Suzanne Lowe, president of Expertise Marketing LLC, and Sally Glick, chief marketing officer of Sobel & Co., found in a survey that many firms do not have a formal process for evaluating marketers. Evaluating marketers is different from evaluating CPAs.

The first step is to identify the firm’s goals. The marketer writes the firm’s marketing plan based on those goals and is responsible for executing that plan. This helps in creating the marketer’s job description and provides a clear understanding of the marketer’s role. Only then can there be a real evaluation of the marketer’s success.

Suppose one of the firm’s goals is to increase the market’s assessment of the firm. Further suppose a principal method to achieve this goal is to increase media coverage. The marketer develops and implements a plan to increase media coverage. What if six months later the firm is not getting quoted in the media? Does this mean the marketer created a poor plan, or didn’t execute it well? Not necessarily. The firm must investigate. Maybe six months isn’t a long enough period in which to expect results, or perhaps partners did not respond to calls from journalists. Or the firm may not be engaged in anything that has news value. Only after such an investigation can the firm know how to evaluate the marketer. Evaluation may be more properly based on quality of the media kit, number of press contacts made, quality of press releases, etc.

Prior to any launching a new marketing initiative, the following questions should be used to, among other things, guide the evaluation process:

• Is the initiative in step with the firm’s goals?
• Is it in step with the marketing plan?
• Who has accountability for the initiative’s success?
• How should success be measured?

From Accounting Today, September 4, 2006, SourceMedia Inc., One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10004. For the complete article, click on the following link: http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=21730&;pg=acctoday.