Traditional marketing strategies that once helped accounting firms grow are becoming less effective. AI-powered search, changing algorithms, and an increasingly crowded digital landscape are making it harder than ever for firms to stand out and attract the right clients.
In this episode, The Connected Accountant producer Anthony Pearl is joined by Wayne Findlay of The Back Room, Talila Croy of Emple, and Ian Aldridge of Progressive Legal to explore why partnership marketing is becoming one of the most effective growth strategies for accounting firms.
The panel discusses how trusted referrals consistently outperform traditional marketing channels, why accountants should focus on building strategic partnerships rather than simply increasing their marketing spend, and how niche positioning helps firms attract higher-quality clients. They also examine how AI is changing client expectations and why the future belongs to firms that combine technology with genuine human relationships.
If you're looking for a smarter way to grow your accounting practice in today's rapidly evolving business environment, this episode offers practical strategies you can start applying immediately.
ANTHONY: Why traditional marketing is failing accountants, the partnership solution to the trust recession. Welcome to the connected accountant, the podcast where we explore how strategic partnerships can transform your accounting practice. I'm your co-host, Anthony Perl, and today we're looking into why traditional marketing methods are becoming exhausted and how partnerships offer a more effective path forward.
WAYNE: The way it works with accountants in specific and being that trusted adviser is the best way to go.
TALILA: As partners, we must respect our partners and make sure that they look amazing for referring us.
IAN: If I was to start the business again, I would start with the partnerships first.
ANTHONY: Joining me today are our three regular panelists who bring incredible expertise to the connected accountant. Talila kroy from Emple, Wayne Findley from the Backroom, and Ian Aldridge from Progressive Legal. Let's get into what will make you the connected accountant. I want to get everyone's opinion on I think what is a really important topic is the exhaustion and the changing level that is attached to marketing these days. the ability to actually stand out and why traditional sources of marketing is not working. And I think Wayne, you're probably closest to accountants in terms of understanding what that is and and particularly with the resources that you're supplying for a lot of accountants in understanding that those traditional methods that they were using to grow the business, they're kind of becoming exhausted
WAYNE: with AI and the search. Now it's changed completely over the last 6 months, one year. So open AI have just bought out a new browser, you know, for instance. So every user of chat GPT, which there are, I think they mentioned, you know, over a billion in the world, they're going to potentially change their browser from say Google to Open AI. So what happens to Google and your old SEO, your search engine optimization, your search engine marketing, all this stuff is changing. engine optimization, your search engine marketing, all this stuff is changing. And so what Talila was saying about having a, you know, you can't find yourself, there's so much noise out there. There's going to be even more noise now with AI getting involved in the marketing. So I think we need to backtrack and go towards the more one-on-one approach. the personal human touch partnership marketing which is we know works and I think the way it works with accountants in in specific and being that trusted advisor is is the best way to go.
TALILA: I mean, I'm about how we started. Like, we've work we've had the privilege of working with a lot of businesses and they've spent tens of thousands of dollars on their marketing funnels and on their websites and all of this stuff and half the time it's totally hit and miss. They have sunk so much time, so much money, so much effort into and now it's even harder because AI is they finally got something established. They spent a lot of money on it and now AI has like shifted all that again.
IAN: We got hit massively with that update as I know a lot of businesses did six months ago in that latest Google algorithm update. I mean we got 500 pages on our website. We suddenly went from some of these you know with very you know high ranking keywords in the you know top five to like suddenly 77 um because you know it wasn't fast enough on mobile devices. So, like I know a number of businesses for the first month or two are like, "What has happened? Where where is this?" And and I know CEO businesses have just had to haul really fast to work out what to do to try to mandate this and fix it. And of course, that takes money, time, energy, effort. That's been an enormous distraction for us for the last 3 months. It's been one of my top priorities to get this all sorted. And this is it's all very costly and distracting to regain effectively that trust from Google. And just to your point to about you know AI people are I noticed as well too people are coming to the firm now saying I asked Grock. Yeah. I asked Gemini. I asked the AI who was the best blah blah blah in in this and and you guys consistently came up. But so now people they're going to trust the AI more than they're going to trust you know Google necessarily. So this is really changing. And just one more thing to you mentioned, you know, the first stage to your business. you did the partnership route and I think I did the opposite and went to the broader market first looking at all the traffic and all this sort of stuff and thinking oh there's all this traffic out there and then what we have but then I didn't realize at the time when I started how much time and energy and effort is put into really making sure that those Tom Dick Harry Stacy Karen Richard you know like you get everyone in their dog and you know 50% of the people are not a good fit because you know 50% of people aren't like great and some of them sleep through but you know you do your best and you do the work for them and then they don't value your advice. You know they can talk they can say all the right things first and then after a while turn out to be not nice people. And I think if I was to start the business again I would start with the partnerships first because when your time is critical and if you're not on the tools of being a technician you know that makes it really challenging as a person starting up. you know, you want you want to get as many qualified good clients in the door as soon as possible to get to that break even and then you whatever freedom metrics you you you set in place after that, right? So, I think I did it the hard way, but now now we're doing it um you know, we're choosing to do it a bit easier.
