Got your license? Now take a leap forward

In the flurry of activity and discussion around accountants becoming licensed to give financial advice, many people seem to have forgotten that a license is just the first step. After that, you need systems and processes, and then, horror of horrors, you need to promote your new service. Because there is exactly zero point in getting a license to give financial advice if you don’t actually deliver that advice to anyone.

Plus, getting licensed is time-consuming, expensive, and increases the overall risks in your business. So why would anyone bother? Well, as we all know, consumers want financial advice. And many of them would like to receive that advice from their accountant. Plus, if you’ve been giving SMSF advice for years, you hardly want to stop now.

So, where does that leave the average accountant who is now licensed? Well, they now need to work out exactly what their advice offering is, how is it going to be priced, who in their business is going to deliver the various aspects (Statements of Advice anyone?) and most importantly, how is it going to be promoted.

In order to make your marketing work effectively, you need a plan. At Mayflower, we have a number of tools at our disposal to determine the best course of action for a business.

For instance, the marketing funnel, which looks at where people in your target market are up to with regards to your service – are they aware it exists, are they considering using it, are they giving it a go? By determining where the gaps are in this process, we can pinpoint the best tactics to use to increase your overall success. If awareness is low, then you might look at advertising and social media. If conversion is the issue, then we will be considering your website and your sales skills.

Another tool we commonly use is the product/market matrix. This tool looks at existing and new services vs existing and new customers. Without clarity here, your marketing efforts will be spread too thin and are unlikely to be effective.

There are a number of other frameworks that we use to determine the best course of action for your particular business. In fact, we recommend you spend 50% of your time deciding on the best strategy and then the other 50% implementing the right tactics to achieve that strategy.

If all this sounds a bit complicated, it actually doesn’t need to be! You don’t need a lifetime to learn all this, just a day or two, and in order to make it as easy as possible, we are running our first all day marketing workshop, designed especially for licensed accountants.

The full day will be interactive with a focus on participants walking out the door with tangible skills, resources and strategies. By the end of the day, participants will have created their own personalised marketing plan and have a plan for implementation in their business. Plus, participants will learn new ways to handle stress and lead their business successfully through change - because at the end of the day, a marketing plan is just a piece of paper if you don’t have the change management skills AND fortitude to see it implemented.

The workshop will be held at the Australian Institute of Company Directors in Sydney, on November 24 at a cost of $1250 per firm. Read all about it here, or take the leap and register now!