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Do your target customers look at what you’re selling as an investment or as an expense? Knowing the difference could mean making the sale. Or, as the legendary Al Ries said years ago, “Marketing is a game fought in the mind of the prospect.” Most marketers are looking for prospects who are “MAD” for the offer. In other words, they have the essential combination of Money, Authority and Desire. But how do you tailor your marketing strategy to focus on only the MAD prospects? In the CPA market, you can start by separating the CPA Leaders from the Laggards, a distinction Bay Street Group LLC has been researching for years. For instance, in the technology segment, Leaders are:
By selling to Leaders, vendors also secure the high ground in the market, getting the visibility and respect of having gained favor in the kind of organizations that CPA colleagues and competitors respect and admire. But CPA Leaders and Laggards are prone to buy different things. For instance, my research shows that most firms are already making the move to paperless workflows. That’s not to say there isn’t a big market still left to mine in offering paperless solutions; but the game has changed. The market is now shifting to ever more sophisticated and integrated workflow management strategies. From my latest soundings, it seems that CPA Leaders are more likely than Laggards to be shopping for:
Laggards, on the other hand, are currently shopping for:
To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with marketing to either CPA Leaders or Laggards. But it pays to know the difference and to tailor your media, messaging and offer accordingly. MORE, FOR CPA CHANNEL MARKETERS BY RICK TELBERG:
RICK TELBERG is president of Bay Street Group LLC, which provides research and marketing and communications services to CPA firms and the vendors who serve them. He is the founding editor of the Insider newsletters and serves as AICPA Editor at Large and Director of Online Content. In his two decades in media and marketing for the finance, tax and accounting industries, Telberg has played pivotal roles in the development and operation of the leading media and e-commerce outlets in the business, including Accounting Today, The Practical Accountant, Accounting Technology, WebCPA.com, SmartPros.com, and CPA2Biz.com. Contact Rick at rtelberg@baystreetgroup.com or (914) 674-4531. He blogs at cpatrendlines.com. Follow CPA
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How
to Play ‘Follow the Leader’ With CPAs