ACT! to Integrate with Outlook

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a complicated issue for many CPA firms. If your firm currently uses ACT! to manage its client, referral source, and prospect databases and contact management good news may be on the way. You can now integrate your Sage ACT! and Outlook contacts, plus keep your calendars in sync.

Sync your existing Sage ACT! contacts with what you keep in Outlook. It doesn’t matter where your contacts were created or changed, everything will be kept updated in both places. And, you have the option to control which contacts are synced back and forth.

Keep your busy schedule updated in both places, no matter where you add or modify activities and meetings. Sage ACT! will help you cut back on meeting conflicts with rules that handle them automatically. And, you can choose which activity types in Sage ACT! sync back to Outlook so that your Outlook calendar remains free of your Sage ACT! to-dos.

Sage is offering weekly live webcasts:

What’s New in Sage ACT! 2011
Dates: Every Wednesday
Time: 12:00 PDT / 3:00 EDT
Register

Signs of Economic Rebound? CPAs Boost Marketing Efforts in Battle for New Clients

Aiming to take advantage of new opportunities and to make up for lost time, tax and accounting firms are poised to significantly accelerate their spending on marketing and new business development this year, according to a new survey for "The Seven Keys to Successful CPA Firm Management" practice improvement program.

Some 27% of accountants surveyed say they plan to "increase significantly" their marketing activities over the next year, about twice the number who did so over the past year, Seven Keys CPA reports.

The topline results of the survey are free to the participants and detailed analyses and recommendations are scheduled to be unveiled in a one-hour webinar,

"Marketing + Biz Dev: Trends and Strategies 2010"
Thursday, August 12, 2010
1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern
Register today!

"The survey shows a new sense of urgency and importance in new business development that had lapsed with the economic slump," said Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, which, with Bay Street Group LLC, jointly produces the Seven Keys CPA program. "Firms are redoubling their efforts to win new clients, retain old clients and build revenue."

In addition to the 27% of accountants "significantly" ramping up marketing this year, 50% will "increase somewhat," 11% report "no change," 2% will "decrease somewhat," and another 2% will "decrease significantly" their marketing activities over the next year.

For the past year -- in addition to the 15% who said they had "increased significantly their marketing activities -- 50% said they had "somewhat" accelerated their marketing over the previous year, 28% reported no change, 4% reported " decreased somewhat," and 2% reported "decreased significantly."

"CPA firms are battling for business with both barrels," said Rick Telberg, CEO of Bay Street Group LLC. "They're showing a renewed competitiveness and confidence."

See You on Facebook: CPA Firms Surge into Digital Marketing

Tax and accounting firms are rapidly adopting digital and online marketing strategies as traditional business development activities fall by the wayside, according to research conducted for "The Seven Keys to Successful CPA Firm Management" practice improvement program.

For the first time ever, a majority of CPAs report that over the next year their marketing plans will be emphasizing digital initiatives, such as website development, email newsletters and social media.

"To be sure, personal networking remains the top business-getting activity for tax and accounting firms," said Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, which, with Bay Street Group LLC, produces the Seven Keys CPA practice improvement program. "But now they are increasingly taking those in-person networking activities online."

The topline results of the survey are free to the participants and detailed analyses and recommendations are scheduled to be unveiled in a one-hour webinar:

"Marketing + Biz Dev: Trends and Strategies 2010"
Thursday, August 12, 2010
1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern
Accounting firm executives, managers, and marketers can register here.

According to the survey, the top five marketing tactics CPA firms will be pouring new resources into are:

1. Networking with prospects and referral sources (69%)
2. Upgrading the firm's website (55%)
3. E-newsletters (53%)
4. Thought leadership (blogging, publishing articles, speaking engagements, white papers) (49%)
5. Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) (47%)

"Clearly, the tide has turned toward digital," said Rick Telberg, CEO of Bay Street Group LLC. "I think it's safe to say yellow page advertising is dead. The internet is taking over."

60 Ideas in 60 Minutes

60 Ideas in 60 Minutes, the closing session at this year's Association for Accounting Marketing Summit, tripled its goal and generated 180+ ideas learned during the conference and through real life experiences. What I've learned so far is that I participate in an industry with colleagues who are more than willing to share ideas and best practices that help make me a more effective consultant and marketer.

Auditing Your Auditor: Marketing Implications

“Auditing Your Auditor” is the cover story of the April 2010 issue of CFO, highlighting examples of fee negotiations and audit fee benchmarking opportunities for CFOs. Pressured to reduce costs CFOs are examining all budget items, including audit fees. However, CFOs should not be seeking the lowball fee for fear of being underaudited.

What are the marketing implications from “Auditing Your Auditor?”

Client loyalty isn’t what it used to be. As sited in the CFO article OSG switched to PwC in 2009 after 40 years with Ernst & Young, and its $2 million audit fee dropped by a third. Ensure client satisfaction with a formal client satisfaction program, which the majority of CPA firms are not doing.

Help your clients to operate more efficiently. This will enable you to offer a more competitive fee since you will be doing less work.

Be sure that your clients receive attention from partners and managers. Make your clients feel important. Be proactive with information and advice.

Provide your team with adequate training in order to run the audit at optimum efficiency, and reduce risk.

Consider negotiating additional services within the audit fee. The client will feel like they are getting more bang for their buck.

Analyze your firm’s new and lost clients, lost proposals, and the current client fee negotiations from the past two years. Who were the prior auditors of your new clients? Which firms did your lost clients and prospects select? What impact has fee negotiations had on your firm’s revenue? This information will enable you to price future engagements more competitively.

The editorial team of CFO provides CFOs a way to benchmark audit fees against what their peers paid, over a three-year period. For more information go to www.cfo.com/fees.

Bull's-Eye! The Ultimate How-To Marketing & Sales Guide for CPAs

Bull's-Eye! The Ultimate How-To Marketing & Sales Guide for CPAs

Sponsored by the Association for Accounting Marketing and PCPS
Edited by Tracy Crevar Warren

Whether your firm is getting back into the full swing of marketing and you are looking for some new ideas to jumpstart your sales efforts, or you are getting serious about business development for the first time, this book is designed for you.& Its purpose is to inspire, teach, and provide you with practical insight to help build results-oriented marketing and sales programs in your organization.

Bull’s-Eye is a collaboration of 37 of the industry’s most successful marketing and sales minds. Collectively these gifted professionals have served as pioneering practitioners inside the profession, and as outside advisors and thought leaders for hundreds, even thousands of CPAs and their firms. They give you an insider’s view of what it takes to build marketing initiatives that produce results. Through the principles, best practices and case studies shared in the book, you can see success doesn’t happen by chance, but through careful planning, development, and implementation of well-designed processes, systems, and tools. This compendium of marketing know-how shows you how to build your marketing team, implement marketing techniques that get you noticed, connect the dots between marketing and sales, measure results, and much, much more.

Attention 2010 AAM Summit Attendees: Drawings will be held for you to receive free copies of the book and you can sign up onsite to receive a 20% discount!

Facebook Privacy Settings

The June 2010 issue of Journal of Accountancy includes a very helpful article by J. Carlton Collins, "Fortify Your Facebook Privacy Settings." It provides step-by-step instructions for creating lists of friends, hiding friends from non-friends, blocking third-party Facebook applications, protecting yourself from networks and Facebook advertisers, preventing photo/video tag mistakes, and more.

You may also want to check out Facebook's Privacy Guide for more information.

What I've learned so far is that social media is blurring the lines between our professional and personal lives. Be informed and take action to protect your reputation and personal brand.