Influencers Find Success By Tapping Into Vertical Markets

Each year, Johnston and his partners conduct about 800 seminars for 40,000 certified public accountants.

"It's a relationship-based, long-term business that is very different from the get-in, get-out mentality that many VARs have,"Johnston said.

"A typical CPA has between 75 and 200 customers that they influence. And depending on whose numbers you believe, there are between 700,000 and 1.1 million practicing CPAs," he said.

Much of CPAs' influence is in the SMB arena, especially in businesses that generate less than $10 million in annual revenue,the sweet spot that many solution providers and vendors are targeting, Johnston noted.

Each week, Johnston and his company field between 50 and 100 requests from CPAs and other influencer professionals, who ask for advice on which

operating systems, accounting applications or other IT platforms would best fit their customers' needs.

"We give them what we think is the best information, and they in turn will pass that on to their clients. And their clients take it for gospel in almost all cases," Johnston said. "I can't think of a stronger influencer in the channel,particularly in small-business America,than CPAs."

Network Management Group has worked with vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Compaq Computer and Microsoft as well as distributors like Ingram Micro to help its sales staff tap the CPA market, Johnston said.

Here's his advice to vendors and distributors on how to target influencers in that space as well as in other markets:

%95 Don't expect commissions to win over influencers. Until a few years ago, it was illegal for CPAs in most states to receive commissions, and many influencers still see that as a violation of ethics.

%95 Assign a manager to handle each influencer group, since they often have different needs and quirks.

%95 Target key contacts in each influencer group, such as the state societies of CPAs; attend regional events for each group; and advertise in and contribute articles to industry periodicals (participation at trade shows is ridiculously inexpensive for most influencer groups, according to Johnston).

%95 Don't provide different deals to different factions of the same influencer group. They talk to each other regularly, and if a deal smells fishy to one, it will stink to the others.

%95 Keep group managers and marketing messages consistent from year to year.

%95 Train your people well in a particular area, take the time to build close relationships and expect a long sales cycle.