Laying the foundation for Business Development and Marketing

You want to grow your firm, increase fees and attract profitable clients, but your time and budget are limited. You may not have marketing expertise on your team, or the promotional and sales efforts you do engage in seem to have little impact on your bottom line.

Firm Foundation understands the issues you face and has partnered with The Whetstone Group, Inc., a leader in accounting firm marketing, to create the tools and training you need to achieve the most from your business development efforts.

The Whetstone Group, Inc.
The mission of The Whetstone Group is to help professional services firms grow and hone their competitive edge. Their simple, yet effective tools provide firms with new ways to not only compete, but also grow. The Whetstone Group also provides Firm Foundation members with expert know-how for structuring their organization’s marketing and sales efforts.

Strategic planning resources
As part of the standard implementation process, Firm Foundation will provide you with an assessment of the effectiveness of your current practices, growth potential and marketing strengths and weaknesses, among others. We will also provide you with:

• Guidance and education on executing a strategic marketing plan
• Key activities that should be included in your marketing or sales plan
• Framework for developing your marketing plan
• Strategic market assessment

• Business development and marketing
• Referral program development
• Direct marketing
• Proposal development
• Client marketing (cross-selling)
• Sales management
• Web site and collateral development

Additional marketing tools include:

• BizActions e-newsletter program — BizActions monthly e-newsletter is an excellent marketing and practice development tool that many CPA firms are taking advantage of to increase name recognition and expand their client bases. Firm Foundation is able to extend access to its members at a significant discount through its partnership with BizActions. In addition to ease of implementation, there are no setup and maintenance fees, allowing your firm to focus on the results and maximize the benefits of the program.
• Public relations and promotional tools — services include assistance with positioning Firm Foundation membership as a key differentiator for your firm.

Getting started
At Firm Foundation, we not only provide the tools that will help you build a sustainable marketing and business development program, we also provide a strategic marketing assessment tool to identify opportunities and develop a seamless marketing plan.

Our assessment tool and support network, including our Help Desk and Client Service Coordinators will help you to:

• Define appropriate growth goals. Stop wasting time and money on strategies that don’t work. The toolkits and training will walk you through techniques that will help determine the right growth strategy for your firm and techniques to use for your different target markets.
• Implement specific activities. No more vague ideas. Access specific ideas and activities you can implement immediately from the toolkits and Web seminars.
• Measure and track results. Activities are designed to measure success, so you’ll know what’s working and which tactics represent the best use of your valuable time.
• Access industry experts. The Whetstone Group brings a long history of expertise in consulting with CPA firms and understands your unique challenges, marketplace and goals.
• Develop more effective marketing tools. Ensure clients and prospects understand the value you bring and what makes your firm stand out. Marketing support services provide access to collateral development and review, copywriting, Web site design, direct mail design and delivery, lead generation programs and more.