Transcript Building a Sales Culture at your Firm

Developing a Sales Culture
at your Firm
Workshop Sample by: Art Kuesel
June 2015
Art Kuesel, President
EXPERTISE (Cont.)
 Keynotes, Presentations,
Workshops on Growth
 Growth Plan
Development/Implementation
 Managing Partner Coaching
 Sales & Marketing Recruiting
EXPERIENCE
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


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Sales Executive
3 years inside $60M CPA firm
5 years inside $25M CPA firm
6 years at PDI/Koltin Consulting
2 years at Kuesel Consulting
STREET CRED
EXPERTISE
 Sales Coaching
 Sales/Marketing Training
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→ Top 100 Most Influential Person in
Public Accounting: 2014
→ In-house and external experience
→ Clients include scores of T250 Firms
including a third of the T100
→ Frequent writer and blogger for
Accounting Today
→ Accomplished speaker and
presenter on growth trends
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Outline for Today
Developing a Sales Culture
I. Benefits of a Sales Culture
II. Grass Roots Efforts
III. Institutional Efforts
IV. Case Studies
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Which firm Drives more Growth?
FIRM A / 30 People
4 people who play a role
in sales/marketing and
know what is expected of
them
26 remaining people not
really engaged in the
sales/marketing process
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Which firm Drives more Growth?
FIRM B / 30 People
30 people who play a role
in sales/marketing and
know what is expected of
them
0 people unaware of how
they can help grow the
firm
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A Sales Culture – The Difference between
OR
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Common Strategies and Tactics to
Fuel Organic Growth
Two Buckets Can Fuel Growth
Grass Roots
Institutional
Driven by Individual
and 1:1 Efforts
Driven by S/M, Operations,
and the Firm
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Let’s Start with the Grass Roots Bucket
Grass Roots
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Grass Roots – Roles and Expectations
1. Outline marketing roles and
expectations by level
a) Partners
b) Managers/Senior Managers
c) Staff/Seniors
d) Administration
What it does: Helps people understand
generally what types of contributions we
expect from them – and how they can
contribute
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Grass Roots – Set Goals
2. Give everybody a goal

# of new clients

Revenue from new business

Cross-selling revenue
OR
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Deeper client relationships

More client relationships
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New referral sources

