Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Create a Buzz About Your CPA Firm at Networking Events
As noted yesterday, this year’s 2 top management issues for CPA firms are 1) Bringing in New Clients and 2) Retention of Current Clients.
A specific step you can take to address these two issues is Be Visible.
These days that means in person and on the web.
Today, let’s talk about the “in person” aspect.
Identify every business networking event being held in what’s remaining of this year and for the first six months of 2012 in your city/town. Do the same for every charitable fundraising event.
Create a schedule to identify your partners and team members who will attend each event. If you are a firm leader (partner, manager, firm administrator, HR Director, Marketing Director/Coordinator) specifically identify a less experienced team member to shadow you at the event. Often, less experienced team members are more anxious to talk about the positives of your firm than the seasoned team members.
Make sure you have several people in attendance, 4, 6, 8 people depending on your firm size, even if you need to request that a member of your administrative team be a representative.
Just showing up in significant numbers sends a message to the business/charitable community that the firm is active and growing. (Yes, being visible.)
Several times during my years at a growing local/regional firm, people would come up to me at a business networking event and say, “Your firm must really be growing, I just met three other people from your firm.”
Did that mean, specifically, that we were growing? No, don’t think so. It just meant that we were able to create a buzz about the firm.
Look ahead for each three to six-month period and create a schedule for being visible, in significant numbers, at business and community events. Most of these events are actually fun and it gives your less experienced team members a chance to develop their practice growth skills.
Suggest to these young people that they use one line to get a conversation started – “Tell me about your business.” Small business owners love their business, it’s their baby and they love to talk about it. Same thing for non-profits, “Tell me about your organization.”
Create a buzz about your firm – Be visible and show interest.
- "Be interesting, be enthusiastic and don't talk too much."
[...] physically being visible in your community is extremely important, being wildly visible in social media is must. What happens when someone [...]