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Successful marketers who have made partnership and those in chief marketing positions know that there are several common elements to commanding a seat at the table, even making partnership- think like a strategist, have a never-ending curiosity to learn including reaching out to other industries to get a broader perspective, and develop your staff with the goal of creating ambassadors for your organization.

"Demand a seat at the table," says Brett Flickinger, a partner with Dugan and Lopatka/Wheaton, Ill. "I didn't demand a partner position from the start but I did want a seat at the table with the partners because marketing becomes a part of most organization discussions."

Flickinger started in the accounting industry at Grant Thornton as a consultant in the international practice, moved into a marketing director position, left GT to join a public company, and eventually interviewed for the marketing director position at Dugan & Lopatka.

He was able to convince the partners that a marketing director who had a seat at the table would hold the partners accountable. Within a couple months after landing the job, he was able to process some low-hanging fruit, which got the partners on board with marketing very quickly. He became a partner three years ago.

"I think differently," says Flickinger. "They like my perspective on even the common issues facing the organization. I am at the table and am able to contribute to the organization beyond marketing and business development."

Strategic vision

"One of the things you have to do in gaining credibility is offer your partners something that makes their job easier," says Karen Love, the director of practice growth and a marketer who became a partner at PKF Texas/Houston. "If you are a well-rounded person who understands the marketplace, you are going to be successful."

Love's career has included stints in the fashion merchandising and staffing industries, and she says the skills she learned there transferred easily to the accounting industry. All of those things, she says, helped prepare her to have a strategic vision. "People saw the skill set in me and were able to position me for success," she explains.

Love's advice to marketers moving up the ladder is to stop thinking you have to know everything. "Surround yourself with talented people and don't be intimidated by that," she says. "More than likely, a marketer is coming in from the tactical side when they should be delegating that to their staff so that they can be more of a strategist."

Love arrived at PKF Texas knowing she wanted to concentrate on business development. "I knew what the marketplace needed and what my organization could provide. I needed a super-talented marketer to help me get there."

Now Love's talented marketers include a marketing director, an administrative assistant and a public relations associate. She also turns to an executive coach when she gets bogged down with a problem that she needs help working through.

"Leverage yourself," Flickinger advises. "When I was at Grant Thornton, I had a staff of four. When I came here I was by myself."

Win over partners

He says a key component in success is to be able to work with administrative staff and have partners take on more responsibility.

Flickinger's suggestion for young marketing directors is to start with the organization's champions. Marketing directors need to be proactive and find out how they can help their partners.

"Win them over one by one," he says. "Many of them are 'show me' type people.

"I am very fortunate with my partner group," says Flickinger. "They appreciate and understand marketing. You have to get to a size organization that can do that. My organization is probably one of the smallest that has a marketing partner because they have vision."

The other thing Flickinger says is important is to be able to track and manage programs and the success they bring to the organization. Marketing directors need to work with partners to make them more successful. If a partner is not comfortable speaking publicly, marketing directors shouldn't try to force them to do so.

Never stop learning

Another key ingredient in success is a never-ending curiosity- not just qualitative learning but quantitative learning as well.

"It is one thing to say you know what a 1040 is, but you really need to know what information is needed to fill that out," Flickinger says. "That helps you communicate with your partner group."

Leslie Guelcher, marketing and technology director for K2S/Erie, Pa., grew up hearing accounting terminology because her father is an accountant. She says it has helped her greatly in communicating with the partners at her organization.

Guelcher's advice: Get exposure to a variety of educational opportunities and read every accounting and business publication you can get your hands on. "Knowing the accounting business really well is very important," she says.

Tammy J. Allen is vice president of marketing and communications for Allen, Gibbs & Houlik/Wichita, Kan. Though a newcomer to the accounting industry, Allen brings a wealth of marketing experience from a marketing career in higher education. Prior to working at a state university, she gained experience in professional services marketing for an advertising agency.

Getting experience in other industries and earning an MBA has helped Allen see things from a broader perspective.

"The more experiences you have in putting yourself in your target audiences' mindset, looking at solutions to their problems, and enhancing their wealth, the more successful you will be," she says. "You learn the tactical stuff along the way. You have to think about it from the standpoint of "Why should I care?'"

Marketers' development

For her professional development, Allen looks to a number of places, including the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM), the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the Public Relations Society of America. Always hungry for information, she conducts a lot of on-line research to gain background information. She also regularly reads several publications to understand industry and business trends, including the Wall Street Journal, Working Knowledge- Harvard Business School's Business Newsletter, and the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) e-mail newsletter.

Guelcher has been very active with the International Association of Business communicators (IABC) and sits on one of the association's regional boards. She attends its annual North America conference and every few years attends AAM's annual conference. "I get a broader idea of marketing and what is cutting-edge in other fields," Guelcher says. "I come back and apply that to what we are doing at our organization.

"It's actually built my confidence a lot," she says. "I've been able to widen my skill set. Being active with IABC and AAM has been a huge advantage for me- being able to see what works and what doesn't and not having to go through trial and error here. It builds my credibility."

Flickinger turns to AAM's annual conference for professional development courses and networking with peers. He also has formed a small e-mail discussion group with marketing peers across the United States. On occasion, he attends seminars sponsored by AMA and the AICPA. In addition he is an enthusiastic reader who pulls ideas from books and applies them to the accounting industry.

Building staff skills

Both Allen and Love try to develop their staff with the goal of creating ambassadors for their organizations. They look at each person's skill set and what needs improvement.

Allen has two full-time staff people who work for her, and she shares an administrative assistant. In any new position, she assesses the capabilities of her staff and what the mission of the department is in developing the staff professionally. She also sees how the skills they have fit in with the goals of the organization for practice management.

"I ask questions like 'What is the next step for you?' and 'What would make you more marketable?' because the odds are they won't stay with our organization for the rest of their lives," she says. "We want to look at that."

Allen finds opportunities for staff to engage in work they are interested in. She tries to find ways for her staff to gain more exposure to marketing by interacting more with those in the marketing industry with more experience. For example, she took her marketing associate to meet a graphic designer, one-on-one, since she (the marketing associate) handles the organization's graphic design projects but does not have an art degree. Allen also took the associate to a printing press check and a brown-bag marketing workshop not necessarily geared towards professional development. She also encourages staff to get involved in local community organizations.

When looking for training opportunities for staff, Love puts them through website management training, time-management and risk-management sessions, presentation training and personal goal-setting workshops.

"Whatever skill set they need to have developed, and don't have an aversion to, I want them involved in," Love says.

Lisa is the founder and Principal of LR Marketing Group, a marketing consulting practice specializing in growing revenue of professional service organizations through market analysis, planning and implementation, public relations, lead generation, and business development. Lisa has 24 years of marketing experience including 8 years as a marketing director in the public accounting industry. She can be reached at 1-610-582-0097 or lisa@lrmarketinggroup.com.