TALILA:I happen to know as I worked with you that your metrics like you get so many leads through your website and so on. Yep. Quality of those leads because I I know this because we work together in the sales suitcase, the partner suitcase is those leads who come through partners convert at like 75% for you and they're good top quality clients too. Those ones who come through as you say various marketing things, they convert at a much lower rate and as you've identified, they're not seeing your value because it's not like the trust was transferred and trust is transferable and that's the core, right? We started the way you said in. You come with a halo over your head. You do. You come with a halo. It's like he's the expert. I don't have to doubt. My trusted advisor told me this person is good. And then you can deliver work. Everyone's happier. The client's happy. The partner's happy. You're happy. We started our business that way. So, I was very, very lucky because we just adopted partnerships early. We didn't market to the point that we're only just now like really putting up a proper website. we have just not had to do it because it's been such a source of inbound leads and I was introduced very early on by one of my partners to a major the CEO of a national company and I wouldn't have looked at me if I was trying to do marketing like we were like 2 years old we had a few tiny case studies but my partner she knew the power of what we were doing and she told that CEO and the CEO is like you know if she says you're right then you're right and we went and transformed their company and they from under a million a month to 2.32 2.5 million a month within the 8 and 9 months. That was a huge story for us. And then she that same partner introduced us to a thousand strong company that's not really our target market in the hearing space and national hearing space. You'd all know the name. I'm not allowed to say it. You had to sign it a document in a legal document. But that was another transformation. They went up 40% year on year. And that opening of the door by a trusted partner as you said that gives that trust to you so that you can do amazing work with the right clients. You cannot get that from marketing. You can't get that from anything else. Like forget marketing, forget outbound. Yes, you do have to have a possession on LinkedIn. You do have to do that. But my opinion is even your marketing should be through partners and with partners. It's all like aligned. And I'm passionate about that because it works.
IAN: The people that come through from partnerships, we can all agree they're better quality leads. there's also there's also this accountability as well too, right? Because if I refer someone to Wayne and they're not great, there's going to be blowback to me cuz Wayne's going to call me and say, "Hey, you know that client you sent me? Uh maybe not not anymore like them." So when we're referring clients to because our relationship is with Wayne, you know, we want to make sure that the the clients that we send to Wayne are are are of higher quality and we've and we try and vet them as much as possible before handing them over and saying, "Hey, this person's doing this and you know, and then unfortunately this is just reality, right? If they don't act properly with one or both of us, then the fear I think for the client is, oh, I'm going to lose both of them. So like I need to be good to both of And so there's a bit of accountability there, too.
TALILA: It's also accountability between partners because if you give a partner, your client, you're looking at that partner to make sure they do a freaking awesome job. And that client knows that. It's like, I was referred by so and so. They said they're good. They've trusted their reputation on this person. So that means that as partners, we must respect our partners and make sure that they look amazing for referring us. And part of what we've all built together that are here in cell suitcase is that system and I know Wayne you're super big on this
IAN: because that relationship is worth more than the individual client that you know that you send.
TALILA: Exactly.
IAN: So if you value that relationship, you got to work hard at keeping it and make sure that and I have all sorts of great conversations with, you know, with accountants that we refer work to where we can talk very frankly about particular clients and make sure, okay, they need this, you know, they're going to need a lot of handholding for this, This
WAYNE: know how to deal with them, you know. Yeah.
