Winning CFOs: Implementing and Applying Better Practices, with Website

CHAPTER 9

Marketing the Accounting Team

Accounting teams can never do enough marketing. Lack of marketing is the main reason why accounting teams are not appreciated fully by management and why many accounting team implementations take longer and are less successful than anticipated. If accountants were good marketers, many may well have chosen a different career path. It is important to recognize these shortcomings and to fill the gap with expert advice. Find yourself a marketing mentor, touch base with your in-house public relations (PR) expert, or acquire some PR external advice—you will not regret it.

Some ways you can improve your marketing of your team are:

• Have informative intranet pages, including success stories and the photos and short-form CVs of all of the accounting team members (see Exhibit 9.1 for an example of a team’s intranet page).
• Walk about more—encourage the management and financial accountants, accounts payable staff, and so forth to spend more time on proactive visits.
• Ensure someone from the finance team is attending corporate functions.
• Contribute to your organization’s newsletter.
• Spend time adding value to the senior management team by increasing their understanding of the business.
• Run “coffee for a cause” events where the finance team organizes a coffee break to raise funds for a local charity, and budget holders donate a dollar or so and enjoy some hospitality at the finance team’s office.
• Use morning or afternoon break times for networking with budget holders ...