1. Minnesota AAM Chapter October 2016
Boosting Growth: Developing a Culture of Sales and Marketing at Your Firm
Minnesota AAM Chapter
October 2016
#MSCPACPE

2. Art Kuesel, President Keynotes, Presentations, Workshops on Growth
EXPERTISE (Cont.)
Keynotes, Presentations, Workshops on Growth
Growth Plan Development/Implementation
Managing Partner Coaching
Sales & Marketing Recruiting
STREET CRED
Top 100 Most Influential Person in Public Accounting
In-house and external experience
Clients include scores of T250 Firms including a third of the T100
Frequent writer and blogger for Accounting Today
Accomplished speaker and presenter on growth trends
EXPERIENCE
Sales Executive
3 years inside $60M CPA firm
5 years inside $25M CPA firm
6 years at PDI/Koltin Consulting
3 years at Kuesel Consulting
EXPERTISE
Leadership and Sales Coaching
Sales/Marketing Training

4. Today’s Workshop What drives organic growth?
Common strategies to boost your marketing/sales culture…
Grass Roots
Institutional
Non-organic growth strategies
M&A/Laterals 4

5. WHAT DRIVES… Integration/CSFs Clarity on Roles Effective Communication
Trust Building
Effective Teaming on Pursuits
How to Handle Assists
Winning Reporting Structure
Commitment/Time/Patience
Measurement and Management of Pipeline
Many things come together to drive growth at your firm. One of the biggest influencers I have found is simply the number of people involved in marketing and business development at the firm. Let’s explore this concept
#MSCPACPE

6. Which firm Drives more Organic Growth?
FIRM A / 100 People 9 people who play a role in sales/marketing and know what is expected of them 91 remaining people not really engaged in the sales/marketing process

7. Which firm Drives more Organic Growth?
FIRM B / 100 People 100 people who play a role in sales/marketing and know what is expected of them 0 people unaware of how they can help grow the firm

8. A Marketing/Sales Culture – Can Be The Difference Between…
Average Growth = 8%
Above Average Growth = 10% - 14%
Industry Leading Growth = 15%+ 8

9. Common Strategies and Tactics to Drive a Marketing/Sales Culture

10. Two Buckets Can Boost the Culture
Grass Roots
Driven by Individual
and 1:1 Efforts
Institutional
Driven by S/M, Operations, and the Firm

11. Plus Non-Organic Growth!
Grass Roots
Driven by Individual
and 1:1 Efforts
Institutional M&A/Laterals
Driven by BD,
Marketing,
Operations

12. Let’s Start with the Grass Roots Bucket

13. Grass Roots – Roles and Expectations
Outline marketing roles and expectations by level
Partners
Managers/Senior Managers
Staff/Seniors
Non Client Serving Too!
What it does: Helps people understand generally what types of contributions we expect from them – and how they can contribute 13

14. Grass Roots – Set Goals 2. Give everybody a goal # of new clients
Revenue from new business
Cross-selling revenue OR
Deeper client relationships
More client relationships
New referral sources
Participating in the sales process
What it Does: Gives everybody a reason to get engaged and involved 14

15. Grass Roots – Training
3. Train your people to…
Describe firm approach, differentiators, types of clients served
Develop client relationships and cross-sell
Build referral source networks
Network effectively
Succeed in the sales process
What it does: Gives your people basic tools and skills to succeed in various marketing and business development situations as well as be proactive in new areas 15

16. Grass Roots – Pipeline Meeting
4. Start a “pipeline” meeting for anyone with a significant revenue goal and discuss:
Wins and Losses
Key Pursuits/Proposals
Referrals In/Out
Challenges and Opportunities
What it does: Enhances communication, knowledge sharing about wins, help each other with challenges, reminder of goal, develop marketing mindset 16

17. Grass Roots – Marketing Club
5. Host marketing clubs for those just getting started with their marketing efforts
Wins, Key Pursuits
Challenges and Opportunities
Skill Building
Group therapy for something new
Consider games and contests that encourage the right kind of behavior
What it does: Enhance communication, knowledge sharing about wins, help each other with challenges, reminder of goal, develop marketing mindset 17

