外文翻译--发展会计师事务所的营销理念

外文翻译

Developing the Marketing Concept in Public Accounting Firms

Material Source:https://www.360docs.net/doc/b42463685.html,/Author:Tyzoon and Albert

INTRODUCTION

The Metcalf Report of the Senate Subcommittee on Reports, Accounting, and Management has declared that the public accounting profession needs to foster competition. 1 The accounting establishment faces a curious dilemma: aggressive marketing activity is a necessary ingredient in intensified competition, yet this activity is all too often perceived to conflict with professional standards of ethical conduct. To some extent this conflict arises out of a misconception of marketing. The scope of modem marketing stretches far beyond the solicitations and hardsell of the Fuller Brush Salesman or the skillful manipulations described by social critics such as Vance Packard. The purpose of this paper is to develop the relevance of a marketing orientation to firms providing public accounting services. Though the paper focuses on public accountants, the methodology developed here could be extended to the marketing of the other professional services. At a fundamental level, the formulation of marketing strategy consists of four steps. They are:(1) To identify the needs of current and prospective clients for services and information; to identify their current behavior and the problems they encounter.(2) To partition the total market into segments so as to highlight the different needs and problems of various groups.(3) To select one or more of these segments as the target(s) of the firm's business activities.(4) To design and implement client services, including communication programs which convey the benefits these services could provide to prospects in the target markets. The following section reviews existing research on selection of public accounting firms. The next section develops the first two of the above steps. The results of a telephone survey of chief executive officers and chief financial offiers in privately held high technology finns are reported as a case example. In addition, the evolution of a small firm and its accounting needs is presented in a hypothetical example to dramatize the research results. The discussion then turns to the last two of the above four steps. Here the focus broadens from client needs to include an understanding of

the strengths and weaknesses of the CPA firm which is formulating the strategy. The marketing audit is introduced as a vehicle for formulating marketing strategy and evaluating performance. Taylor and Thompson (1962) report on a study of the selection decision for 222 manufacturing firms. The criteria that firms used in selecting a public accounting firm were its reputation, professional standing, competence, national and international coverage, and knowledge of the client firm and its industry. Over 85% of the firms had not changed their CPA firm for more than 10 years because the change would be costly and time-consuming, result in a loss of continuity and, perhaps, be adversely viewed by the business community. Approximately 95% of the firms use their CPA firms for services other than the annual audit. These services include preparation of tax returns, evaluation of acquisition, merger and consolidation prospects, internal cost accounting and development of management information systems and special studies in the areas of financing, pension funds, profit sharing programs, and foreign subsidy organization and operation. About half the firms used their CPA firm as consultants on management problems. Burton and Roberts (1967) studied the firms on the Fortune list of the 500 largest industrial firms. For the period of 1952-1965, only 83 firms showed a change of its CPA firm for reasons other than the merger of the public accounting firm. Of these changes, only five were to a smaller sized CPA firm, 31 were from a small CPA firm to a Big 8 firm, and in 46 cases, the outgoing and incoming CPA firms were of comparable size. The principal reasons for the change were a shuffle in the client firm's management (31 cases), the need for additional services (17 cases), and the need for new financing (9cases). Disputes or dissatisfaction were mentioned in only 11 cases and the fee was an issue in only one of the cases. Beding field and Loed (1974) identified 250 firms registered with the SEC which had changed CPA firms between November, 1971 and February, 1973. They surveyed 141 of these companies and found that the fees of the outgoing firm and dissatisfaction with it were cited in over 40% of the cases. When the change involved movement from a non-national CPA firm to a national CPA firm, there was often pressure to do so from the investment bankers involved in the client company. In a survey of 165 firms which went public in the last quarter of 1969 and the first quarter of 1970, Carpenter and Strawser (1971) found that, in over half the cases the public accounting firm had been changed in the five years prior to going public. This is in contrast to the other studies cited above which found a relatively low incidence of changes in CPA firms. The figure, however, supports our contention that the period of early growth of a company places stress its

management system, and hence on its relation with its CPA firm. There is a clear gap in the literature which points to the need to study companies which are privately held and in early growth stages.

