Hot Topic: The Big Pitch

The Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) introduced a brand-new session at this year’s Summit; “The Big Pitch”, a Shark Tank-esque opportunity for presenters from four firms to showcase their dream marketing initiative to a distinguished panel and a live audience.

Emceed by Ace Callwood, our Big Pitch panelists were Jeff Antaya, marketing advisor and author, Kristen Lewis, Managing Director of Strategic Growth for Industries and Markets at EisnerAmper, and Jennifer Wilson, co-founder of ConvergenceCoaching.

Pitch 1 – The Trust Operating System

Presented by Raissa Evans, Director, and Tyler Roche, Senior Marketing Manager, Weaver

The Predicament: “We know what drives growth. We just don’t build for it.” Firms must formally account for where trust can be turned into further opportunities.

The Pitch: Raissa and Tyler propose a “Trust Operating System,” a model that combines a firm’s market insights (client challenges, engagement insights, industry patterns and more) with credibility signals (speaking engagements, industry citations, board roles and client testimonials) and a relationship network. By synchronizing these mechanisms, firms will be able to monitor where each component overlaps with another and identify opportunities to improve feedback across the entire network. The Trust Operating System not only guides firm strategy but revolutionizes it by showing growth is a result of the interaction of reputation, relationships and knowledge.

Pitch 2 – The Chief Pricing Officer

Presented by Margo Andersen, Director of Marketing, Larson & Company

The Predicament: Firm partners spend valuable time billing clients each month, something many of them don’t enjoy. If partners spend 10 hours a month billing, that adds up to 120 hours a year. At a $500 billable rate, that becomes $60,000 per partner, per year.

The Pitch: Margo suggests introducing a Chief Pricing Officer to the firm. This role returns thousands of dollars (potentially up to and over $1 million) to the firm in partner productivity, while simultaneously eliminating inconsistent pricing across the firm. By concentrating pricing authority in one individual, firms can move toward value-based billing and competitively position themselves for the future.

Pitch 3 – The Problem-First Front Door

Presented by Staci Fors, Head of Growth & Engagement, and Marissa Anderson, Senior Brand Developer, Vesta

The Predicament: By prioritizing compliance services, CPA firms are not attracting potential clients who would be interested in higher-value services.

The Pitch: Staci and Marissa recommend that firms orient their services around client problems rather than compliance. This shift brings higher-value services to the forefront of the firm, attracting clients interested in those services who otherwise may not consider themselves in need of accounting services. Firms utilizing multiple entry points will be empowered to access new clients, higher revenues and expanded markets.

Pitch 4 – The Growth Collective

Presented by Kaitlynn Dailey, Marketing Associate, HBK CPAs & Consultants

The Predicament: It can be difficult for a firm to craft a meaningful and insightful content strategy that moves the needle. Firm thought leaders are often busy and can’t always contribute to content. AI tools may be able to help, but can they offer the distinction accounting marketers need?

The Pitch: Kaitlynn proposes “The Growth Collective,” an AI tool designed specifically for accounting marketers. Not only does the tool draft content ideas, but it also provides social media posts, video descriptions and more. As The Growth Collective builds more content, it becomes a smarter platform. As a tool available to AAM members, it would eliminate a substantial amount of the pressure surrounding the yearly content push.

The Spirit of The Big Pitch

Each of these pitches was aimed at addressing a different need that all accounting firms today face. While the parameters of the session were to pitch without any budget limitations, accounting marketers are often tasked with accomplishing a lot with a little. The Big Pitch perfectly illustrates the creativity and resourcefulness that marketers and other growth professionals bring to solving problems.

And the Winner Is…

Put your hands together for our winning pitch…

The Chief Pricing Officer, by Margo Andersen, won the vote! According to Jennifer Wilson, “This is what we all need to be doing in the next 12 months in our firms to stay ahead of the curve.”