintain a brand and all of the considerations that go into keeping your firm on-brand in every endeavor.

On this episode, I sit down with Jeremy Shen as he discusses selling the firm, why marketing was important, and how he sells in a lot of different ways, internally and externally. 

Join me on this call as I discuss with Gabe Tevrizian and his fears of selling of gaining emotional maturity to cope with the feeling of being vulnerable, rejection, and having no control of the outcome.

I'm happy to be joined by Ty Hendrickson, Inovautus Consulting's director of training and learning. Firms are overloaded, and for the first time in a long time, it makes sense to turn away business. When saying no to new work, there is a right and wrong way to handle the conversation to prevent future damage to your or your firm's reputation. Join our discussion on how to say, "Thanks, but no thanks."

David Allison, the founder of Valugrahpics, joins us as we discuss why we are big fans of developing buyer personas to attract and retain the right clients to support your accounting firm's growth efforts. When we say buyer personas, we mean going well beyond demographics, company size, industry, and service requirements to really identify who the buyer is, what motivates them, and how they make decisions.

My friend, Sylwia Nazar, feared coming across like a pushy salesperson, and this fear held her back from business development for the longest time. What's funny is that Sylwia couldn't be pushy if she tried, and she certainly wouldn't sell someone on something they don't need. 

Join Brian and me on The Fear of Selling to learn more about how he handled his entry into professional services and get some recommendations for calming your fears and seeing success with business development in your accounting firm.  

Listen to Adam Fisher share his business development journey and share advice with young professionals who want to get started (even if they are still scared),

My guest, Ralph McNamara, principal at Kaufman Rossin, leads the firm's business development department and is responsible for the firm's overall growth strategy. It's easy to think, “Well, he has done this his whole life…of course it's easy for him!” While he does make it look easy, he admits he had fears starting in this space.   

When I asked Bill Cooper, partner at Walter Shuffain, if he had any fears related to selling, he said, “Absolutely!” One of the biggest rainmakers in the firm told me his biggest fear was and still is, “Can I do it?”  

On this week's Practical Ideas for Growth, we will discuss leveraging year-end planning conversations to go deeper with your clients. Go beyond surface-level planning conversations to learn more about your client's goals and challenges. When we take the time to expand our conversations, we will likely find ways to become more proactive with our relationships and bring next-level service to clients!

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!

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.

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. 

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.  

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.

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! 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Let's talk about change – something everyone, everywhere, has had to navigate and, whether they like it or not, embrace during the past two years. That change has really impacted the accounting profession from staffing shortages to remote work, new tax regulations, a rapid acceptance of new technology, and the acceleration of evolving from compliance to advisory – just to name a few! Change is such a big, scary concept for a risk-averse profession. Find out what we're seeing firms do to embrace and navigate change with Sarah Dobek, founder and president of Inovautus Consulting and Sarah Elliot, CPA, PCC, in this episode of Practical Ideas for Growth.

Building an inquisitive mindset is crucial to selling a firm's services, no matter what level a professional is at. The key to selling is to uncover a client or buyer's need or pain point and provide a service to address that problem. It may sound easy, and many professionals think they're already doing that, right? It can be, but only when they adopt an inquisitive mindset. Inovautus Consultant Ty Hendrickson shares her insights with Sarah Dobek on how to approach every conversation with a client or prospective client ready to listen and learn to uncover new opportunities.

As firms continue adapting to the changes brought about by the COVID pandemic, especially the rise in remote services, we're seeing firms becoming more strategic than ever targeting the right markets to be in to support growth. There are many, many factors to consider when looking at where to go to market in today's new landscape. Inovautus Digital Marketing Advisor Christian Moises shares his insight with Sarah Dobek on what firms need to do to ensure a new region is the right fit for their services and industry support.

With employer brand impacting staff - and client - recruitment and retention, many firms are turning to social responsibility as a means to attract and keep new talent and revenue. We often talk about ways firms can differentiate themselves in the marketplace, and efforts such as B Corp certification and Environmental, Social, and Governance compliance are becoming key elements in their strategy. Jennifer Cantero with Sensiba San Filippo discussed these differentiators and how are firms leveraging them for success.

We're always talking about succession planning for partners, but what about your marketing team and, more importantly, your overall growth strategy? When a marketing director leaves, the new director may take things in a completely new direction. While new ideas and approaches are great, having a well-documented plan that can be handed off is important to your strategic, consistent, and long-term growth. Inovautus Consultant Brian Falony shares his insight with Sarah Dobek.

We've been hearing for a while now that recruiting and keeping talent in the accounting profession is a constant struggle. The past two years only made that challenge even more difficult, especially with a shift to remote work and the Great Resignation. Firms now must go deeper to connect with the right talent. So how can they uncover where these candidates are hiding? Accountingfly CEO shares his insight with Sarah Dobek.

There's no denying the past two years have been filled with unexpected turns – and lots of opportunities to grow and evolve. While some of the disruptions related to the pandemic accelerated changes that were already anticipated for the profession, others created new opportunities for firms to jump into the future. It's difficult to talk about what is leading the charge this year without addressing three underlying issues that support these predictions. Sarah Dobek shares what she believes will shape the accounting profession this year. 

