CASE STORY: Creating and leveraging their Surefire Strategy™ & Toolkit™ enabled this accounting firm to achieve its five-year goals in two and a half years.
From Startup to Stardom: Proof that leveraging your brand strategy and tools accelerates business growth and success.
When Sangha Tone Chartered Accountants engaged Big Bold Brand, they were a small team of six. Less than two years prior, the partners made the decision to leave a large accounting firm because they were disappointed in the culture and inspired by the opportunities they saw for serving small and medium businesses (SMEs) and innovating service delivery in their industry. These changemakers and disruptors had a vision for how to better support SME business owners and operators.
Their core challenges were clearly articulating their purpose, vision, and promise and defining what differentiated their firm to attract the right clients. In addition, they needed help creating the growth strategy for their firm which would involve acquiring books of clients from retiring accountants. They knew that not just any book would do.
PROBLEMS & CHALLENGES:
PROJECT SCOPE:
“[What Big Bold Brand offered us] wasn’t boilerplate; it was natural for us to follow because we weren’t being forced to follow someone else’s plan. Karley identifies and facilitates the discussions that need to be had; cutting through BS, to keeps us moving ahead and focused. She’s great at pulling common themes and clarity out of our discussions.”
Approach & Solution:
We started with target audience research, interviewing a select group of the ideal clients’ Sangha Tone already served. These interviews aimed to help identify exactly who these clients were, why they chose Sangha Tone Chartered Accountants and the challenges they hired the firm to solve. This information would form the foundation of their ideal target audience profiles and help identify any additional benefits and differentiators of the firm.
Then, working collaboratively with their core leadership team, we guided them through our proven Surefire Method™ to develop a clear core business strategy, authentically differentiated brand positioning and core messaging. In addition, during the process, we taught them how to use the eleven core and strategic elements produced as a robust set of business tools to make strategic business decisions and keep everyone (and everything) aligned with their purpose, values, vision and character.
The resulting Surefire™ Strategy, and the understanding of how to use its accompanying Surefire Toolkit™, worked so well for Sangha Tone that their team doubled in size within two years. They reported a significant increase in the number of ideal referrals from both their strategic partners and existing clients. They experienced 42% growth in the first year following our work together and 70% in the second. They also enticed two stellar senior accountants, one out of early retirement and the other out of solo practice, to join the team and help them grow the firm. All of this growth was achieved with no paid marketing or advertising, instead building a strong reputation and brand by delivering noteworthy service, nuturing relationships with clients and strategic partners and acquiring right-fit books of clients.
Impact:
As a result of their rapid short-term success and ROI from their work with us, Sangha Tone engaged Big Bold Brand multiple times over the next four years. After each growth spurt, they engaged us to helped them evolve and refine elements of their Surefire Strategy & Toolkit™, set new growth goals, synchronize their expanding team and keep all things aligned and in tune as their business continued its high-trajectory growth curve. They grew their book, team and top-line revenue exponentially through their ability to attract and close ideal clients and by acquisition of right-fit firms.
They were able to boost their bottom line by leveraging their Surefire Strategy™ to build a solid reputation, stellar client experience and strong referral network. Even under the pressure of rapid growth, the leadership team developed a stellar team culture and a notable reputation. This, in turn, drove a steady stream of referral business which meant they never once invested in paid marketing initiatives.
Within only six years, the partners entertained acquisition offers from several larger accounting firms in the market. After their successful acquisition, partner Eva Tone shared with us, “It was so easy to vet and select the right company to acquire us! All we needed to do was ask ourselves if a prospective buyer was aligned with our Surefire Strategy™ – our purpose, values, vision and character; and if this would be the right fir for our clients. Our work with you paid off right until the end of Sanga Tone and continues to pay off because of all that we learned from you!”
ROI:
“Karley is driven to provide value for her clients. She was able to help us cut through the noise and distractions to keep us moving through the process toward the end goal. When we completed our work with BIG BOLD BRAND Inc., we gained the clarity we were seeking, knew exactly how to talk about our firm, and our finished package made perfect sense – it felt authentic. The time investment was absolutely worth it.”
