CEO's Message: Association Experience Survey—Second Quarter 2024

I want to first thank all of the NACVA Members who supported us by responding to this survey taken last March/April. NACVA has not been very prolific surveying our membership over the last many years, which, in my opinion, has been to our peril. We are, however, turning this around starting in 2024. Surveys are the best way to reach into our membership ranks to get a perspective on our performance, identify where we fall short in our support, and determine where there are needs that we can fill. It is my intention to share with you parts of these surveys so you too can gain perspective, pluck out information you can use in guiding your practice forward, and if nothing else, satisfy your curiosity. 

I found the responses to our survey insightful, feeding ideas on areas for improvement, new products, systems/processes changes/fixes, and many other things. In summarizing my findings from this review, I have listed the questions I think will be of interest to our members and provided commentary. My comments are brief and intended to key in on the most important points. They are as follows:

Q1. Indicate other associations to which you belong:

53% belong to the AICPA
45% belong to their State CPA Society
14% belong to the ACFE
12% belong to the ASA
6% belong to the CFA Institute
All the other organizations listed in our survey were 5% or less

In the Other category, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the National Association of Forensic Economics (NAFE) stood out; the rest are all over the place. 

Q2. What are the most important reasons to you for affiliating with an association?
In order of importance, the top 6 out of 12 categories are:

1. Certification (87%)
2. Professional Development (84%)
3. Training (65%)
4. Resources Useful in Practice (44%)
5. Networking (36%)
6. Required/Expected by Clients (15%)

Prestige ranked close to Required/Expected by Client at 13% and Mentor Support and Generate Business each ranked at 11%. I thought it interesting that Mentor Support was so low on the scale. I would have expected it to be higher.

Q3. When you joined NACVA, what was your single greatest expectation from your affiliation with us?
In order of importance, the top 4 out of 7 categories are:

1. Obtain Certification (87%)
2. Expand Knowledge (64%)
3. Build/Expand Business (29%)
4. Expand Resources (25%)

Next in line was Networking at 20%, which I found interesting because in Q2, 36% said Networking was one of their prime reasons for affiliating with an association; yet when asked about their expectations with NACVA, only 20% said that was important. It may be that in Q2 we allowed 4 responses and here in Q3 we only allowed 3.

Q4. Have we met your expectations?
79% said Yes, we have met their expectations, and 1% said No, we have not. A healthy number, 20%, said we have Somewhat met their expectations. This is where our focus needs to be. As part of this question, we asked for an explanation if you said No or Somewhat. The reasons cited were wide-ranging: education is all the same stuff, wanting more practical education, cannot find the resources needed, our website makes it hard to find, the industry has become too competitive on pricing of business valuation (BV) services, need better networking, no real guidance on how to access mentoring, training has declined with some materials outdated, slow getting results from case study, etc. In reviewing these comments, a few things jump out:

1. We need to do a better job creating awareness of Practice Support Headquarters (PSH).
2. Re-evaluate our communication emphasis in our EconAssist webinar to see if we can/should spend more time on the Mentor Support Exchange (MSX).
3. Our new Around the Valuation World (AVW) Expanded program is important to our success from a training on timely topics perspective.
4. Our Intermediate BVTC currently under development is important to our success and we need to rollout with it in late 2024 or early 2025.

Q5. If you are certified by NACVA, how would you rank the relevance of the credential in the context of your career?
63% ranked it high and 26% ranked it medium; thus 89% ranked it with some degree of importance. The comments respondents made regarding why they feel this way are generally very positive. 

Q6. If you have a NACVA credential, what is the single greatest benefit you obtain by having it?
In order of importance:

1. Confidence (26%)
2. Instant Recognition (19%)
3. CPE (11%)
4. Networking (10%)
5. Referrals (9%)

The shocker here is how low Networking is. The question calls for one response, so respondents needed to pick their number one. Given that, Networking scoring so low may not be an issue. Certainly, Confidence and Recognition are more important. Eleven percent responded Other and, in looking at the list, most all said things that fall under the categories of Confidence, Recognition, and CPE; they just described it differently. Almost all comments were positive; glowing even.

Q7. Do BV engagements often lead to other services besides litigation support?

51% say Yes
34% say No

Q8. If “Yes” to Q7, indicate which other services BV engagements lead to.