CLIENT NEEDS AND MARKET SEGMENTS: The marketing concept advocates a strategy which emphasizes the satisfaction of customer needs as a key to success in the market. Hence, it becomes imperative to monitor the needs of the market. In the case of a CPA firm with branch offices in several geographic areas and a diverse client base, it would be dangerous to assume that informal reporting procedures will result in a coherent market information system. Instead a periodic formal report from personnel who have a high degree of client contact would be necessary. The design and administration of such a reporting system, of course, must be sensitive to the organizational structure of the CPA firm. A major limitation of such an information system is that it is a poor vehicle for evaluating new clients and new markets with whom the CPA firm has no contact. Marketing research which surveys new markets is invaluable in the assessment of market needs. Key individuals in prospective client organizations can be interviewed to answer questions such as: What influences the search for and selection of a CPA firm? Who influences this process? What services are used by the client? In this section these issues, and others, are analyzed on the bases of a telephone survey of a particular target market, namely the small, technology-intensive firm. The survey was limited to the 140 privately held high technology firms in the San Francisco Bay Area, with 15 to 150 employees and which was listed in the American Electronics Association directory. The interest in these firms was motivated by their rapid growth which, it was hoped, would provide insight into the stress which growth places on the auditing, accounting, and information needs of a firm. Also, the top management of these firms typically consists of individuals with scientific and technical backgrounds, and hence, such firms are in particular need of management advice from their CPA firm. Moreover, existing studies of CPA selection have concentrated on large public firms, ignoring the small private firm (Beding field and Loeb, 1974;Burton and Roberts, 1967; Taylor and Thompson, 1962).The sample consisted of 140 firms in the 15 to 150 employee range. Of these firms, 112 agreed to participate in the survey. The 80%completion rate was achieved through a combination of pre interview notification by mail, and telephone interviews. The characteristics of the non-respondents were examined and were not significantly different from those of respondents. The person interviewed was either the chief executive officer (CEO) or the chief financial officer (CFO) depending on their

availability. If neither were available, an assistant to either of these individuals was interviewed. In the 112 firms interviewed, the respondents were 22 chief executive officers, 64 chief financial officers and 24 assistants reporting to these titles. 60 of the cooperating firms reported annual sales of less than $3 million, 35 firms reported sales in the $4 to 7million range, and 35 firms reported sales greater than $8 million.

Since the American Electronics Association considers a small high technology firm to be one with less than $15 million sales, and since the Small Business Administration defines a small manufacturing firm to be one with less than 250 employees, the sample is representative of the target market we have chosen to concentrate on. The content of the interview probed the criteria used in evaluating a CPA firm, the organizational influences on the selection process, accounting services used and the level of satisfaction with these services, the frequency of changing CPA firms, and the awareness of alternative CPA firms. The analysis of the survey results are discussed next.

CRITERIA INFLUENCING SELECTION OF CPA FIRM: The needs of clients can be measured by the importance they place on various criteria in their selection of a CPA firm. It gives the mean importance, measured on a scale of I to 3, placed on several criteria by the respondents in the survey 2. The personalization of the service plays the most important role as indicated by the importance placed on rapport with and attention from CPA personnel. This suggests that the creation of rapport between client and accounting firm, and the involvement of audit and tax partners in the contacts with prospective clients are likely to generate new accounts. The speed with which services are provided and the amount of the fee are next most important. Here the client is stressing the need for timely information and assistance at a reasonable cost. At the other end of the spectrum sales, presentations by the CPA firm, promotional literature distributed by the CPA firm, and other impersonal communications with a sales intent are not influential in the selection of a CPA firm. This last result speaks to the "sales orientation" which has been the typical response of most CPA firms as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants relaxes restriction on solicitation. Unlike "marketing orientation," the "sales orientation" of promotional literature and presentations does not explicitly encompass a recognition of client needs.The aggregate analysis of the sample, however, may obscure differences between segments of the sample. A breakdown of the sample in terms of the title of the respondent, the size of the firm as represented by its annual gross sales, and the current CPA firm used found significant differences in the importance placed