IAN: Yeah. Cuz everyone's different and there's there's a big left and right of arc, isn't there?
WAYNE: Yeah. Yeah. If I was to set up an accounting firm again, and I don't have my accounting firm now, but if I was to start from scratch, you know, my marketing budget would be a lot lower than what it was back back in the day. So just through partnership, having a good partnership sort of structured setup and then having a good referral scheme as well for clients, I think that goes a long way to what you need in accounting today to to set yourself up. So remember as well when you're talking about having a partnership, it's not just on you. It it can be on the rest of the people in your firm. So it is in a way a bit like a pyramid scheme. If you've got five partners, you can have five different partnership structures set up. Then under that you've got all your senior managers and accountants. So if you look at the power of partnerships multiplied by the number of people in your firm, then that should give you more than enough good quality leads and referrals to come through into your into your firm. It's just about being structured about it. That and that's where Talila comes in with what she does. So I think that's the important but that was missing when we had our accounting firm, you know, like 10 years ago. We weren't as structured as what we are now. And I think that's the key.
TALILA: I think that what Wayne touched on was there's so many things here that both Wayne and Ian said. You get lots of referrals. You get them when they're warm, like at the point of buying. You get them with trust. They believe in you. So, the conversion is higher. The client value is higher. The experience is better. Everyone enjoys it, including the client, cuz they're being looked after by two professionals working hand in hand to make sure nothing's going wrong. But then there's all these other doors that get open. You do marketing partnerships together, podcasts, master classes, you know, you call each other out, you showcase one another's talents. There often also there are other opportunities that come from that. An example of that would be Anthony, you and I, we've created a joint venture partnership for partners to podcast and that's a whole another little area in your business which is a fantastic like it showcases your ability to manage panelists and bring back together all these threads of communication. So layer upon layer, you can have new income streams. You can differentiate just about every problem in your business, partnerships can fix. And for no one more than accountants in this time of unsteadiness where they want to get rid of or stop being the compliance people and become the trusted advisor, proactive people to make more revenue. This couldn't be more timely, more focused, and it solves the marketing challenges of today.
ANTHONY: Yeah, I think it's an important point that you make there, Talila, in terms of marketing. And I think picking up on something you said earlier, Wayne, and I wanted to to drive this back to you, is you talked about where they spend the marketing budget. And I think those traditional methods uh are one thing, and you can decrease that, but increasing and doubling down on partnerships is going to be a huge thing. And part of that as well is the idea of niching which I think is something that accountants perhaps haven't got their head quite around as perhaps lawyers do. So I mean Wayne, what are you seeing as far as niching is concerned for accountants?
WAYNE: I think it's important to niche and that's not to say it's the only thing you do but you need a point of marketing. When we had our accounting firm our niche were tradies one Scott and I we like dealing with tradies. We we weren't suit and tie type peoples. We weren't the corporate the boardroom type scenarios. We we loved going out and having a beer or a coffee with someone and and the to sit down and talk to your builders or plumbers and sparkies talking business, you know, maybe it was over a beer or a co was great and we could relate to them. And at the time we had the earthquake in Christ Church and we had an office up in Christ Church. So there was a lot of new people coming into town. The the existing clients up there were inundated with work and so they were struggling with some how to run their business properly because it was just so the volumes were coming through. There was a lot of change and we would run workshops and events for trades. We had breakfast. We would invite Zero along to those and they would talk about from their point of view. It was great having zero because they had a big budget as well, so they would pay for it. And then we just ran lots of events. We would do sausage sizzles, you know, out at the building sites and talk to the local tradies there. So, we got known as being the accountants for tradies. And we would tell our people, and if I did it again, I'd be more succinct on that. I would tell Ian, hey Ian, we're the people that you go to for tradies and this is the type of client that we like. We didn't go to that level, which I think we should do now. That's the sort of thing that you should niche and and tell your partners that that's what you're about.
IAN: We know as well too, there are some, you know, accountants that we know that specifically like their hospitality or food and beverage, that's their jam or trady. We try and find out from the referral partners what their sort of genius zone is or what they want more of. What do they love that they want more of?
WAYNE: That's the wording is love. What you want more of, but it's not to say you're not going to refer someone else to them because they only do that. It's what you need.
