Your Practice: Marketing plans
This is undoubtedly a key feature in any practice development. The main issues to be addressed are:
A ‘clear focus’ on the type of client you are looking for and the ‘products’ (if I may use that term) that you believe they would wish to buy.
The ‘clear focus’ mentioned above must be communicated to all staff – why? – because you want everybody to give that message to friends, colleagues, clients, potential clients, bankers etc etc.
To have a series of actions all geared to compliment the ‘clear focus’ agreed at the start of the plan, detailing who is involved, and when.
A budget to pay for the promotional activities.
To get approval from everybody in the plan.
A clear statement that ensures everybody in the office udnerstands the part they have to play.
Experience has shown that clarifying the ‘focus’ is not as simple as it might at first appear. This is critical to the success of the firm – get the strategy wrong and it could be very expensive.
This is why one or two days should be spent reviewing the firm’s strengths and weakness, the oportunities and threats, and deciding your geographical patch and type of client (and subsequently products) you wish to focus on.
The only outstanding major issue to clarify is the pricing policy. Do your clients really appreciate accountants billing for their time or do you suppose they would prefer any alternative? A subject for another day.