Pricing structure and approach at CPA firms is one of many strategies that continue to evolve in our profession, but it is one of the most important because it is how we get paid for our services! We see staffing shortages and the adoption of technology advancing a lot of conversations around changes here, which is exciting. There's value, hourly, flat-fee, value, subscription, and some sort of hybrids. Getting partners out of that 30-year-plus pricing comfort zone is scary, though, so why is it so important to make a change? Michelle River, president of Fore LLC, shares her insight with Sarah Dobek. 

There have been so many mergers in the accounting profession in the past few years, and it seems like we're seeing a new one announced every day. But marketers know there's so much more that goes on in a merger beyond the financial side – and they're a critical part of that process from start to well-beyond the finish. Lori Colvin and Cheryl Foster share their experience - and role - in Armanino and Brown Smith Wallace combining firms and joining forces. Armanino Partner and Chief Marketing Officer Lori Colvin and Cheryl Foster, director of demand generation - industry, share their insight with Sarak Dobek. 

Many firms and marketers rely on their digital analytics from email marketing, website, and social networks to measure the effectiveness of efforts and adjust their strategy. But those analytics – and how they're reported - are constantly evolving. Making sure you're up to date on those changes to adjust your efforts and track the metrics that show meaningful buyer and client engagement is key to setting strategy. While Apple's iOS updates typically have little to no impact on marketing professionals, its iOS 15 update, released in September, is significant and will have significant implications. We know how important mobile efforts are in strategy these days, but the metrics firms monitor go beyond just email marketing. Inovautus Consulting Client Advisor Katie Renelt shares her insight with Sarak Dobek. 

There's no doubt the way firms and their professionals conduct business development has – and continues – to evolve. Has your team kept up? Whether it's an expanded – or complete removal – of the geographic footprint they formerly served and mined for prospects or adapting to a virtual selling environment, the game has changed. Knowing and understanding who your buyers and clients are - and what their needs, pain points, and preferences are - is crucial in the new environment. How can firms go even deeper in their relationships to remain competitive? Christian Moises, Inovautus Consulting's digital marketing advisor, shares his insight with Sarak Dobek. 

We love when we have a “recovering CPA” join our conversation because they can speak to both sides of the growth effort. As we know, the need to find your and your firm's unique - your differentiator, your & - has always been important to a professional's success. With the evolution from compliance to advisory coupled with the challenges – or shall we say opportunities – presented during the COVID-19 pandemic, that need has really become front and center. Why is it so crucial and what can professionals and their firms do to stand out? John Garrett of "The Green Apple Podcast" shares his insight with Sarah Dobek. 

Social media is such an invaluable tool in any firm's growth strategy, whether they have a marketing professional on staff or not. Managing – automating - your social media posting is key to maximizing this (mostly) free and easy way to connect with clients and prospects. But you have to find the right tool, because we know posting something every day to multiple networks is time-consuming. Inovautus Consulting Client Advisor Katie Renelt shares her insight with Sarak Dobek.

With a nearly 20-year history in the accounting marketing profession, from past president of the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) and now the newest member of its Hall of Fame to a recent promotion to managing director of marketing at EisnerAmper, a Top 20 firm in the country, Kristen Lewis has a lot of insight to the world of accounting marketing: • The biggest evolution in accounting firms in relation to marketing and business development (sales)? • Advice for partners in working with their marketing and sales professionals? • Guidance for marketing professionals building their careers? • The biggest marketing opportunity accounting professionals continue to miss out on – and how can they finally leverage it

Cross-selling is a technique many firms talk about but seem to always have difficulty executing. Unfortunately, the hesitancy to do this actually causes clients to go elsewhere where another accountant was proactive and looking at the big picture. So how can firms get past this resistance to generate new revenue from existing clients by offering them more within their own organization? Ty Hendrickson shares some challenges firms are facing - and how to overcome them!

Many firms are becoming more aware of the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in their marketing and business development efforts, but many professionals aren't sure exactly why, where, or how to start. Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, found and owner of bbr companies, shares some guidance on how firms can bring DEI into their day-to-day operations.

As the world begins to reopen, what can accounting and advisory firms do to stay ahead of the game and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than ever? Allan Koltin, founder of Koltin Consulting Group, shares what he's already seeing - and what he expects to unfold!

Having a clearly defined growth goal with an actionable plan to get there is only part of the strategy to build your revenue. The other biggest – and oftentimes most difficult – component is making sure your partner group is in alignment working together to achieve that common goal and each one understanding their roles to get there.  Check out how Courtney DeRonde, managing partners with TDT CPAs and Advisors, P.C., overcame this common challenge!

Your blog and e-alerts have provided steady content to clients since last March courtesy of all the COVID-19 relief options and legislation (and ensuing changes and clarifications). You've set the expectation now, so how will you keep that content engine going as things return to normal?  Check out the tips Christian Moises, digital marketing advisor with Inovautus, recently shared on staying in front of your clients with Sarah Dobek! 

What does growth mean to you? How do you approach growth? What's been your a ha moment in taking on growth and marketing responsibilities?  Check out the thoughts Chris Zingalli, a principal at Janover, recently shared on developing a growth mindset during Practical Ideas for Growth with Sarah Dobek! 

Are your sales and business development efforts and strategies everything they need to be to support - and drive - growth? When should accounting and advisory firms start introducing sales and business development training? Ty Hendrickson joined Sarah Dobek on the latest segment of Practical Ideas for Growth to talk about upskilling your sales and business development efforts.