IAN: But when you got to tell the whole team, right? You got to tell the whole team, hey, hey guys, whenever there's a dirt type of client that needs an accountant, that's the person we send them to.
TALILA: And that's part of again what we do in partner suitcase. Start with who is your ideal client and how you're going to communicate this to your partner. And that's why I'm very excited about we're running a partner suitcase for advisory and accountants that's specifically accountant focused based on our knowledge and everything we've learned with Wayne as well about how accountants work and who they need and and why. It starts with clarity on who's your ideal client and all the messages that you're going to give your partner to equip them to find that client and open the door for you as well. Make it as easy as possible to the point where I always like to make it like a zap. When something when this arises in your business, that's the one you think of and there's an immediate flow through to that partner. And that's what we building in partner suitcase. It's so awesome to see that happen. So yeah,
IAN: one of the things on the partner suitcase to that I I realized as well too was through the process and and I think we're we're all a little bit guilty perhaps of it but we think that people know exactly what we do and all the the range of services that we can provide and either either they think that we can do everything and like I still get referrals for like criminal law and family law and estate work which I've never done, never never going to do, uh, which we then have to refer on to other partners that we've we've partnered with, but going through that partner suitcase and working out how to present this in the correct format and, you know, and just go through in a structured way and like what are what's the stuff that you're really good at? What's your difference and your why and what type of clients are ideal for you? So that then they can understand really clearly and you just can't you can't rely on just that one conversation, you know, to to communicate that. You need to follow up and have a structure to it.
TALILA: Yeah. With assets, you know, and I think you said to me, Ian, that you went and showed partners you were already working with, you know, your partner deck. And they like, I didn't realize you did that. Oh, that looks so professional. I can send you those people. And you had little door open.
IAN: Yeah. We had partners that we were working with for five, ten years and they didn't know that we did that piece of work before and that we love it and we're good at it and then they'll go, "Oh, cool. Yeah, well, I'll send you all those I'll send you all those clients." Great. I didn't realize that you didn't know.
TALILA: That's the thing is the communication element. Like I work in the space of sales, but I don't consider it sales. I consider it communication like clear, crisp communication. This is what the client needs. This is what we have. Let's put them together and make it really easy for them. very burn very few calories to understand what we offer. And it's the same with partners. And that's why in the partners case, we treat it like a step-by-step process where you're finding that partner, creating trust with them, understanding each other, aligning values, and then really equipping them to get you the right people and letting them equip you to get the right people. And I think that's where we're different from anything I've seen in terms of building partnerships out there. And for accountants, it's pretty straightforward, almost paint by numbers. As Wade would tell you, there's a number of accountants partners that accountant needs, right? There's like a little circle of partners that every accountant needs. And I'd say many of them have some of them, but not others. If they can get them all firing and firing the right way, they're sitting in the center of that as a trusted advisor. They're getting so much work.
WAYNE: And these that your marketing budget as a result of that is a lot smaller than say you went to an agency, you know, God knows what they're going to tell you to do, but you're just going to see dollar signs and but are you going to get bang for your buck? Whereas I think if you invested in partnership marketing which from an accounting perspective and if you're in a small rural town or if you're in a even in the big cities everybody has a network that you relate to or your little community that's within the city. So, I think your your budget spend is way less and two, it's a lot more enjoyable. And I think three, everybody's getting sick of Zoom and all these meetings online. Yes. Let's get back to face to face. Yeah. Connect. Hey, let's sit down and and talk to people, you know, have a beer with someone or a coffee and you're going to learn a lot about the people that your partners and also your clients. Sit down with your clients. Like it's it's so easy nowadays to get on Zoom and and talk to people. And if you're an accountant who wants to be that trusted advisor, I do think you got to press the flesh. We have to meet those people and then you'll earn that trust and you'll find out what's really going on and what they need. So yeah, that's I think it's important back to the old human touch. Couldn't agree more. Yeah.