1. 50% say BV services led to Exit Planning services.
2. 33% say Tax Planning (21% say Tax Preparation).
3. And third in line, which I was happy to see, is Value Growth Consulting at 27%.
4. This is tied with Strategic Planning, also at 27%. Accounting services are in fourth place at 21%. Sixteen percent said Other, but in reviewing their comments, most of what they said was litigation-related, which is excluded in this question. Seeing these numbers reinforces our thinking that Value Growth is an area we should continue to focus on.

Q9. Since joining NACVA, have you been successful in securing:

Business Valuation Engagements: 84% said Yes, which is great to hear.

Litigation Support and Financial Forensic Engagements: 60% said Yes, which is also very good because I wouldn’t expect as many credentialed members to be pursuing litigation work, thus I expected this percentage to be less. None of this should lessen our efforts to continue finding ways to help our members get business.

Q10. How would you rate your overall customer satisfaction with NACVA HQ and its responsiveness to your inquiries and/or when needing assistance?
It was nice to see that 40% of our members ranked us as Excellent, 26% as Very Good, with 22% saying we are Good. Thus, 66% (or 2/3rds) ranking NACVA as Very Good or better, and 88% ranked us as Good or better. About 10% rank us as Fair to Poor, which, in my book, means we must analyze the comments and take measures to fix our shortcomings; no matter what and where they are.  

Q11. Are you familiar with NACVA's Mentor Support Exchange (MSX)?
The response here was shocking as only 40% of our members said they were familiar with MSX and 60% said they were not. This tells me we need to do much, much better at educating our members about MSX. NACVA’s free for members EconAssistwebinars, where the MSX is discussed, are not doing a good enough job. I suggest we have some creative campaigns to get members to explore MSX because, after all these years since the MSX rollout, and only a mere 40% are familiar, is not good; especially given we believe that a major reason folks drop their membership/credential is for lack of support in their BVFLS endeavors. And the MSX is the most comprehensive mentor/member support program, likely anywhere in the world.

Q12. Are you familiar with NACVA's Practice Support Headquarters (PSH)?
It is very shocking to learn that only 12% of our members are familiar with PSH. Like MSX, we need to take our awareness campaign to a much higher level because, as we saw in the respondents’ comments, a modest percentage of those who are familiar found PSH to be a helpful platform. However, that modest percentage (29%) is not sufficient, meaning PSH is not as helpful as we would like it to be. To put it another way, my goal is 100% of our members should be using PSH and 100% should be saying it is helpful. The PSH was established many years ago as a portal for members designed to facilitate their finding/locating resources to address their needs. Thus, it is a critical tool for their success.

Q13. Are you familiar with the Association News (AN)?
The responses here were very encouraging as 82% said they were familiar with AN. Meaning this is a place where we can reach our membership. The 18% who said they were not familiar, does not surprise me because, with new members especially, there is a lot to be learned about our Association and our resources. 

Q14. Are you familiar with The Value Examiner (TVE)?
This was very good news as 90% of the respondents say they are familiar with TVE.

Q15. If "Yes" to Q14, how beneficial is TVE?
This was even better news with 51% saying TVE is Very Beneficial, and 34% saying it is Somewhat Beneficial. Thus, a total of 85% say TVE is beneficial. Being the perfectionist I am, the question that we should ask next time around for those that say Somewhat Beneficial, is what do we need to do to make TVE Very Beneficial. Maybe there is nothing because, for instance, the 34% who said Somewhat Beneficial may prefer to get their professional development through other means like webinars, meaning there is nothing we can change about TVE that will change their mind. What will help here is what we are doing with our new AVW Expanded program where we plan to have TVE authors present on their article topics. And in promoting these webinars, we need to have a link at the end of the article in TVE to register for a webinar on that topic.

Q16. Are you familiar with NACVA's weeklyQuickRead (QR)?
It was refreshing to see that QR got almost as good a response as TVE. A whopping 84% say they are familiar.

Q17. If "Yes" to Q16, how beneficial is QR?
Even better news is 45% say QR is Very Beneficial and 38% say it is Somewhat Beneficial. Thus, 83% say QR is beneficial, which is nearly as good as TVE. All my comments about TVE apply here. A question I would like to ask next time I take this survey is how QR (and TVE for that matter) compares in the view of our members to other industry publications the QR is on a par with.

