My Career Journey: Becoming a Marketer in a Profession That Wasn’t Ready

In 1979, I was working as a director of development at DePaul University in Chicago. I had just completed an MBA in marketing and management, and I was actively looking for a new position outside of academia.

At the time, I was responsible for the Ledger & Quill CPA Society, which gave me regular access to managing partners from what was then the Big 8. I must admit, though, that accounting was not one of my favorite subjects in the MBA program.

Then, I met the managing partner of Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC). He asked if I would be interested in a new position at the firm: associate director of business development. I knew absolutely nothing about the accounting profession. Back then, the marketing of professional services was in its infancy. AAM did not exist and very few CPA firms had dedicated marketing professionals at all.

 Takeaway for Marketers: Careers don’t always start with a master plan. Sometimes they start by saying yes before the firm has even figured itself out.

Learning the Profession While Building the Playbook

When I joined C&L, the firm had many national brochures, but the Chicago office did not have anything to use when the partners were making proposals or hunting for new business. Creating a brochure for the Chicago office was one of my first projects. I was also involved in all proposal presentations, business development support and anything else BD related.

I went into the position not really knowing anything about the accounting profession. Four years later, I left as a far more polished marketer. But more importantly, I learned how to operate inside a professional partnership.

Because AAM did not yet exist, the American Marketing Association started to develop programs for the marketing of services. The first programs dealt with how product marketing was different from service marketing. Lessons that shaped my marketing for decades to come.

Takeaway for Marketers: Understanding services, and not just marketing tactics, is what allows you to create real value inside a firm.

Setting the Terms and Betting on Myself

After leaving C&L, I joined a local Chicago firm as director of marketing. It was a new position for them, and they were much more marketing oriented than C&L.

When I joined FERS I had three requirements for taking the position:

1. I would report to the managing partner rather than to the partner in charge of marketing.
2. I wanted a partner’s office.
3. I wanted the opportunity to become a shareholder after two years.

Obviously, I also had a specific salary in mind.

The managing partner agreed with one condition. If I did not deliver by the end of the second year, then he could let me go. If I did deliver, I would become an equity shareholder.

I delivered. And I became the first non-CPA marketing director to achieve this achievement in a top 50 accounting firm.

Takeaway for Marketers: Advancement requires clarity. If you want a seat at the table, you have to define the terms and be willing to be accountable for the outcome.

Educating Partners Before Marketing the Firm

If you can imagine a world without PowerPoint, email, computers, Zoom and mobile phones, that was the world that I worked in. I was a one-person department and many of the partners wondered what I was doing there.

My first goal was to educate. I needed the partners to understand marketing and what to expect from my department.

An early success came when I when I was able to secure coverage for one of the named partners in Crain’s Chiago Business. No firms were advertising back then, and we started a public relations program to get our name in front of local businesses. It included articles in the local papers, monthly surveys on asset-based lending and teaching bankers how to understand financial statements.

Eventually we developed industry teams and developed brochures and seminars to promote these services.

Takeaway for Marketers: Credibility often comes before strategy. One visible win can change how leadership views marketing forever.

Learning the Services to Sell the Value

I quickly realized that if I were going to develop marketing strategies to promote the firm’s services, I would need to have a basic understanding of the service.

Marketing couldn’t sit outside the work. To articulate benefits to the press, I needed to understand what the partners actually did. Only then could I effectively talk to others about it.

Takeaway for Marketers: The deeper your understanding of the work, the stronger your influence and the more trusted your voice becomes.

Staying a Pioneer Even as the Industry Changed

After 11 years, I left the firm to join American Express Tax & Business Services. In the early 1990s, American Express was acquiring accounting firms, like what private equity is doing today.

I always felt like a pioneer in this field, and once again, this was another opportunity to explore new horizons.

After another decade, I decided to hang out my own consulting shingle. By then, my work had expanded well beyond marketing into firm management issues, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and partner compensation plans.

Takeaway for Marketers: The profession will keep evolving. Staying relevant means staying curious and being willing to reinvent yourself more than once.

It’s a Great Career Choice

When I look back it is hard to believe that I spent nearly 50 years in the accounting marketing profession. I’ve met so many great people during my journey from fellow consultants to clients to CPAs.

What else can I say. It’s been a life well lived. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.