It's Time to Get Personal
By Tracy Crevar Warren
Branding has found its place among successful growth strategies for CPA firms seeking to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Firms of all sizes are spending countless resources to best position their organizations to win market share. But high-performing firms, whatever their size, can't stop their branding efforts there. To truly maximize a firm's true growth potential, its leadership must make branding an integral part of the culture - and then take it to another level, empowering its professionals to make branding a personal quest. World-renowned management consultant Tom Peters was the first to recognize this revolutionary idea over a decade ago in an article which appeared in FAST COMPANY magazine entitled The Brand Called You. It was based on the premise that individuals must take control of their careers by creating and managing themselves with the same vigor and passion as powerful brands such as Nike or BMW. Today, we see this concept emerging all around us with the likes of Martha Stewart, Donald Trump and Tiger Woods, to name a few. This is no longer a new concept. It is now a must as CPA firms struggle to attract and retain a qualified workforce to perform optimally in the face of an overabundant workload. Peters perhaps sums it up best with this comment, "Whatever you are doing well today, you will have to be doing it vastly better one year from today if you want to keep your current position."
A Whole New Mindset
"Are you n-u-t-s?" might be the thought that is crossing your mind about now. "I can't get the staff I need, and you want me to enable the ones I have to take the time to market themselves?" Scary as it may seem, succeeding in today's business environment requires a whole new mindset. The firms that will succeed in the long term are the ones that are most adaptable and able to reinvent themselves. This includes changing the focus from bottom line alone, to how fostering the growth of the professional can add to the bottom line.
Add Personal Branding to Your Training Curriculum
It would be nice to just introduce this concept and begin to see results immediately. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen that way. Like tax and audit skills, if we expect our professionals to become proficient at a new competency, we must provide them with training they need to do it effectively. In addition to educating your employees about the firm's brand, consider adding a class on personal branding accompanied by individual coaching sessions to your in-house training roster. Some of the key elements of personal branding are:
Identifying Unique Characteristics
A good brand manager would tell you that one of the first steps for a professional to take in developing a personal brand is to identify what sets you apart. Take a look at your personal characteristics such as interests, personality and skill sets. "How do your features differ from other professionals?" Examining recent projects is a good starting point. "What makes your delivery of these projects distinct from the competition?" "Was it timely?" "Did it contain an innovative approach?" Ask your peers and your clients "What characteristics do they consider to be the qualities which make you stand out from the crowd?"
Developing a Personal Branding Statement
A personal branding statement helps you bring to life your unique characteristics in a simple message. It allows you to highlight the true value you provide and the things for which you want to become famous. Once in place, personal branding statements become the foundation on which all decisions are made with regard to your brand. Personal branding statements can be likened to the "30 second commercial" or the "elevator speech," which many professionals have developed to strengthen the impact of their introductions. Make a powerful impact by realizing that "less is more." Your personal branding statement might be something like this: "I'm Anne Smith, a seasoned tax professional with a passion for taking the hassle out of tax preparation for small business owners."
Packaging Yourself
A big part of your brand is in the packaging. It is important to develop packaging that refl ects your unique interests and your personal branding statement. Perhaps you don't have control of your firm's logo or colors, but there are many elements over which you have complete control. An obvious place to start is your appearance. "What do your clothes say about you?" "Are your shoes nicely polished?" "Are your clothes neatly pressed?" Another area of packaging is your style of communication. The words you say and the manner in which you say them speak volumes to those around you. Does your communication style match the image you are trying to build? Your office, your car and the tools you take to a client engagement are other packaging tools you can incorporate into your own brand. Do they reflect organization, precision or other personal branding traits?
Promoting Your Brand
You might be the best business valuation CPA in town, but let's face it, if no one knows about you, all the branding in the world is not going to do you any good until you gain some visibility. There are countless ways to let the world know about your brand, but your challenge is to identify a few key items that will reach your target audience. Perhaps you could consider volunteering to write an article for your firm's construction newsletter. If you are a good speaker, why not offer to be a speaker for an upcoming seminar that your firm is hosting? If these do not suit your style, there are many more to consider. Keep searching until you find the mix that is right for you. This is the perfect time to align your promotional strategies with that of the firm identifying synergies that you can tap into while differentiating yourself from others.
In addition to positioning yourself outside the firm, it is also important to identify strategies to promote yourself within your organization. "How will you best demonstrate your interest in serving on a specific industry team?" "Why should peers select you to work on key clients in the firm?" Take your partner out to lunch to discuss these opportunities just as you would with a referral source. Word-of-mouth advertising is a key promotional tool for building your brand both inside and outside the firm.
Continuing to Redefine Yourself
Maintaining a strong brand requires professionals to continually reinvent themselves, especially in an industry that is often slow to change. A BIG key to success for reinvention is putting yourself in new surroundings. Sure, this is difficult for many CPAs, but it is essential to spark change. You are the product of your environment, so introduce some new elements. You don't have to go cold turkey, just make a few simple changes - eat at a new restaurant, read a new book, subscribe to a new magazine, magazine, invite someone new to join you for lunch, or attend a new trade association meeting. Once you're in a new setting, you will be amazed how much easier it is to gain new perspectives, rather than accept complacency.
Take Action
Now it's your turn. Make something happen. Whatever the size of your firm, you can use personal branding to give you a competitive edge, help your firm maximize its potential in the marketplace and help retain the best and brightest workforce. The investment of resources you expend now will come back to you over time.
About the Author: Tracy Crevar Warren is the President/CEO of The Crevar Group LLC, a consulting and training firm focused on helping CPA firms grow their practices. Through The Crevar Group's GROW U she provides in-house sales and marketing training, including such classes as Building Brand You, for professionals throughout the country. She formerly served as Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer for Dixon Hughes and has been recognized by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 most influential people in the accounting industry. Tracy can be reached at tcrevar@thecrevargroup or (336) 889.GROW (4769). You can visit The Crevar Group on-line at www.thecrevargroup.com.
This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission from the CPA PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FORUM, a monthly journal published by CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business. Copying or distribution without the publisher's permission is prohibited. To subscribe to the CPA PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FORUM or other CCH Journals please call 800-449-8114 or visit www.tax.cchgroup. com. All views expressed in the articles and columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of CCH or any other person.