BV Insights: Who Does the Marketing?

The 2023 BVR Benchmarking Survey was produced to collect the most comprehensive data on operations, financial metrics, compensation, staffing, marketing, billing, tools and resources used, and more. With the survey closed and the full results having been released, let's take a look at some of the insights regarding practice management.

Who has primary responsibility for your firm’s marketing?

It’s been said that business valuation is as much of an art as a science. We believe marketing is as much of a science as it is an art. So, while partners/owners continue to take primary responsibility for marketing, the use of full-time and part-time marketing professionals and outside contractors or consultants is becoming more common. Office managers and administrative assistants were most frequently mentioned in the “other” category.

Marketing budgets

Business valuation firms employ many approaches to bring in new business. And the responses to this question must recognize that different firms may classify different expenses in different accounts (but, hopefully, under a marketing “parent” account). The 2022 mean spend on marketing is down 1% from 2018, while the median is up 2% from 2018. In addition, many respondents said they spent 0% on marketing in 2021-2022, perhaps reflecting the abundance of valuation work and the effectiveness of “aggressively waiting for the phone to ring.”

Overall, business valuation professionals understand the need for promotion and invest in it. Based on the results for 2021-2022, it seems safe to conclude that a good marketing budgeting benchmark is 0% to 5% of firm revenues.

Looking for more insights? The Business Valuation Firm Benchmarking Guide: 2023 Edition is replete with data on a range of topics from current staffing levels to critical issues impacting the industry itself, and all the answers are sourced directly from BV firms. Get your copy, and see what your peers are saying now!