The Softer Side of Marketing

Source: Accounting Today

In this article, consultant Lance Woodbury maintains that CPA firms can uncover new business opportunities if they "frame the value of their 'softer' assets," which he defines as "intangible but highly valuable characteristics embodied by most CPAs and their firms." For example, CPAs should take advantage of their role as "most trusted advisor" to be proactive, rather than merely reactive, and initiate discussions about issues critical to a client's future. And for clients that have been with the firm for generations, CPA firms can use their observations about the client over the long term to identify "best practices" and other strategies that can help make them more successful in the future.

One of a CPA's most valuable soft assets is his or her role as "storyteller." By gathering and organizing data about many businesses, CPAs have an opportunity to develop "aggregate data" that can "tell interesting stories about industry players and indicate certain trends about peer groups of clients."

When Woodbury was agribusiness practice leader at Kennedy and Coe, for example, the firm used audit findings to put together financial ratios and other aggregate data and then used the results to educate clients about trends, key performance indicators, and improvement strategies. Lenders were impressed, Woodbury says, and "not only referred more business (sometimes even requiring that a prospective client use our firm), but also asked for training for their loan officers on key financial and management indicators, which was a new service opportunity."

For the complete article, click here and select "Soft assets: An untapped opportunity" under Opinion in the May 24, 2010, issue.

From Accounting Today, May 24, 2010, SourceMedia Inc., One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10004, 800-221-1809.