18. Grass Roots – Client Development and Cross-Selling
6. Formal client development efforts
Target top relationships
Client interviews
Build breadth and depth
Educate clients on services
Uncover opportunities for additional revenue (cross-sell)
What it does: Assists in creating stronger bonds with your clients, enhances selling skills of your people, grows revenue, boosts client retention 18

19. Grass Roots - Coaching
7. Coach your “high potentials” to greater success
Build a plan and have monthly meetings
Review activity in detail (client, prospect, referral, associations)
Remove obstacles
Granular approaches to specific situations
Set 30-day action plan and items
What it does: Enhances individual selling skills of your people, grows revenue, increases accountability 19

20. And now for the Institutional Bucket

21. Institutional – Rewards
Commission/Bonus on New Business
Rewards for Individual EFFORT (Connections, Proposals, Prospect meetings, etc.)
Rewards for Group Results
What it does: Incentivizes individual and group behavior. People rally to achieve a goal.

22. Institutional – Internal PR
“Another Win” s
Pursuit Communication
Impromptu Conference Room
Celebrations
What it does: Publicizes success, fuels excitement, reminds of importance of marketing

23. Institutional – Niche Development
The riches are in the niches
Specialization wins
Niches are fueling growth
Build a team of staff that can:
Target participation in an association
Develop thought leadership
Pursue a targeted list of referral sources and prospects in that industry
What it does: Creates teaming opportunities among staff, enables greater marketing success, creates greater retention among clients in that niche
Niche Handout

24. Niche Practice Growth 80% + 60% + Source: Accounting Today

25. Institutional – Referral Sources
4. Help your people find more high quality referral sources
Target banks, law firms, P&C insurance
Hold pre-mixer planning meetings
Hold mixers in the office
Hold post-mixer debrief meetings
What it does: Gives your people easy access to potential referrals. Gets more people involved in networking and referral source marketing

26. Institutional - Events
5. Seminars/Webinars/Events/CEO Network
Communicates with your target audiences
on topics of importance to them
Strengthens bonds with clients/referral sources
Creates opportunities for staff to interact with clients and prospects
What it does: Educates your people on prospect engagement – what it takes to develop relationships, gives staff an opportunity to interact with clients.

27. Institutional – Content/Thought Leadership
6. Refine your Content Strategy
Content marketing engages clients, prospects, and referral sources!
Demonstrates knowledge and mastery of a topic
Engage your people to write and edit content
Once created, content can be leveraged
What it does: Engages more people in the marketing process, engages clients, prospects and referral sources

28. Institutional Tactics – Web/Social Media
7. Web and social media marketing
Never underestimate the evolution of how people find and choose service providers
Audience is both internal and external
Leverage content
Engage the next generation of staff
What it does: Sources additional opportunities and promotes thought leadership

29. Institutional Tactics – Pursuit Mastery
8. Upgrade your Pursuit Strategy and Proposals
Set criteria for a “big opportunities”
Approach these opportunities strategically
Build a team to win the work
Execute flawlessly on key steps
What it does: Enhances win ratio. Engages more people in the process. Ensures you don’t lose because of poor salesmanship.

30. Institutional Tactics - Key Hires
9. Hiring a marketing professional
Can help drive grass roots/institutional
efforts
Can help drive foundational efforts
10. Hiring a BD/sales professional
Can help drive grass-roots efforts
Bring new opportunities in the door that enable more engagement in the sales process
What it does: Tells the people in the firm that the firm is serious about marketing/sales.

31. Non-Organic Growth
M&A/Laterals

32. Non-Organic Growth M&A Lateral Hires
New niche/geography/talent/clients
Lateral Hires
New or Existing Niches
Cross-selling “ready”
Future Partner Material
(or sometimes direct admit)
What it does: Tells the people in the firm that the firm is serious about growth in new areas.

33. Leading Growth/Driving Culture = Combination of Three
Grass Roots
Institutional M&A/Laterals

34. THANK YOU! Art Kuesel, President Kuesel Consulting, Inc. 312.208.8774