Anders + Summit Merger Story
A New Communication Strategy
You don’t need to spend years in corporate accounting to discover that the stereotypes are right on: Traditional accounting is boring. It’s boring for the clients and, to be frank, it’s not much more exciting for the accountants. But why does that have to be the case? That was our first challenge to solve. We started by moving beyond the traditional accounting services of filing tax returns and historical financials that would make our clients’ nod off in their chairs. But it wasn’t just the jargon that kept them from getting fully engaged; it was the focus on the past. Our clients wanted to grow their business, see how it stacks up against themselves and their peers, and look to the future. So, in response, we created dynamic forecasting to help them see it more clearly by looking at long-term and short-term cash flow. We figured out how to use the data to help them understand their story, to allow them to keep a finger on the pulse of their business and be proactive about their financial health. Now, all of a sudden, clients didn’t see us as snoozy accountants, but business performance coaches who understood their finances, came into their business and made them better.
Once we made that shift, our clients started looking forward to talking to us on a regular basis. They even started to ask for more meetings. So we offered weekly strategy sessions where we could dig into their challenges and figure out how to help them grow faster. With this approach, we had more client time than ever before, which was one of our main goals when Adam and I left our traditional firms and struck out on our own. Then tax time came around, and another benefit of weekly meetings became clear: Because we were already on top of our clients’ financials, there was no last-minute scramble. We didn’t have to burn the midnight oil (or give up hockey season) to get their filings done. And so our Virtual CFO (VCFO) services evolved. It was a name that made people scratch their heads when I put it on our website back in the early 2000s—and it took four whole years before we found a client (Rhode-Island-based Lullabot) who was ready to take us up on the “V” part. But once they signed on and started spreading the word, our growth skyrocketed. Another win-win: We were growing because we were able to multiply our client base and help our clients grow at the same time.
Our vision of Virtual CFO services was so new that it was impossible to sell traditionally. No one knew what it was. When a business hired an accountant, they wanted an accountant to show up at their door, not a VCFO to appear on their computer screen.
In order to succeed at doing things our own way, we needed a communication strategy that would educate the public. That’s how we developed our thought- leadership approach to marketing. The blog and, ultimately, the podcast series, grew out of that need to get the word out that we had this new vision for financial services. From our website to how we introduce ourselves toa client in a virtual meeting— everything had to be branded in the same way, to reflect our non-traditional approach. Clients had been conditioned to expect in-person meetings; we had to show them that our virtual approach wasn’t simply a good substitute—it was a strategic advantage. Our thought-leadership communication strategy is an essential part of this approach to attracting clients who aren’t looking for a traditional accounting firm to step in and just do their books. Our clients want a visionary, someone who can sit alongside them as an
entrepreneur: a sounding board who partners with them, to guide them and help them make decisions. That’s the big differentiator, so we designed our communications—our daily blogs, podcasts, and speaking engagements—to show the level of thinking Summit provides, and get our audience excited about the possibility of benefitting from that level of partnership. Because we were getting to be so well known nationally, we were attracting clients outside of our target: We focused our thought leadership on digital agencies, but a full 40% of our business came to us from industries such as construction, consulting, healthcare and manufacturing, because they genuinely connected to our message and our offerings. We didn’t have to convince them; the fit was apparent.
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