6 Ways Accounting Leaders Can Cultivate a Growth Culture

Key Points

• Building a growth culture requires clear vision, leadership commitment, and empowering marketing teams with resources and autonomy.
• High-growth firms invest strategically in technology, training, and client loyalty programs to sustain long-term success.
• Measuring performance and maintaining a growth mindset helps firms turn challenges into ongoing opportunities for improvement.

As a leader in an accounting firm today, you’re likely feeling various pressures and concerns regarding firm growth. You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of creating a growth culture, or maybe you’re experiencing challenges with capacity, making you hesitant to even think about growing the firm. It’s easy to get lost in the daily tasks of managing clients and ensuring the smooth operation of your firm. When you add bandwidth challenges, scalability issues, and past marketing failures into the mix, you’re likely ready to hit the pause button on marketing.

The profession’s current state has many firm leaders facing these same issues, and the leaders of the fastest-growing firms all have one thing in common: they understand growth is much more than bringing clients in the door.

So how are the fastest growing firms managing their capacity and cultivating a growth culture, and how can you do the same as a leader? It starts with the right mindset, strategies, and resiliency. In this post, we’ll explore the key ways leaders can champion growth and create a culture of success.

6 Ways Accounting Leaders Can Better Champion Growth

1. Have a Clear Vision

A vision is a critical component of any successful growth strategy. As a leader, you must understand where you’re going and what you’re trying to accomplish. Define your strategy, goals, and objectives, and ensure all team members align with your vision. This will prevent confusion and conflicting messages that can harm your firm’s growth potential.

A costly mistake many firms make is having a revenue goal and not a true vision and direction for the firm’s future. By aligning the entire firm under one vision, you ensure everyone works in the same direction, reducing conflicting and confusing marketing messages.

2. Model the Growth Culture You Want and Commit

Leaders must model the behavior they want to see in their teams, from resilient behavior to accountability. Commit to the growth culture and support it publicly. That means talking about it internally in a positive way, showing up, and promoting it. Everyone takes their tone from the top. It’s crucial to understand that leaders risk sabotaging marketing efforts if they don’t show their commitment. While you may not agree with every tactic, supporting them is essential.

3. Provide Resources

To ensure the success of your growth strategy, you must provide the necessary resources to your marketing team. Give them a budget, adequate personnel, and proper technology.

Our 2023 Growth Survey found that compared to other firms, high-growth firms invest more in six essential firm resources: SEO, Client Loyalty Programs, Internal Training, Video Production, Pay-per-click advertising, and Technology.

Additionally, high-growth firms are increasing their marketing and sales staff at higher rates than slower-growing firms. Your efforts will be more effective with the right tools, data, and labor. Tie in growth strategy surveys and statistics to show your team how important their work is.

4. Empower Your Marketing Team

Your marketing team is the foundation for sustainable growth; if they’re empowered to be the experts they are. The marketing team knows your clients and audience and how to reach them; they want to see the firm succeed. So how can you ensure you’re getting the best out of your marketing team?

There are several key intervals where your marketing team can add value. First is ensuring you take advantage of diverse thought and tap your marketing team as strategic partners. The creative brain thinks and sees things differently than the logical brain, and the marketing team is likely to see potential roadblocks and avenues of growth that might otherwise go unnoticed. Additionally, including the marketing team in strategic planning ensures alignment between the firm’s vision, growth goals, and messaging.

Second is the value of bringing the marketing team to the table whenever the firm considers new products or services. Just as the firm helps set up clients for success with financial knowledge, the marketing team does for the firm with in-depth knowledge of key markets, pricing, and product/service development. The marketing team can also help shape the messaging and the service from the beginning, saving time, money, and resources, adding a net positive to the firm’s bottom line.

Last, leaders must give the marketing team autonomy to make decisions; this will supercharge your marketing team and ensure you’re getting the best from their expertise. Allowing them to own the process creates efficiency, another net positive to the firm’s bottom line, and frees firm leaders to focus on bigger things.

Trust their expertise, and they will still seek and value your input.

5. Have a Growth Mindset

One phrase we often hear is some variation of, “Oh, we tried that, and it didn’t work for us.” If that sounds like something you’ve said, you’re not alone. Many firms will try something once, not see the expected results, and assume the tactic did not work and will not try it again. This is a mistake. Successful marketing requires testing and iteration. Leaders of high-growth firms understand this and approach marketing from a test and tweak perspective.

Leaders must learn from what they consider marketing failures and tweak them, not stop marketing because of them. By setting benchmarks and giving the marketing team time to test and evaluate current strategies, firms are more likely to meet the goals set. Marketing is crucial to any growth strategy; leaders must advocate for it in their firms.

6. Monitor and Measure

Invest in the right technology to monitor and measure the success of your growth strategy. Having the right tools and accurate information helps ensure everyone in the firm understands what’s working, what’s not, and where to invest time and money for continued momentum. When your team sees the positive results from their hard work and the data on what’s working and what’s not, they will begin holding themselves accountable to continue the growth.

I have never met an accountant who was not a high achiever and energized by success. And I’d be willing to bet that you, too, that you hold yourself to a high standard. Your team is no different. High-growth firm leaders understand this and ensure their teams have the technology necessary to help the firm grow and succeed. Our 2023 Growth Outlook® found that none of the firms generating $100+ million in revenue said their CRM data was worthless or a waste of time.

Wrapping it Up

Cultivating a culture of growth doesn’t need to be daunting or put off because of capacity issues. High-growth firms recognize that creating a culture of growth focused on the long term is the key to success, not just getting through the day-to-day tasks. With the right mindset and strategy, you can champion growth in your firm.

If you need help putting the tips into practice in your firm, contact us to see how we can help.