Charlie Walker is a practicing member of the Institute of Financial Accountants.
After university, Charlie trained in a practice similar to the one he now runs. His away from practice career has seen him writing City updates for projects with a spend of £150m, as well as managing a budget of half a billion euros for one of the world’s largest companies.
Charlie loves his family, his dog, sailing and cycling.
Email: taxassistbsh@taxassist.co.uk
Telephone: 01234 331777
Bedford UK
That’s a great question, and to be able to answer it, we need to establish what marketing is.
Since launching my accounting practice around five years ago, I think that I have grown to understand much more about sales and marketing than I did in my career as a senior accountant for a global name.
Sales and marketing sit on the same side of the fence but thinking that they are the same is like thinking that a donkey and a horse are the same. I make the sale when I meet a prospect and they sign up with my firm, but it’s my marketing which has usually brought the prospect to my door.
So, what have I tried, what has worked for me and what hasn’t…
In my very early days, I listened to what the salespeople told me. If someone told me that advertising with them, whether it was to put an advert at a train station where one million accountant-seeking commuters would see my advert every day, or if it was an agency who would ask teenagers to push leaflets through doors because, despite the rumours, that has worked well since it’s peak in the 1970’s and the internet is overrated; I would go for it and my budget would vanish at the same rate my new clients wouldn’t turn up.
Despite my early failures, I found a way to get the world to know about my practice, and not only have we survived the pandemic, but at the time of writing (April 23), we are on the verge of signing a client whose annual fee will be greater than my entire year one revenue whilst trying to open a third office.
I’m a blabbermouth. I talk. I talk to people about what I do and why I do it. For some reason, they listen and they get the passion I have for helping clients achieve their aims. This brings them to me with a good rate of success, and, as my business has grown and its capacity has increased, I have found new ways to market. I now know more about the clients I want to help with their tax and accounting, so I rely on teams who know how to find exactly those people or firms, and these days, that means a silent digital introduction. I’ll hopefully get to talk to the right people in an organisation, but the initial email introduction I can get from a good consultancy such as Saltwhistle goes a long way to finding out who really is interested in my services.
Marketing is simple…stick to your promises, treat people well and they will tell their friends about you: word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool there is. The large prospect I mentioned above has come to me as a referral because we deliver on what we say we will do.
To get your name out there (wherever your ‘out there’ is), you need to get yourself out there, get in front of your ‘would-be’ clients or customers and tell them about you. In my industry, networking meetings work very well.
But, and here’s the nub of it, at the beginning as you find your feet, work with others who have already done what you intend to. I firmly believe that there is nothing new in this world, so get help from those with experience. Work with an individual or company you can trust; check their reputation.
In short, there are lots of ways to sell products with a fixed price, but when you are selling a service, you need to tell the world about it, tell the world about it again and then when you get the chance, you need to deliver it.
Your clients will then be your best marketeers.
Charlie Walker
Aged 52 and ¾
The earth.