on the availability of a management letter and domestic or foreign branch offices. Chief financial officers place a higher value on the management letter than do chief executive officers. Larger firms and those who currently use a Big 8 CPA firm are also influenced by the availability of a management letter and branch offices more than firms which are small or do not use a Big 8 firm. Another interesting result is that the average importance placed on all criteria by large firms is higher than indicated for the same criteria by small firms, perhaps suggesting a more well developed screening process in the case of the former and the need for education in the case of the latter. ROLE INFLUENCES IN SELECT ROLE INFLUENCES IN SELECTION OF CPA FIRM:Besides the criteria involved in the process of selecting a CPA firm, the people involved are also a determining factor. Respondents rated, on a scale of I to 3, the degree to which several parties played a role in the selection process. Table 2 shows that the chief executive and financial officers are the people to whom a CPA firm's marketing activities need to be targeted. Moreover, the role of the chief financial officer takes on added significance in larger firms. Also, as might be expected, respondents tend to overstate their own role in the selection process. Respondents who are chief executive officers inflate their role and deflate that of the chief financial officer. This suggests that even in firms where the chief financial officer is in fact the dominant influence in the selection process, the chief executive officer's own role perception may require some marketing activity directed towards him. An additional interesting finding is that as the size of a firm increases the chief executive officer's influence on the CPA selection process declines slightly, whereas that of the chief financial officer becomes more dominant. This probably arises from the growing pressure on the chief executive officer to delegate decisions in specific functional areas.

ACCOUNTING SERVICES USED: The use of accountant services by electronic firms and the resultant level of satisfaction can provide further insights into market needs.The percentage of firms which use various types of services offered by CPA firms. Audited financial statements and tax related services are used by over 80% of the firms, but services related to management information and advice are used by less than two thirds of the sample. Thus the CPA firm's role is more to help the client firm deal with the information needs of external audiences such as the government and shareholders. However, smaller firms are more likely to turn to the CPA firm for tax and management advice, reflecting perhaps a management with largely technical, as opposed to business training. Smaller firms also find less need for audited financial

statements, possibly because there is less likely to be a separation of ownership and control. Surprisingly, the availability of a management letter to small firms was less than 50%. This can be partly attributed to a lack of appreciation for what a management letter is and can do. A CPA firm wishing to compete in the smaller firm sector would be well advised to stress the availability of a management letter, though it should be sensitive to a lack of knowledge about the value of this service, especially among a technically oriented management. Whether or not a management letter is provided is related to the level of satisfaction towards the CPA firm. Of the clients who rated their CPA firm as excellent, 57% received a management letter whereas of those who rated their CPA firm as only adequate, 47% received a management letter. Though this difference is not statistically significant in our sample, the direction of the difference is insightful .The partitioning of the sample in terms of whether or not theircurrent CPA is a Big 8 firm yielded similar results to the partitioning on sales level, as firms with larger sales are more likely to have a Big 8 firm.

译文

发展会计师事务所的营销理念

资料来源：https://www.360docs.net/doc/b42463685.html,/

作者：Tyzoon T. Tyebjee, Ph.D. and Albert V. Bruno, Ph.D.

在关于公共会计行业的报告中，会计和管理参议院小组委员会梅特卡夫宣称，公共会计行业需要促进竞争。会计机构面临的一个奇怪的两难境地：积极的营销活动是在激烈的竞争，但这一活动的必要因素常常是知觉与专业水准的道德行为的冲突。这在一定程度的冲突产生于一个市场营销的误解。对现代营销范围延伸远远超出了募捐和富勒牙刷推销员哈德森或由诸如惠普万斯社会批评家所描述的熟练操作。本文的目的是发展一个营销导向的企业提供相关的公共会计服务。虽然会计师的重点是开发这里，其中的方法可以推广到其他专业服务营销。在最基本的层面上，

（1）确定为服务和信息当前和未来客户的需求，市场营销策略的制定包括四个步骤。

确定其目前的行为和他们所遇到的问题。（2）分割成段的总市场以突出不同的需求和问题。（3）要选择一个作为该公司的业务活动目标，并细分他们的市场。（4）系统设计和实施客户服务，其中包括通信方案的好处，传达这些服务可以提供给目标市场的前景。接下去的部分综述了公共会计事务所选择现有的研究，发展了上述步

