Marketing as a revenue generator

by admin on October 9, 2006

in Marketing

The other week, Damian Wild had a post about Warren Tayler savaging the profession. I had plenty to say on the issue. Damian then came back with:

A few years ago there was a stink surrounding Clifford Chance’s decision to set annual targets for billable hours for associates. I’ve not seen evidence of accounting firms doing the same (though I don’t doubt it’s the case and hear plenty that is anecdotal) but at conferences for small firms up and down the country these days all the talk is of the need to increase chargeable time and how to convert costs (eg marketing) into chargeable services.

What? Who the heck is selling this snake oil. Let’s get a few things straight:

The billable hour is a dead concept, way past its sell by date. When I was in practice we dished out spreadsheets each month that showed time billed. It was an awful practice, guaranteed to frighten those who ‘didn’t make the grade.’ The only possible use for recording time is in the event of having to prove time spent or as a way of determining efficiency. It has nothing to do with value delivered, everything to do with time utilisation and harks back to the dreaded time and motion days of the 50s and 60s.

It is a dead concept because there are only so many hours in the day. Therefore, you are always going to be limited in terms of the amount you can charge when the time sheet rules. If on the other hand you price based on value, you stand a far better chance of actually making serious money, improving the portfolio quality and attracting interesting business.

Who on earth is trying to convince accountants they can teach business something about marketing of all topics? Virtually all marketing I’ve seen practiced by the profession is a waste of time, energy and money. I’ve said on many an occasion, the best use of Internet technology isn’t practiced by the profession. 98% of websites are static with little other than cookie-cutter content and little attempt at regular updating.

As it happens, I have a pretty good idea which marketing agencies are doling out this crap but I’ll not name names until I’ve see more proofs.

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David Terrar

Logically, with the move that many firms are taking from being accountants and bookkeeping companies to business advisers, marketing advice ought to be included. However, my experience is the exactly the same as yours. The more forward thinking practices might have employed a marketing assistant, but there is so much more to the topic than that, and so they need to get their own house in order before they can offer this as an added expertise. As you say, only a fraction of practices have an active web site and a proper we strategy, and have themselves adopted the kinds of tools they would need to be promoting to their clients. As you hint at, there are some marketing agencies that make a good living from the community for merely explaining the basics. I wish a lot more practices would spend time on this topic.

(And I agree with you on the value argument.)

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Stuart Jones

Forgive me Dennis but I cannot see what this is about when you discuss marketing. What does " how to convert costs (eg marketing) into chargeable services" actually mean?

And where did "Who on earth is trying to convince accountants they can teach business something about marketing of all topics?" come from?

I cannot see the link between Value Pricing and your comments.

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