Q18. How can NACVA support you better in reaching your goals?
Next time around I need to add a checklist to this question because it is hard to quantify 134 comments. Standout responses include:

1. Better branding/recognition of our credentials.
2. Some comments could be put under the umbrella of marketing support which I believe we can cover in our Insiders Secrets to Success program that we hope to unveil this year.
3. Some said we need to keep pushing our presence on social media.
4. There were mentions that alluded to having intermediate training, which we are working on.
5. Easier/better navigation to finding resources and articles. (This is what PSH is all about.)  
6. Mentoring support. (This is what MSX is all about.)
7. There are many kudo/testimonials.
8. A few suggest a desire for getting members together for networking and to share ideas.
9. Mention of a Jobs Board for hiring, seeking employment, or subbing oneself out. (NACVA does have a Jobs Board which supports all these wishes.)  
10. We need better topics, as most is just the usual stuff. (I agree, which is why we are rolling out this summer with NACVA’s AVW Expanded program.)
11. Reasonably priced CPE. (Which we have but many members are not aware of, meaning we need to do a better job of communicating these alternatives.)
12. Networking.
13. Website more navigable. (PSH is the solution here.)

Q19. Briefly describe up to three things NACVA could do to raise the profile and esteem of the CVA and MAFF that would benefit your practice.
Again, next time around I need to incorporate some check boxes because sifting through over 250 comments is daunting. Standout responses include:

1. Many/most of the same comments as in Q18.
2. Hosting events with attorneys. (State Chapters should/could be doing this.)
3. Want us to get them referrals.
4. Brag about members testifying in high profile cases.
5. Get NACVA articles published outside of TVE and QR.
6. Jointly sponsor with law groups and related organizations. (This is a good idea.)
7. TV Commercials like the CFPs.
8. Promote within the legal community.
9. Advertise in journals used/read by users of our services.
10. Several mentions were to do things we have been, or recently started, doing.
11. Case Studies training.
12. Present at the Heckerling event in FL.
13. Interestingly, one person said our MAFF is too big an umbrella and we should have specialties underneath it. (We used to have that as many members know.)
14. More personal hands-on.
15. Modernize our marketing material.
16. Showcase why our credentials are better than the others.
17. Outreach in academia.
18. Career advancement education.
19. Institute optional competency test CVAs could take for recertification and, if they pass, they could boast about it.
20. Repackage TVE and other articles so members can repurpose them for personal market use.
21. Valuation Starter Package.
22. Get registered with State departments of business regulation (like the CPA and real estate appraisers) requiring a BV designation to do BV work.
23. Push value creation/growth in training. 

Q20. Does your firm/company have software(s) to perform a business valuation analysis?
Saying Yes, is 39% (74) of respondents; with 61% (118) saying No. However, upon scrutiny, 24 of the 74 Yes respondents say the software they use is Excel, meaning only 50 use software, and that software primarily being BVMPro (NACVA’s product) or VSPro (ValuSource’s product). We must assume that the 118 use Excel, so the real number of non-software users is 142 or 74%, and users of software is 26%. Shocking, but not surprising.
It has always been my contention that 100% of our BV professionals should be using software (BVMP or VSP) because the software can do everything one can do in Excel but a whole lot more. Plus, the software has been tested and tweaked a hundred times over and is a flawless product that greatly streamlines the complex analysis process involved in business valuation. 

Q21. How many written valuation reports do you do each year?

1–5 reports = 21%
6–10 report s= 19%
11–20 reports = 15%
20–40 reports = 18%
40+ reports = 12%
A full 15% said NA

In summary, we have 45% of our members doing 11 or more reports a year, which is a very respectable volume. Add to that the 6–10, also respectable, 64% of our members are actively engaged in performing BV work. The number that concerns me is the 15% (29 people) that said NA; these are the members we need to give special focus to, especially if they are certified.

Conclusion
In conclusion, there is a lot of information here to digest for me and our HQ team. We intend to spend many hours sifting through specific comments; seeing how responses herein cross check with both other responses within this survey and to other surveys we have and are taking, and formulating plans, policies, and programs to improve our Association and the member experience. I thank those who participated in this survey, and I thank all our members for their support in every capacity that it is given. If you have any comments, questions, or observations, I would love to hear it. Please feel free to reach out to me at Parnell1@NACVA.com.

Sincerely,