Transcript Market Size Considerations

Developing an Effective
Marketing Budget for your Firm
Presented by: Art Kuesel
Allinial Global
Art Kuesel, President
EXPERTISE (Cont.)
 Keynotes, Presentations,
Workshops on Growth
 Growth Plan
Development/Implementation
 Managing Partner Coaching
 Sales & Marketing Recruiting
EXPERIENCE





Sales Executive
3 years inside $60M CPA firm
5 years inside $25M CPA firm
6 years at PDI/Koltin Consulting
3 years at Kuesel Consulting
STREET CRED
EXPERTISE
 Sales Coaching
 Sales/Marketing Training
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→ Top 100 Most Influential Person in
Public Accounting
→ 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
Today’s Discussion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Benchmarks in our Industry
Best Practices in Developing your Budget
Market Size Considerations
Firm Size Considerations
Common Obstacles
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Benchmarks
Average Marketing Budget by Region
As a percentage of net revenues, all firm sizes
considered:
Southeast
Great Lakes
Northeast
Great Plains
West
2.2%
2.6%
2.0%
2.3%
2.0%
Source: IPA
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Average Marketing Budget by Firm Size
As a percentage of net revenues, all regions
considered:
$50M+
$30-49.9M
$20-29.9M
$15-19.9M
$10-14.9M
$5-9.9M
$3-4.9M
Source: IPA
2.2%
2.4%
2.6%
2.0%
2.5%
2.2%
2.0%
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Best Practices in Developing and
Implementing your Budget
#1 Vision, Mission, Core Principles
1. Review your vision, mission, and core
principles.
2. These are the North Star for your
organization and therefore give you
guidance when deciding how you will
allocate your resources.
3. No vision, mission, core principles? See Best
Practice #2
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#2 What’s in the Strategic Plan?
1. The strategic plan for your organization is
like a detailed road map for the future of
your firm
2. Marketing is one of the resources and
departments that helps to push the
organization along that path
3. Shouldn’t your marketing expenditures align
closely with and support where you want to
go?
4. No strategic plan? See Best Practice #3
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#3 What’s in the Marketing Plan?
1. The marketing plan outlines strategic
marketing priorities that have been planned
because they drive or support growth, in
priority order, with set objectives and goals
2. Marketing spending should mirror your
marketing plan!
3. No marketing plan? See Best Practice #4
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#4 Define why we would/should Spend
Marketing $’s!
1. Drive new clients in the door?
2. Retain current clients?
3. Support an existing niche?
4. Launch a new niche?
5. Redesign our website?
6. Maintain our thought leadership?
7. Support our partners’ kids’ little league teams?
8. Client development?
9. Referral development?
10. What else is of strategic importance to the firm
and how would a marketing budget line item
support it?
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#5 Who’s the Owner/Champion?
An owner/Champion:
1. Guides budget development
2. Manages the budget
3. Compares budget to actual
4. Reports on ROI
5. Sign-off ability
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#6 Budgeting Process
1. Identify the approving body
2. If it is “all partners” advocate for a committee
3.
4.
5.
6.
with decision making ability
If it is only the MP gauge the value of
advocating for a committee
Present your budget proposal by category with
ROI estimates and benchmarks to your
committee
Negotiate to approval
Approved budget = expected to spend, truly
approved, it’s in your hands now, go make rain,
you have the con, etc.
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#7 Top Spending Categories
1. Client development
2. Prospect development
3. Referral development
4. Online presence
5. Thought leadership
6. Training and development (marketing)
7. Niche support
8. Events
9. Recruiting
10. Collateral/Materials
11. Advertising, Sponsorships, Public relations,
Promotional Items, Trade Shows, Philanthropy…..
12. And more! See handout…
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#8 The Bullseye Concept
Yellow = Target Buyers
Red = Influencers
Blue = Business Community
Black/White = General
Population
#9 Managing Unforeseen Opportunities
1. Create a category in your budget called
“unforeseen opportunities”
2. Assign this category approximately 5% of
your total budget
3. Keep it handy for unforeseen opportunities!
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#10 Partner Discretionary Line Item
1. Avoid the issues that arise when a partner
comes to you wanting to support a personal
or pet cause
2. Give all partners a discretionary amount for
these purposes
3. Most firms allow $1,000-2,500 per partner
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#11 ROI, ROI, ROI!
1. Be diligent in measuring the results your
marketing spend is creating
2. Feel free to get creative – everything
doesn’t generate a dollar ROI, but may
create goodwill, and intangible results
3. Without this, you may be putting future
years of budget at risk
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Market Size Considerations
Market Size Considerations
What’s the cost of a half-page ad in the San
Francisco BizTimes?
What’s the cost of a half-page ad in the
Milwaukee Business Journal?
What is the cost of hosting a seminar in Los
Angeles?
What is the cost of hosting a seminar in
Omaha?
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Market Size Considerations
1) In many cases, smaller firms will be at a
disadvantage in larger markets from a spend
perspective
2) Smaller firms will need to be more creative
with their initiatives to fight the “big guys”
3) Smaller firms in larger markets often struggle
with awareness if they try to fight fire with fire
4) But remember all firms have someone larger
or smaller than them in any market (except
the absolute largest and absolute smallest!)
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Firm Size Considerations
Firm Size Considerations…
Q: How much does it cost for a firm of 25 people
to redesign their website?
Q: How much does it cost for a firm of 75 people
to redesign their website?
Q: How much does it cost for a Business Journal
Event sponsorship for a firm of 25?
Q: How much does it cost for a Business Journal
Event sponsorship for a firm of 75?
For these reasons, sometimes firms at the smaller end
of the spectrum are forced to spend a greater
percentage of their net revenues on marketing
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As Your Firm Grows…
1) So should your marketing budget (especially
the part that has proven to deliver high ROI)
2) Evaluate and consider additional areas for
spend as you grow that may now make sense
3) Evaluate and consider areas to drop as your
firm grows and develops its service lines,
sophistication, and niches
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Common Challenges and
Obstacles
Common Challenges and Obstacles
1. Inability to see marketing budget as a revenue
generator and investment (but its farming not
hunting)
2. Lack of strategic guidance (vision, strategic plan,
etc.)
3. Relinquish of control over the current marketing
“budget”
4. True authority to spend within budget
5. Unforeseen opportunities
6. Partner “specials”
7. Lack of ability to fail with any particular marketing
initiative
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Find Resources:
kueselconsulting.com/allinialglobal
THANK YOU!
Art Kuesel, President
Kuesel Consulting, Inc.
312.208.8774
[email protected]
www.kueselconsulting.com