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Making a Niche Work for Your Firm by Avoiding Key Niche Pitfalls

Making a Niche Work for Your Firm by Avoiding Key Niche Pitfalls. Presented by August Aquila. AQUILA Global Advisors, LLC.

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Making a Niche Work for Your Firm by Avoiding Key Niche Pitfalls

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  1. Making a Niche Work for Your Firm by Avoiding Key Niche Pitfalls Presented by August Aquila

  2. AQUILA Global Advisors, LLC • August is the CEO of AQUILA Global Advisors, LLC which specializes in succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, compensation plans and transformational strategic planning • Selected as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People” in the Accounting Profession by Accounting Today in 2004, 2007, 2009 & 2010 • AAM Hall of Fame member, founding AAM Board Member • First marketing director to become a partner in Top 100 Firm (1985) • Former partner in top 100 firm – Friedman, Eisenstein, Raemer & Schwartz (FERS) • Former executive with American Express Tax & Business Services, Inc

  3. Webinar Objectives • Why niche selection is a strategic initiative • Niches and the Value Curve • Niches move a firm into true consulting • Common niche management issues • Major niche pitfalls to avoid • Marketing and branding issues

  4. What is a Niche? • A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market. • By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. You can think of a niche market as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.

  5. Niche Work is Different • Niche work may be more project oriented • Will your partners support the initiative? • Will the firm structure support the niche? • Is compensation aligned with the niche initiative?

  6. Niche Work is Different • What special skills do we need to be successful in the niche? • More nonrecurring projects with client • More cross selling to existing clients • Work done at client’s location

  7. Niche Selection is a Strategic Decision • Everyone else is in the niche, shouldn’t we? • How does the niche fit into your strategic plan? • Are you organized for a niche? • What should niche leaders do?

  8. NICHE ORGANIZATIONS

  9. Niche Leaders Responsibilities • Marketing and Practice Development • Becoming the perceived leader • Financial Management • Make a profit • Client Service • Create client centric culture • Employee Growth & Learning • Develop competencies for partners/staff

  10. Niche and the Value Curve High Value To Client Unique Work Hired for Experience Hired for Brand Name Hired for Price Low Value to Client

  11. Niches move firms into consulting • Serving a niche requires that you know more than just accounting and tax • Moves a firm from compliance to wisdom and experience • Creates specialists and experts

  12. Niche Champion • Needs passion for the niche • Lives and breeds it • Is a famous person or becomes one in the niche

  13. COMMON NICHE MANAGEMENT ISSUES

  14. Poll 2: Which of these common niche management issues if your firm engaged in? (choose all that apply) • Taking on too many niches at once • Not dedicating true leadership to our niches • Not developing written plans for our niches • Under-committing resources to our niche • Treating each niche like all other firm services • Not communicating enough about our niches • Not cross-serving our clients with our full service offering • Other (not specified here)

  15. A Mile Wide And An Inch Deep • Avoid saying your firm has specialties in too many areas, spreading your resources too thin • A niche is an area where you have “deep” expertise and more than just a concentration of clients • How many of these can your firm size sustain? • Carefully select your true niche investment areas

  16. Choosing Your Niches • You should choose your “true” niches based on those that: • Have the most upside in the marketplace • Your firm has some experience and success serving • You have some resources from which to leverage (either internally or through talent acquisition) • Hold promise for integration with other services and/or niches

  17. Product/Service Mix -- Example

  18. Dedicating Leadership • Identify ONE owner at the leadership table to drive your niche(s) forward • This person should be required to: • Annually produce a true business plan • Marshall and manage the firm’s niche resources • Devise and execute the firm’s marketing and BD strategies in this niche area • Own the outcome of the financial performance of the niche

  19. Dedicating Leadership • The niche leader’s compensation should be tied to meeting specific milestones and goals • They should have some amount of non-charge time allocated to grow and develop the niche

  20. Poll 2: What statement best describes where your firm is in terms of niche plan development? (choose only one) • We have written plans for each of our firm niches and we review and update those plans annually • We have had written plans for our niches but they aren’t reviewed or updated regularly • We have written plans for some of our niches but not for others • We don’t have any written plans for our niches • We don’t have true niches as has been described • Other, not specified

