Just 4 Questions For You
It was time for my annual marketing meeting with the partners. Quick everyone – pull out those goal sheets! (What did you accomplish over the last year? How many networking events, how many prospects and new clients?) Everyone scrambled to look like an active marketer in their reports.
This year however, I surprised all our partners and managers at our annual retreat. I didn’t ask them to recount their many marketing coups, or to list all the new clients brought in.
Instead, I asked everyone to think about and discuss just 4 areas:
- Referral Sources: What are you doing to develop your referral sources?
- Networking Effectiveness: How effective are you at networking events?
- Prospect Meetings: How do you prepare for prospective client meetings?
- Client Service: How well are you doing at client service?
For anyone who has taken their first steps in marketing, you already know what to do. The next step is how to do it well. What’s working, what’s not, and what else could you do?
In answering these 4 questions, you will take your marketing to a fresh, new level. And that’s motivating, no matter where you start.
Are We Listening?
On Oprah Winfrey’s final television show after 25 years, she said, ”I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common: They all wanted validation… every single person you will ever meet shares that common desire. They want to know: ‘Do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you… Try it with your children, your husband, your wife, your boss, your friends. Validate them. ‘I see you. I hear you. And what you say matters to me.’”
One of our clients called in with a tax question recently. Not unusual, the family situation was changing, they had worries about their financial future. What was unusual was the conversation, the empathy, the reassurance they received.
It’s always about more than the tax, accounting or marketing. It’s the people behind the work, the lives that are impacted, the futures that are being created.
In our daily work life, it’s not just what we do for a living, but it’s also how we do it. It’s the big things – quality work, professional expertise – that may give us success. It’s the extras that make it all worthwhile.
Who can you really listen to today?
Lessons from My Firm’s Partners
Working at NSBN, a CPA firm of approximately 70 personnel, with 18 partners, there are daily opportunities to witness a variety of management styles. In particular, three partners stand out for their unique contributions to our firm. I’ve learned much from watching them.
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The senior partner with an office next to mine is one of our firm’s most respected mentors. There is often a line of people, including other partners, waiting outside her door to speak with her about client service, marketing, personal issues or firm management.
And yet, when it’s my turn to go into that office – there are no other distractions. Her eyes don’t leave mine, she doesn’t turn her head toward the waiting line, her computer screen doesn’t beckon. She is all mine, intent and concentrating. When we are done, she turns to the next person/email/phone call, but never for an instant before.
She has the gift of maintaining focus in the midst of activity, which is both a time management principle and a motivational style. I walk out of our meetings, no matter how long or short, feeling valued for my contributions to the firm. In her presence I feel important.
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One of our youngest partners has become an avid marathon runner over the past few years. Medals are hung on her office walls. Staff joins her in after-work run/walk sessions and weekend bike trips. We read her marathon blogs. There are hallway discussions about exercise tips and the latest workout clothing. For the holiday season, my gift was an exercise balance bracelet (good for us klutzes.)
From leading us by example, she has changed the tenor of our firm, helped form friendships, improved our health, and changed lives. This is a person who found a passion and freely shares it. Because of her, many in our firm have more motivation to keep on exercising – and to pursue their own passions.
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The Managing Partner of our firm, like at most firms, does the hard stuff. For most decisions, the buck stops with him. In addition to leading 17 other partners, setting direction for the firm, motivating and keeping staff, and his own client responsibilities, he is also strategically investing in the future of our firm.
Even in a down economy, marketing is a priority. We have always positioned selected partners as subject-matter experts in the press, and we continue to encourage staff to become involved in community organizations. Even so, this year he has empowered us to be more effective with our marketing time and funds, by finding new and exciting avenues for targeted networking at a high level in the business community.
Even though we all take our work seriously, and the bar is raised for everyone’s personal time commitment to this profession, our “MP” has made having fun together a big part of our firm culture. He regularly oversees picnics, volleyball games, and raffles for goodies such as iPods, Kindles, and HDTV screens. He announces impromptu casual dress days and closing the office early. He mandates serve-yourself ice cream, the TMZ Channel playing on the staff lounge TV, and more. He really knows how to lighten up – and with his leadership we like being here.
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3 important lessons:
- In a multi-tasking world, focus on the person you’re with.
- Share your passions with others; you will inspire and lead by example.
- Leverage your dollars wisely for the future of your firm – invest in marketing, invest in your people – and have some fun while you’re at it.
Sue Zisko, MBA, is Director of Marketing at NSBN LLP, CPA and Business Consultants, based in Beverly Hills, CA. She provides management and marketing consulting, sales and executive coaching and retreat facilitation to professional service firms, closely held businesses and nonprofit organizations. She can be reached at sez@nsbn.com
In an Out-of-Control Work World, What CAN We Control?
I was recently asked to facilitate a management retreat to address an organization’s challenges with mentoring and motivating their workforce. Their main issues concerned professionalism, communications, time management, delegation, and image. Sound familiar? Then you may find the group’s lists below useful.
What’s Out of Our Own Control? (Summaries of some long, long stories!)
- Interruptions from people constantly walking into our “open door policy” offices
- Interruptions from those notices that pop up on the computer when a new email arrives
- Interruptions from cell phone texts, calls and beeps
- People misunderstanding the intent or tone of our emails
- Other managers “going around” us to discuss projects, then having to fill us in later
- How employees’ dress is sloppier with a “business casual” dress code
- Not enough skilled staff for delegation
- Gen X & Y attitudes and work ethic
- How fast everything is changing with technology
What Can We Control? (Abbreviated from a surprisingly long, long list!)
- Being willing to say “no” – which makes a “yes” more honest and meaningful
- Determining when a face-to-face conversation is better than an email, and vice versa
- Focusing on your employees’ strengths, especially when delegating
- Being transparent, including sharing the organization’s financial picture with everyone
- Looking ahead, setting and managing goals, developing a departmental mission
- Closing your office door, or leaving it slightly ajar –so others think before entering
- Facing your desk away from the door
- Holding others accountable for the amount of time when they ask, “Got a second to talk?”
- Utilizing Outlook™ Tools to turn off pop-ups, reminders, and to automatically file emails in folders
- Setting expectations up front – with clients, staff and projects
- Gathering all the involved people for every project meeting – which saves time
- Dressing up for work almost every day
- Accepting that workplace change has already happened and deciding to support and participate in it
- Creating an enjoyable atmosphere – share a joke, bring cupcakes, enjoy your time!
In short, the group agreed to take back their day. They realized that it’s not just what they do as managers, but also how they do it. These managers realized just how much control they really do have.
In future posts, I will be expanding on themes that we can control; please let me know which of the topics above (or others) interest you the most. Thank you!
Sue Zisko, MBA, is Director of Marketing at NSBN LLP, CPA and Business Consultants, based in Beverly Hills, CA. She provides management and marketing consulting, sales and executive coaching and retreat facilitation to professional service firms, closely held businesses and nonprofit organizations. She can be reached at sez@nsbn.com