Participating in the sales process
What it Does: Gives everybody a reason to get engaged and
involved
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Grass Roots – Training
3. Train your people to…
Describe firm approach,
differentiators, types of clients
served
Develop client relationships and
cross-sell
Build referral source networks
Network effectively
Succeed in the sales process
What it does: Gives your people basic tools and skills to
succeed in various marketing and business development
situations as well as be proactive in new areas
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Grass Roots – Referral Sources
4. Help your people find more high quality referral
sources
 Target banks, law firms, P&C insurance
 Hold mixers in the office
 Encourage follow-ups
What it does: Gives your people easy access to potential
referrals. Gets more people involved in networking and
referral source marketing
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Grass Roots – Pipeline Meeting
5. Start a “pipeline” meeting for
anyone with a significant revenue goal
and discuss:
Wins and Losses
Key Pursuits/Proposals
Referrals In/Out
Challenges and Opportunities
What it does: Enhances
communication, knowledge sharing
about wins, help each other with
challenges, reminder of goal, develop
marketing mindset
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Grass Roots – Marketing Club
6. Host marketing clubs for those just
getting started with their marketing
efforts
Wins, Key Pursuits
Challenges and Opportunities
Skill Building
Group therapy for something new
Consider games and contests that
encourage the right kind of behavior
What it does: Enhance communication,
knowledge sharing about wins, help
each other with challenges, reminder of
goal, develop marketing mindset
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Grass Roots – Client Development and CrossSelling
7. Formal client development efforts
Target top relationships
Build breadth and depth
Educate clients on services
Uncover opportunities for additional
revenue (cross-sell)
What it does: Assists in creating stronger
bonds with your clients, enhances selling
skills of your people, grows revenue, boosts
client retention
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Grass Roots - Coaching
8. Coach your “high potentials” to greater
success
Build a plan and have monthly meetings
Review activity in detail (client, prospect,
referral, associations)
Remove obstacles
Granular approaches to specific situations
Set 30-day action plan and items
What it does: Enhances individual selling skills of
your people, grows revenue, increases
accountability
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And now for the Institutional Bucket
Institutional
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Institutional – Rewards
1. Rewards
Commission/Bonus on New Business
Rewards for Individual EFFORT
Rewards for Group Results
What it does: Incentivizes individual and group behavior.
People rally to achieve a goal.
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Institutional – Internal PR
2. Internal PR
“Another Win” Emails
Pursuit Communication
Impromptu Conference Room
Celebrations
What it does: Publicizes success, fuels
excitement, reminds of importance of
marketing
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Institutional – Niche Development
3. Niche development
The riches are in the niches
Specialization wins
Niches are fueling growth
Build a team of staff that can:
Target participation in an association
Develop thought leadership
Pursue a targeted list of referral sources and prospects in that industry
What it does: Creates teaming opportunities among staff, enables
greater marketing success, creates greater retention among clients
in that niche
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Niche Practice Growth
Source: Accounting Today
Place client
logo here
Institutional - Events
4. Seminars and Events/CEO Network
• Communicates with your target audiences
on topics of importance to them
• Strengthens bonds with clients
Creates opportunities for staff to interact with clients and
prospects
What it does: Educates your people on prospect
engagement – what it takes to develop relationships,
gives staff an opportunity to interact with clients.
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Institutional – Client Satisfaction Programs
5. Client satisfaction programs
Client account planning
Face to face client interviews
Client surveys
What it does: Identifies opportunities for improvement. Gives a
firmwide rallying point (more proactive, more responsiveness,
greater value, more teaming, etc.) to boost service which is the
best form of marketing.
PS: Should also yield opportunities!
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Institutional – Content/Thought Leadership
6. Refine your Content Strategy
Content marketing engages clients, prospects, and
referral sources!
Demonstrates knowledge and mastery of a topic
Engage your people to write and edit content
Once created, content can be leveraged
What it does: Engages more people in the marketing
process, engages clients, prospects and referral
sources
Institutional Tactics – Social Media
7. Web and social media marketing
Never underestimate the evolution of how
people find and choose service providers
Audience is both internal and external
Leverage content
Engages the next generation of staff
What it does: Engages staff in the process,
fuels generational change within the firm
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Institutional Tactics – Pursuit Mastery
8. Upgrade your Pursuit Strategy and Proposals
• Set criteria for a “big fish”
• Approach these opportunities strategically
• Build a team to win the work
• Execute flawlessly on key steps
What it does: Enhances win ratio. Engages
more people in the process. Ensures you don’t
lose because of poor salesmanship.
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Institutional Tactics - Key Hires
9. Hiring a marketing professional
Can help drive grass roots/institutional efforts
Can help drive foundational efforts
10. Hiring a sales professional
Can help drive grass-roots efforts
Bring new opportunities in the door that enable more
engagement in the sales process
What it does: Tells the people in the firm that
the firm is serious about marketing/sales.
Institutional Tactics – Key Hires
11. Hiring a new practice leader from outside the firm
Adds additional wedge services for people to talk with
clients about
Can help support grass roots/institutional efforts
Fuels revenue!
What it does: Tells the people in the firm that
the firm is serious about growth in new areas.
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Which is Better?
Grass Roots
Institutional
Driven by Individual
and 1:1 Efforts
Driven by S/M, Operations,
and the Firm
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Case studies in success
Tax Partner Joe
120 Person Firm, Midwest
2008 $750K
2015 $1.3M
Realization: 89+%
Hours Worked: Same
Average Client Size: Up $10K
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A&A Partner Ken
120 Person Firm, Midwest
2008 $1.1M
2014 $1.9M
Realization: 87+%
Hours Worked: Up 10%
Average Client Size: $20K
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Tax Senior Manager Kristi
75 Person Firm, Northeast
@ 7/2014 $0 New Business Closed
@ 11/2014 $28,000 New Business Closed
Hours worked: Same
Revenue Source: Current Client Referral and one
Top Referral Source
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50 Person Firm in California
Marketing Culture Development
Efforts have included:
Roles & Responsibilities by Level, “First Ever” Marketing
Plan, Marketing Skills Training, Pipeline Meeting, Marketing
Club, Enhanced Incentives
Results:
 2011-2014 Revenue Growth = 7.3-11.4% per year (HALF of
which came from new contributors and non partners)
 In 2012 compensation/raises began rewarding for marketing
effort and behavior as Marketing is a responsibility for
everyone at the firm
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40 Person Firm Pacific Northwest
Marketing Culture Development What they did:
Roles & Responsibilities by Level, Niche Development,
Client Development, Marketing Skills Training,
Pipeline Meeting, Marketing Club, Enhanced Activity
Incentives
Results:
 Year 1 New Revenue Nearly $1M
 Year 2 New Revenue $650K
THANK YOU!
Art Kuesel, President
Kuesel Consulting, Inc.
312.208.8774
[email protected]
www.kueselconsulting.com