  21. You Should Plan For Niche Success • Your niche initiative plans should include: • Market dynamics discussion • Existing business overview • Niche SWOT Analysis • Niche Competitive Analysis • Niche differentiation position • Ideal target client definition • Product/service mix offered within the niche • Pricing strategy

  22. You Should Plan For Niche Success • Marketing strategy (branding and lead generation) • Sales approach • Service Delivery approach • Staffing/training plans • Infrastructure requirements to support the niche (IT, facilities, admin) • Identification of critical success factors • Specific financial and non-financial measures of success

  23. Don’t Under-Commit • The plan should call for specific commitments of dollars, non-charge time and headcount needed to be successful each year • It should also project what ROI (or lack thereof) there will be each year • Your firm’s partners must agree to these “asks” and commit the resources necessary to drive niche growth – which can take 3 years to really “roll” in some cases • Patience and true commitment are required

  24. They Aren’t All The Same! • Each niche will present a different model for managing and growing the practice • Many niches follow more of a consulting model, where the business is not an annuity and there is a need for more practice development resource to drive growth • The approach to staffing can also vary widely – some being lower leverage models like business valuation and litigation support • Understand the successful approach to your chosen niches by studying the models used by other firms

  25. Communication Is Key • Ensure that your niche leaders appear at the partner table regularly to share their status against their plan • Regular accountability and communication of progress and set backs help build partner confidence and keep commitment high • Ask regular questions of the niche leader when “grumbling” or disappointments occur • Often these grapevine complaints are a lack of understanding or mis-set expectations and communication can keep relationships on track

  26. Cross-Serving Critical Success Factors • The niche leader must build credibility and trust by keeping their commitments and communicating • One or two early adopting partner champions should be identified and their top 25-50 clients should be discussed for potential need • Some industry niches do not lend themselves to as much cross-serving in terms of incoming leads • Instead, the industry team will bring service line leaders in to support their leads

  27. Cross-Serving Critical Success Factors • In many cases, niche leaders have to build their own markets, which is what we’ll explore in our next segment

  28. Marketing & Branding Your Niche

  29. Creating An Effective Plan • By looking at what has worked in the past, and what has not worked, you will realize which initiatives have been ineffective and avoid them in the future. • Some initiatives may have been effective if they were carried out in a different way in the past.

  30. What Is Business Development? The combination of your firm’s sales strategy & marketing efforts

  31. Important Elements To Your Niche Plan-first Steps • Defining the current number and types of clients and niche revenue • Creating goals for the number and types of clients and niche revenue • Moving all relevant clients under appropriate umbrella • Establishing team development plan (CPE, publications)

  32. Important Elements To Your Niche Plan-business Development • Creating client retention strategies for team (client relationship management)(project management) • Becoming recognized through speaking and networking (client referrals) • Becoming recognized in the marketplace (branding and design)(website builders) • Creating a prospect list (D&B, zapdata) • Communicating with prospects, clients and referral sources (meetings, phone calls, social media)

  33. Creating Client Retention Strategies For Team SUPPORTED BY: • (client relationship management) • (project management)

  34. Social Media • LinkedIn • Twitter • Facebook

  35. Email Marketing • BizActions • www.bizactions.com • SalesFUSION • www.salesfusion.com • Benchmark Email • www.benchmarkemail.com • Constant Contact • www.constantcontact.com • Mail Chimp • www.mailchimp.com

  36. Prospect Target List • D&B • www.zapdata.com • Sales Genie • http://www.salesgenie.com/ • One Source • www.onesource.com • Vendor Genie • http://www.vendorgenie.com/ • Info USA • http://www.infousa.com/

  37. Final Thoughts • Niches pay more than general service areas • Clients today, want and demand that their service providers have specialized knowledge • Successful niche firms/niche leaders have a passion for what they do

  38. Questions and Answers • What did we forget to mention? • What did you forget to ask?

  39. For More Information or Help • For more information please contact: August J. Aquila952-930-1295 aaquila@aquilaadvisors.com

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