骤中的前两步。在私人控股的高科技芬兰人的首席执行官和首席财务官员电话调查的结果报告为案例。此外，一个小公司，其会计需求的演变，提出了在一个假设的例子要夸大其词的研究成果。讨论然后转身对上述四个步骤的后两个。在这里，重点扩大从客户需要包括对优势和注册会计师事务所正在制定的战略弱点的认识。引入市场营销审计是作为制订营销策略，评价者泰勒和汤普森（1962年）在决策的研究中，选择了222制造公司的车辆作为对象。选择的标准，在一家公共会计公司所使用的公司和它的声誉，专业地位，能力，国家和国际覆盖面，对客户公司及其行业知识相联系。超过85％的公司并没有改变10年以上的会计师事务所，因为他们的变化将会是昂贵和费时，导致不良的连续性，甚至可能会受到不利的损失。大约95％的公司使用他们自己的会计师事务所做每年的审计。这些服务包括准备纳税申报，收购，兼并和合并的前景，内部成本会计和管理信息系统和资金，养老基金，利润分享方案等领域的专门研究发展评价，国外资助的组织和运作。大约有一半的企业作为管理顾问公司的会计师事务所的问题。伯顿和罗伯茨（1967）研究了在财富500家最大工业企业名单的企业。在1952年至1965年期间，只有83个公司展示了其会计师事务所的原因，而对会计师事务所合并其他的改变研究并不详尽。针对这些变化的研究，只有5个较小规模的会计师事务所，31个由小向大变更的会计师事务所，以及46家即将卸任和即将上任的同等规模的会计师事务所在进行。这种变化的主要原因是，在客户公司的管理层（31例），对（17例的额外服务的需求洗牌，并为新的融资（9例）的需要。提到纠纷或不满的只有11个案件，而费用问题只存在于一个案件中。在床上用品领域，罗德（1974年）确定了在1971年的十一月和1973年的二月之间更换注册会计师事务所的250个公司。他们调查了其中的141个企业发现，对即将离任的公司费用表示不满的超过了所调查案例中的40%。当变更涉及从非国家会计师事务所转向国家运动会计师事务所时，客户公司所涉及的投资银行家往往会有压力。在这165个上市公司在1969年最后一个季度和1970年第一季的调查，卡普腾和斯特劳瑟（1971）发现，超过一半的会计师事务所已在五年之前，将改变案件公开。这与此相反的是上述其他研究发现了其中的会计师事务所变更发生率相对较低。但是这个数字，支持我们的论点，即对公司的地方的早期生长阶段的压力，因此在其与会计师事务所的关系及其管理系统中，有一个文献，其中指出，需要研究在早期生长阶段是私人持有的公司和明显的差距。

客户需求和市场细分:营销观念的战略主张，强调以客户的满意度作为在市场上取得成功的关键。因此，它成为监察市场的迫切需求。如果一个会计事务所在几个地方有一些分支机构而且还拥有广泛的客户基础，那么假设非正式的报告程序的存在，就会产生一个连贯的市场信息系统。相反的，一个正式报告，从人员定期谁拥有高度的客户联系是必要的。这样的设计和举报制度，当然肯定对会计师事务所的组织结构很敏感。这样的信息系统，在评估那些与会计师事务所没有

接触的新客户和新市场方面有一个重大的局限性。市场调查研究的新市场在市场需求的评估中是非常宝贵的。在未来的客户组织的重要个人可以面谈回答这样的问题：什么因素影响搜寻和选择会计师事务所？谁影响这一进程？哪些服务会被客户端所使用？这样或那样的问题，被分析在一个以特定市场为目标的电话调查的基础上的。这些目标名义上即技术密集型的小企业。这项调查仅限于私人持有的140家在旧金山海湾地区的高科技公司，这些公司一般拥有15至150名员工，并且他们是被排列在美国电子协会的目录中。在这些公司的利益是被经济的增长所激励的，这也是他们所希望的，这将提供一个视野深入了解其中的压力增长的地方对审计，会计和一个公司的信息需求。此外，这些公司的高层管理人员通常是拥有科技背景的个人，因此，这些公司特别需要从他们的会计师事务所获取相应的管理建议。此外，注册会计师选择现有研究都集中在大型公共企业，而忽略了小型私人公司（床上用品领域和勒布，1974;伯顿和罗伯特，1967;泰勒和汤普森，1962）。样本中140家企业的雇员范围包括15名至150名。这些公司中，112家企业参加了调查。80％是通过一个由邮件和电话访谈相结合的面试通知完成的。从非受访者特点进行的检查显示，并没有与受访者显现出明显的不同。视其可用性，采访的人要么首席执行长（CEO）要么财务总监（首席财务官）。如果没有可用性，那么就由这些人的助理接受采访。在受访的112个企业中，是由22名首席执行官，64名首席财务官和24助理来汇报这些资料。其中的60家合作企业报告每年的销售额少于300万美元，35家公司报告显示销售范围在400到700万美元，35家公司公布的销售额超过800万美元。由于美国电子协会考虑到一个采用高科技的小型企业将少于1500万美元的销售，因为小企业管理定义了一个小型生产企业要少于250名员工，因此我们的所选择的代表都集中在目标市场。面试的内容包括：会计师事务所评估所用的标准，在选拔过程中组织的影响，会计服务所使用，以及与这些服务的满意程度，改变会计师事务所的频率，以及替代会计师事务所的认识。这项统计调查的结果会在接下来进行分析。

