Vol. 6 No. 6, June 2014
The Leadership Forum is a panel of the most prominent thought leaders in the profession. Each month we ask them to respond to a question dealing with CPA firm management and leadership.
This month's question is:
For years, CPA firms have found that 60-90% of their new business came from existing clients in the form of unsolicited referrals to prospects or expanded services. Is this still the case? If not, why has this changed?
Consultants and Other Prominent Observers
| August Aquila | AQUILA Global Advisors, LLC | www.aquilaadvisors.com [email protected] |
| The majority of new business should always come from existing clients, unless the firm is 100% project oriented. Understanding what is important for the client and providing solutions to client problems is what good client service is all about. And the more you provide good client service the more new business... More | ||
| William Carlino | Transition Advisors | www.transitionadvisors.com [email protected] |
| I believe that's still largely true, but now with CPA firms now undertaking such strategies as hosting in-house Webinars and partnering with state societies to teach online or live CPE, a portion of their new business revenues are coming via that route. | ||
| Terrence Putney | Transitions Advisors, LLC | www.transitionadvisors.com [email protected] |
| New business obtained through mergers and acquisitions is a big reason why referrals from existing clients no longer account for 60% to 90% of new business. Most of the fastest growing firms are very active with M&A... More | ||
| Paul Rich | Rothstein Kass | www.rkco.com [email protected] |
| In my personal judgment, the best source of referrals is one's current clientele. First, it reflects the cheapest cost of acquisition of new clients, but more importantly it reflects that you're serving your current clientele in an exemplary manner... More | ||
| Marc Rosenberg | The Rosenberg Associates | www.rosenbergassoc.com [email protected] |
| My sense is that somewhere between 40-60% of a firm's new business comes from existing clients. It's always seemed to me that CPAs make two (I'm sure there are others) fundamental mistakes in growing their practices: First, they put too much effort into developing new clients rather than exploiting the full potential of their existing client base and referral sources... More | ||
| Joe Tarasco | Accountants Advisory Group | www.accountantsadvisory.com/ [email protected] |
| ...The economy has not fully recovered in certain parts of the country and also in many industries. There are fewer start-up companies as compared to pre-recession years and thus less referral opportunities... More | ||
| Rick Telberg | CPA Trendlines | www.cpatrendlines.com/ [email protected] |
| CPA Trendlines Research shows that new, unsolicited business dropped to 47% of organic revenue growth in 2013 from 73% in 2006, the last time we ran the study. The reasons given by survey participants representing CPAs at firms of all sizes* are:... More | ||
| Jennifer Wilson | ConvergenceCoaching LLC | www.convergencecoaching.com [email protected] |
| I don't think it's as high as 90%, but I believe all firms earn more than half of their new business from client referrals and another 20-25% from other referral sources like attorneys, bankers, etc. I don't think the percentage has changed -- referrals are still absolutely the lion share of CPA firm new business... More | ||
Firm Leaders
| Bob Knight | Lane Gorman Trubitt, PLLC | |
| Yes, this is still the case. | ||