Supporting a Rapidly Growing Business Consulting Firm with Custom Training for Their Professionals and Clients
Client challenge
A rapidly growing business consulting and services firm was looking for a custom training solution for their professionals to supplement their current online CPE learning platform. Specifically, they wanted various live, instructor-led webinars on specific, technical accounting topics for the 50 professionals within their accounting advisory practice (which serves SEC filers, emerging high growth and private equity backed organizations, and large non-profit organizations). The firm wanted these webinars to be application-based with plenty of examples, giving their ex-Big 4 professionals the tools they needed to continue to grow professionally to better serve their clients.
And such training was nonexistent in any of the hundreds of “off-the-shelf” CPE courses offered to the firm in their “all-you-can-eat” subscription package with one of the “big box” training providers. Furthermore, the business consulting firm realized that developing such custom training in-house didn’t make financial sense given its professionals were already fully utilized on client engagements.
Our solution
We believe that, to be effective, training should be relevant to learners. As such, we tailor our teaching style and the course materials to each client’s needs which includes:
- Utilizing your (or your client’s) financial statements
- Incorporating journal entries and “real-life” disclosures
- Highlighting application issues using mini case studies
- Encouraging class discussions that foster peer-to-peer learning
After meeting with the leaders of the accounting advisory practice of the business consulting firm, to better understand their training needs, we ultimately agreed on a package of six, instructor-led tailored webinars to be delivered over a 12-month period. And, since they purchased a package, we were able to provide additional cost savings to the firm!
The six webinars that were rolled out were:
- Impairment of Long-Lived Assets, Goodwill, and Other Intangible Assets
- Credit Losses: Application of ASC 326 to Non-Banking Entities
- ESG, Climate Disclosures, and Segment Reporting
- Business Combinations and Asset Acquisitions
- Accounting for Share-Based Payments
- The “Ins” and “Outs” of Consolidation
Generally, our current pricing for tailored, CPE-eligible webinars (1-2 hours in length) offered during a 12-month period is as follows (actual price depends on the level of customization):
- One webinar = $7,500+
- Two webinars = $13,500 ($6,750 each)
- Four webinars = $25,000 ($6,250 each)
- Six webinars = $36,000 ($6,000 each)
This price includes:
- Discovery call with your L&D team and subject matter experts
- Custom agenda design and approval
- Development of the tailored course materials (e.g., slides, case studies, handouts)
- Facilitation by two experienced GAAP Dynamics CPA instructors
- Full CPE administration, including the webinar platform (ON24) and tech support
- Link to the webinar recording for one year
But it gets better!
We suggested (and they agreed) that they should also invite the business consulting firm’s clients to these webinars for no additional charge. It’s like a 2-for-1 CPE deal!
We enrolled the firm’s professionals directly into the ON24 webinar platform using an Excel listing they provided to us. We then set up a co-branded webinar landing page link so they could send out email invitations to their clients. This co-branded webinar landing page collected their clients’ contact information and enrolled them directly into the webinar. The firm also posted the webinar link on their social media pages, tagging GAAP Dynamics!
We also provided periodic reporting to the firm both before and after the webinar. Each webinar had approximately 100-120 registrants, evenly split between the firm’s professionals and their clients. This entire process administered by GAAP Dynamics saved the business consulting firm countless hours (and delighted their clients)!
This was the feedback we received from the leader of the accounting advisory practice:
On behalf of our team and our guests, thank you very much for the training. The content was excellent, and we received great feedback from our participants. Special thanks to Vicky and Rachel who did a terrific job presenting. Great takeaways!
Their transformation
The business consulting firm continues to grow, doubling its staff in less than 2 years. After finishing the six webinars, the firm came back to us wanting to “run it back” with another series of discounted, tailored webinars for the current year.
And we even got a new client out of the engagement too! The Controller for a global sustainable development firm attended several of the webinars offered by the firm. She was so impressed with the training that she reached out to the firm directly asking for our contact information to inquire about training solutions for her company. When all was said and done, we ended up enrolling 32 professionals into annual subscriptions for the 80+ CPE courses in our U.S. GAAP eLearning library.
And we are currently in talks with the firm to provide annual subscription packages for their professionals, allowing them to replace the “big box” training provider. Accounting training domination…one client at a time!