Branding, Capstone Marketing Blog, Marketing

How to Identify Your CPA Firm’s Niche Specialties

The fifth in a series of blog posts based upon The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms: How to Create the Roadmap for Your Firm’s Growth.

Niche marketing is the most successful strategy for CPA firm growth.  In fact, our SevenKeys CPA research tells us that leaders are four times more likely to target niches. In week five of The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms you will determine your firm’s potential niche specialties and conduct more research to gauge the viability of each specialty.

How do you identify your niche specialties? Here is a chart to help you. When completing it be sure to bundle client groups together. If a client operates five real estate partnerships, for example, count it as one client, not five. This will give you more accurate data.

Accounting Firm Industry Niche Chart

 

For each industry category (the industries shown here are examples and may be different depending on your firm), there is information down the left column to track.  This information tells you not only the number of clients, average fee per client, what percentage of your client base that industry represents, but your realization. Are you making money? What’s the description of that industry specialty?

When you need to describe the types of new business that you’re looking for, go back to this chart. You’ll be able to be very specific about the types of new business that you’re looking for, which will make your marketing efforts more successful.

Want to learn more about The 90-Day Marketing Plan process? Click here today!

Capstone Marketing Blog, Goals

3 Overlooked Items When Setting CPA Firm Revenue Goals

The fourth in a series of blog posts based upon The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms: How to Create the Roadmap for Your Firm’s Growth.

There are three often overlooked items to consider when setting your CPA firm’s revenue growth goals:

  • Non-recurring or lost revenue
  • Cross-selling revenue
  • Sales close rate

Here is an example of how to set your revenue goals.

Revenue Goal Example

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s say that you’re starting with $3 million in revenue. You need to figure out the amount of non-recurring or lost client fees and subtract that amount from your current fees. In this case, for this $3 million firm, there is $100,000 in non-recurring work that they cannot count on in the next fiscal year, which gives them a starting point of $2.9 million.  The estimate for new clients is $150,000, and $70,000 from current clients (cross selling revenue). The result is an overall goal of $220,000 of new revenue needed to achieve 4% growth.

Then, figure out your average fee per client (part of The 90-Day Marketing Plan client analysis).  In this case, the average fee per client is $15,000; 10 new clients are needed to achieve the $150,000 of new revenue. Cross-selling revenue is tracked separately.

Then, consider your close rate.  In this example, this fictitious firm has a close rate of 50% so they need 20 opportunities for new business with the assumption of closing half, with an average fee of $15,000 to achieve the $150,000 new revenue goal.

Want to learn more about The 90-Day Marketing Plan process? Join me for a live webinar this Thursday, October 2, 2014, 12:00-1:15 p.m. Eastern and chat with me and other participants about your own challenges and opportunities, compare notes, get ideas, find out what works and what doesn’t at other firms.