IAN: Yeah. In this digital age as well too and especially I think co really brought that out too and we are social animals really we like to you know um and certainly there are there are people who are more extroverts and more introverts. Some people I mean some really big introverts love but I think generally like we we do crave that human interaction of course as Talila does too service clients all around Australia and New Zealand and whenever I see a client come through that's from Sydney I'm like oh where are they based? Oh, cool. Let well let's organize a face to face a coffee. Like it's like a and I've convinced myself that this is enjoyable. You know, this is this is important. And I take the opportunity to try and meet as many clients as I can face to face if they are, you know, based locally. But one of the things I thought too because just going back to that point about the trusted adviser I think there's now a lot of news that I've seen in business and in legal and accounting space that our roles are going to fundamentally and any professional adviser really our roles are going to change significantly in the next 5 to 10 years and that's going to change in terms of the knowledge that clients have when they come to us because they're going to be armed with more information. Whether it's right or wrong, they are they're going to be armed with it. And they're going to want more advice from us as effectively business advisers in a way and guiding them strategically with their business, not just in the technical aspects of what we of what we do. Of course, we're going to be able to talk about those technical aspects when we're advising them, but I think clients are really going to want a lot more of the guidance and direction and also telling them where to go for what type of you know um advisor as well too for that human element. I think that's going to be part of the change because the level of output of legal and financial accounting services is going to lift you know significantly perhaps more so with legal than anything else but that's because I I know what the quality of legal work generally is out there and I know that it's going to just lift with AI massively. So when the quality of the output's going to increase, then they're going to need discrete pieces of advice about particular clauses in contracts alone, not entirety of stuff and also negotiations and you know stuff where you need that human to human contact a lot more. I think it's a really exciting time for professional services, accounting, lawyering, and advisory work for us to really, like you said before, stand out from everyone else where you're there trust advisor across the business generally and and also have the contacts and the and the people you can refer to that can get that same or similar advice in that particular space as well too and and are conscious of this now because it's going to change really fast in 5 10 years, right?
TALILA:I think the accounting industry faces a bit of a perfect storm right now, but it's also the biggest opportunity in years. And it's not just accounting, it is professional services, right? We've got all the smart firms are now offshoring, you know, and they're also integrating AI and automation like Wayne's firm back does. We've got 150, you know, clients that are flourishing. But that means alliance is being commoditized and as you say, people are turning to AI to get advice. there are falling margins in that area and there's an increased client expectation. Clients are expecting more and that's also the opportunity because it's now easier to do advisory for accountants I think and I think that the firms that win won't be those who market harder. I think they'll be the ones who partner smarter, who are getting the right opportunities put in front of them, who are helping clients make 1 plus 1 equals 3 by working with the partners around them to help those clients businesses lift. And that's why we're excited to do the partner suitcase for accounting and advisory because it's not just going to help the accountants to build the freedoms and turn them into that trusted adviser, but it's also going to help all the businesses that they touch because this is an opportunity to reframe themselves and help all their clients.
ANTHONY: I just want to wrap this discussion up and with you Wayne because I come back to something that you said in the beginning and all of you have touched on is around the idea of niching and I think the point that's being made here is very much that with people getting armed with more and more information from AI and other sources you have to become an expert in a particular area and then have other experts that you can refer to along the way. And that's the change that's happening and needs to happen in accounting firms, isn't it?
WAYNE: Yeah, I think so. Like you know our niche like we mentioned was was tradies and in my current business is accountants and it all revolves around partnerships is how we market today. So I think when you look at your accounting firm think about where you can niche where there's a need and there's business advisory should revolve around that as well. It's a lot easier as Talla said to do business advisory than what it used to be in the old days. If you can imagine trying to do a business plan back in, you know, in 2000s, you know, that was a huge job. It would take, you know, hours of work. It today with the where AI is your tool, it's a lot easier. And so, I think you can niche and you can make sure that you tell your partners about that. and end did that. You got to tell what's your ICP, what's your ideal client, and then that's part of having this in your your centricity. Tell your tell your partners what you do and get that message out and then you'll get those leads come back in. So, your niching's important.
ANTHONY: Well, that's all we have time for in this conversation. Next time, we're exploring how accountants can adapt business models through strategic partnerships and AI to enhance client relationships and drive growth. It's one you definitely do not want to miss. A reminder also about our exclusive roundt events for accountants. Details in the show notes, including dates and registration information. All contact information for Talila, Wayne, and Ian is also there in the show notes. This is a partner alchemy podcast for thought leaders, a joint venture between Emple and my team at podcastdoneforyou.com.au. I'm Anthony Perl reminding you to like, share, comment, and subscribe so you never miss an episode. See you next time on the connected accountant.
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