This article originally appeared on the Offical Journal Of The Institute Of Public Accountants website. You can read it here
In the previous article we arranged a Hot Date For The Accountant. I’m happy to report the Accountants Professional did in fact go on a date with the Branding Agency.
It was all with the intention of investigating new relationships that will assist their evolution into the advisory role.
So you’re hanging out to learn what was said between them both, right?! How late did they stay out, are they going on another date?
As we know, Accountants are one of the most trusted professions… they don’t kiss and tell. Though we can reveal a sensational time was had. This first Hot Date really took off once the numbers topic was aired. It wasn’t long before the Accountant realised the Branding Professional was also passionate about numbers, and how they also focus on figures that impact an SME’s bottom line. I know, hot stuff right?!
In the time since this first Hot Date the Accountants Professional has expanded their knowledge in new technologies and marketing with relative ease, and they couldn’t be happier. Thrilling information now flows freely between the Accountants Professional and their clients, together discovering business activities that will ensure their business survives, grows and performs.
The Branding Agency referred the Accountants Professional to Ceezar, an online tool built specifically for Accountants to better advise their clients on the marketing and branding function of the business. Via this referral, Marketing Advisory has become a streamlined opportunity that has been purposefully made easy to learn new online platforms that help their clients become digitally savvy and brand aware.
Ceezar is presented as a low entry level form of Marketing Advisory that provides high impact results, serving as a key function that strengthens Accountant / Client relationships. Here the Accountant can generate tailored reporting, select marketing products and receive the best advice that assists steering their clients businesses through dark times to brighter days.
This scenario wouldn’t have been possible if the Accountant didn’t step outside the traditional bean-counter bubble. It took an upbeat attitude to broaden networks and push forward to seek out this new opportunity. Now suddenly, the Accountants Professional is sounding like a switched on youthful digital native to their clients, bolstered by the already great tax advisory service at play. Clients are now awestruck and grateful that their Accountant can set a refreshed business trajectory that includes more than just numbers compliance.
At the core of any Accountants Professional is an unequivocal dedication to an SME’s numbers. The binding element here is that for the Branding Agency – it’s often all about the numbers too. Success being validated by data sets, analytics and sales results, derived from a core set of acronyms like ROAS, CTR, CPM and AOV.
What numbers reveal to an Accountants Professional and Branding Agency are integral to the advice and options presented back to their clients in the form of solutions that provide survival, growth or performance results. Again, the relationship here is a natural fit, with two magicians working together for a mutual value exchange that is rich and useful for their SME client.
While the activities performed by the Branding Professional end up on the Accountants Professionals desk anyway, via Ceezar it’s possible to bring everyone together earlier in the brand and marketing activity decision making process. Accountants Professionals can instigate these conversations independently if needed, and transfer complex digital and technology strategies in easily understandable product form as Advisory Services.
It’s important to understand, the Accountants Professional need not be an expert in brand and marketing to accurately advise their SME clients on how and why they need to digitize their business to remain competitive and efficient – just connected. With technology moving at such pace it’s almost impossible for the Accountants Professional to keep up, but here a solution delivers the advisory function in a viable capacity.
Any accountant who has endured a few business cycles would have managed a negative churn of a clients numbers more than once. The heartache and pain of a small business owner who has hit the rocks, or worst, had their deck rot before their ship comes in, is not a great call to receive. This crisis can often be averted by simply bringing the Accountants Professional into critical conversations earlier where the ‘spending numbers’ are concerned. At some point these figures will become the ’reported numbers’, and if the report card is dire, it’s too late.
Start Up, Growth or Survival, all very different phases of an SME. It’s here the Accountants Professional can take a much more progressive position at the start of the BAS curve. Join the advisory lead with the other business professionals a client relies on and become an integral part of the forecasting numbers, not just the reporting compliance functions.
Accountants Professionals are uniquely qualified to deliver answers to tough questions because of their understanding of how the numbers influence the business and the actual client themselves. This new area of number management is simply just a natural extension of what is already offered, it just sounds and looks different. It’s almost like marketing and accountancy are of similar function that should come out of the same office.
The Hot Date For The Accountant evolved into a strong relationship due to the binding love of numbers, and from this both Accountants Professional and SME client benefit from this dynamic pairing. Matchmaking is pure efficiency in our modern age and that’s all the Branding Agency has done, match the Accountants Professionals with Ceezar to create a symbiotic relationship for our mutual objectives.
So what are you waiting for, get your match made and become a Brand Marketing Advisory Accountant for your clients in 2021.
Luke Sullivan
Managing Director COG Branding
Recent Comments