Quality Bulletin
June 26, 2019
June 26, 2019
June 11, 2019
By Kreston CEO, Liza Robbins.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about what accountancy firms have to do to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.
Kreston Menon, in the United Arab Emirates, has done more than thrive.
In the space of just 25 years, it has grown from two people in a small office, to more than 250 staff members across 9 offices.
It is the fifth largest accounting firm in the UAE.
And it is no exaggeration to say that Kreston Menon is a household name.
For the last six years running, it has been granted the status of Superbrand – an official designation by an independent authority in London, which recognises outstanding brands.
This success is no accident. It is the result of a deliberate growth strategy.
Since its beginning, Kreston Menon has carefully positioned itself as a partner to the UAE business community and to wider society.
“Every business has prime commercial considerations, but we want to make a difference to society and to our country,” Sudhir Kumar, Kreston Menon’s head of Corporate Communications, told me.
Kreston Menon shows social responsibility, for example suppporting the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, which battles domestic violence, child abuse and human trafficking. It sponsors promising athletes, contributes financial to people who are affected by natural disasters and supports schools for special needs children.
So it was only natural that when the government launched an initative to turn Dubai into a disability-friendly city, it reached out to Kreston Menon to help raise awareness. The company filled its corporate calendar with pictures of competitors in the Paralympics, and distributed 50,000 copies.
Not only does this kind of partnership give Kreston Menon local credibility, but when the calendar reaches people, “they can see that we are not just about commerial activity, and our name enters hearts and minds,” says Sudhir.
At the same time, Kreston Menon networks hard with leaders in business, government and the social arena.
“Over a period of time we’ve got to know all the key businesspeople,” says Sudhir. “We work with all the embassies, consulates, business councils and chambers of commerce. We interact with them and do work for them – it might even be pro bono at first, but this later transforms into a commercial relationship.
“We go out of our way to be helpful!”
To cement these relationships, and help anchor Kreston Menon as a leading voice, it sends out a print newsletter every quarter to 50,000 contacts, in English and in Arabic. As well as business prospects, this includes decision-makers and influencers.
“We do not talk about ourselves in the newsletter,” says Sudhir.“It is about sharing our knowledge with the market. We analyse any subject that might be of interest to local business.”
The result of all this activity is that Kreston Menon has become an influencer itself – leading to explosive growth.
So what can other Kreston firms learn?
Clearly, Kreston Menon’s strategy of networking with local embassies and consulates is not transferrable to every firm.
But you can still make sure that you are positioned uniquely, compared to your competitors.
“It’s a crowded market,” says Sudhir. “How to you stand out will depend on the variables in your locale, but you must make sure you come across as different.”
You can still find the enablers in your own market, build relationships with them and work with them.
And you can still communicate with them instensely, and strive to be helpful to them.
“Have dialoge with them on topics that are key to them, not to you, so you are in tune with them,” adds Sudhir. “And show an impact and empathy to society around you, and to your local business community – wherever you are.”
Could this strategy work for you? Is this something you have tried?
Get in touch and let me know!
June 4, 2019
By Kreston CEO, Liza Robbins.
For the past three years, the average annual growth rate of Kreston GCG in the Ukraine has been around 50%.
In 2018, 48% of sales came from brand-new clients.
They are now the 7th largest audit firm in their country.
These are astonishing figures, compared to many accountancy firms which struggle to grow at all. And it is even more astonishing, considering that Kreston GCG is less than 20 years’ old.
So how did they do it?
The secret to their success is one that every Kreston firm can emulate.
In my last email, I argued that in today’s hyper-competitive market, you have to do more than simply shift towards advisory services if you want to thrive.
Kreston GCG has understood another fundamental point.
Being technically outstanding is not enough to sell your services, particularly in a market where many services are commoditised. Most of your competitors are probably very good at what they do, too.
So you cannot expect potential clients to choose you, “just” because of excellence.
Nor can you rely on word-of-mouth if you want to see significant growth. Relying on references is out of your control, and difficult to scale.
If you are serious about growing, you need to be much more business focused, and create a reliable, repeatable system to bring in new clients and new work.
That is exactly what Kreston GCG did, back in 2014.
“We had great auditors on our team, but they didn’t have the skills, experience or desire to sell. They were also very busy with technical work,” Managing Partner Sergey Atamas told me recently. “So we decided to set up a separate sales department, just like other B2B companies.”
Nowadays there are 14 members of the department – approximately 10% of Kreston GCG’s staff – including account managers, business development managers and development partners.
They use 12 different channels to nurture more than 13,000 leads and prospects in their CRM system. A call centre handles new outgoing calls, repeat sales and cross-sales – this is their most successful channel. Sales are also constantly increasing through social media, PR, SEO, Adwords and Inbound channels.
The process is highly structured.
Each new name is led through a well-though-out, cross-channel campaign to warm them up. Only once they are familiar with Kreston GCG do they receive a phone call.
The process is carefully tracked and controlled. And with time, the results become predictable.
“If we make 100 calls, we know exactly how many commercial proposals will result,” says Sergey. “By looking at how many leads we attract today, we can predict our future cash flow, allowing us to plan far ahead.”
Similarly, the sales team each have personal KPIs, including goals for the number of proposals they need to generate.
It’s all part of professionalising your sales and marketing process – which is crucial if you want to evolve into a serious player.
“What we’ve learned is that only a sales person can guarantee the kind of growth rates we see every year – not executive partners,” says Sergey. “It takes a machine.”
Is this an approach you have tried? What works best for your firm?
I’m eager to share more best practice from all our firms, so please do hit ‘reply’ and let me know.
And if you’d like to find out more about how Sergey and his team manage their sales process, please do get in touch as well. We are all here to support each other, and I know they would be delighted to speak to you.
Warm regards,
Liza
PS. I have another example of a Kreston firm which has developed a unique, and extremely successful, approach to its own marketing. I’ll tell you more about that next week – watch this space!