准则影响其选择的会计师事务所:客户的需要可以衡量的重要性，他们在他们的会计师事务所的选择不同的标准进行。这项服务的个性化起着最重要作用的存放和注意的关系，从注册会计师人才的重要性表示。这表明，客户之间，会计事务所，审计和税务合作伙伴关系的参与，在创作与潜在客户接触有可能产生新的帐户。与提供哪些服务的速度和费用数额是下一个最重要的。这里的客户是讲了及时的信息和援助，以合理的成本需要。在光谱的另一端的销售，由会计师事务所，宣传资料派发由会计师事务所，并与其他销售意向不客观的通讯简报中的一个有影响的会计师事务所的选择。这最后的结果说，以“销售导向”，这一直是会计师事务所最典型的反应作为美国注册会计师协会放松了对征集的限制。不同于“营销导向”的“销售导向”文学和艺术的推广并没有明确涵盖客户需求的认

识。样品的综合分析，但是，可能掩盖部分样品之间的差异。是样品中的答辩人的头衔上划分，企业规模等为代表的年度销售总额，注册会计师事务所和目前使用中发现一个管理上的字母和国内或可用性的重视显着性差异外国分公司。首席财务管理人员的信放在比首席执行官更高的价值。大公司和那些目前使用的是八大会计师事务所也受了一个管理信件和分支机构提供多是小公司或不使用八大公司。另一个有趣的结果是，平均重要性置于所有标准是由大企业高于小企业也许暗示在前者情况愈来愈好发达的筛选过程中，同样的标准和教育中的个案的需要表示后者。

作用影响分析作者：会计师事务所的选择中选择角色影响分析:除了在会计师事务所的选择过程中所涉及的准则，参与的人也是一个决定性因素。受访者评分，在我到3级的，在何种程度上起到了几个政党在选择过程中的作用。行政长官和财政官员是向谁会计师事务所的营销活动必须有针对性的人。此外，财务总监的角色发生在大公司更大的意义。此外，可以预料，被访者往往夸大其在甄选过程中自己的作用。谁是行政长官的受访人员夸大其作用和泄气，该财务总监。这表明，即使在企业财务总监的地方，其实是在选择过程中占主导地位的影响，行政总裁作用的看法，可能需要一些营销活动对他的指示。另外一个有趣的发现是，作为一个企业的规模增加了行政总裁的注册会计师选拔过程的影响略有下降，而财务总监认为变得更占优势。这可能源自于对行政总裁的压力越来越大代表特定职能领域的决定。

会计服务的使用情况:电子公司对会计服务的使用情况及其相应的满意程度能拓展会计事务所对市场需求的认识。在列举的使用会计事务所各种服务的公司中，超过80%的公司使用了与审计财务报表和税务相关的服务，但是与此相比，只有少于三分之二的公司使用了与管理信息和咨询相关的服务。因此，会计事务所的作用更多的在于帮助客户公司处理外部对象（如政府和股东）的信息需求。但是，规模相对较小的公司更愿意听取会计事务所在税务和管理方面的建议。他们所反映的大部分都是技术性的管理问题，这和业务培训问题是大相径庭的。而规模较小的公司对于审计财务报表的需求也更小。这很可能是因为在规模较小的公司很少有所有权和控制权的分离这样的情况出现。此外，会计事务所给这些小公司的管理性信件的有效性出人意料地低，才不到50%。这部分归因于会计事务所缺乏对管理性信件内涵与作用的重视。一家希望在小规模公司业务领域竞争取胜的会计事务所势必会积极地听取要强调管理性信件有效性的意见，虽然它会因为对这项服务（尤其是技术导向型管理问题方面的服务）价值的认识不足而不那么敢于参与竞争。会计事务所是否提供管理性信件会影响到客户公司对其的满意程度。在那些认为他们的会计事务所服务优秀的客户公司当中，有57%的公司收到了管理性信件。但在那些认为他们的会计事务所服务合格的客户公司当中，只

有 47%的公司收到了管理性信件。在我们的案例中，虽然这样的区别并不那么重要，但是这些区别指示的方向却很有意义。对样本按客户公司的会计事务所是否是八大公司的标准进行的区分会和按销售规模大小的标准进行的区分有类似的结果。这是因为有更大销售规模的公司其会计事务所更有可能属于八大公司之一。