Last week Tuesday I was having a hard time figuring out what to make for dinner. It was almost eight PM, I was very hungry, and I had a pregnant wife on her way home from the trenches of corporate life. I walked to the store and pulled up my recipe app. I must have scrolled through 40 recipes in the “quick dinner” category and none of them seemed to really be that quick – or easy for that matter. I needed the ease and speed of a frozen pizza with the nutrition of a prenatal vitamin!
Then I thought to myself, “why not go “off-recipe” and make it simple and quick yourself, Art?” So I picked up some chicken breasts and prosciutto and headed home to make a simple, quick and delicious chicken saltimbocca. Given the result and grateful smile I would say my approach was effective!
This experience got me thinking about marketing in the accounting firm environment. The quick and easy things you do are often the most effective! Sure, a complex lead generation program costing tens of thousands and involving effort from dozens at your firm will likely work well… But, so will a call to a client saying “I was thinking about you yesterday – do you have some time to get lunch next week?”
In fact, I recently did research for an upcoming workshop called “Secrets from the Rainmakers” and a top rainmaker at a Top 100 firm in the Midwest told me that he does this every single day. He told me it was the most influential marketing tactic in his entire personal marketing arsenal.
Finally, I know that none of you are looking for extra marketing tasks this time of year. So, why not bundle a project/engagement task with your quick and easy marketing touch? An example of this would be to hand-deliver a tax return over coffee or lunch, or review a consulting and planning idea face to face vs. over the phone.
A top complaint of clients is that their CPAs aren’t proactive. It’s just these types of quick and easy marketing tasks that, in the client mind, are often the definition of proactivity! So, remember, quick and easy can be effective – whether it is your personal marketing efforts – or your next meal.
