Annie Somermeyer, director of business development at Madison, Wis.-based SVA Certified Public Accountants, has received the Association for Accounting Marketing’s (AAM) 2020 Marketer of the Year award, sponsored by INSIDE Public Accounting (IPA).
The winner was announced by IPA June 3 at AAM’s virtual awards event.
Somermeyer and her team promote the CPA firm – ranked No. 67 on the 2019 IPA 100 list of largest accounting firms in the country – as well as SVA Wealth Management, SVA Trust Company and SVA Consulting. She is responsible for a $1.2 million marketing budget and supervises eight business development team members.
Somermeyer brings marketing and sales together, and she leads several initiatives to bring a sales culture to the firm, including a business development training program for early-career professionals and a two- to three-year sales entrepreneurs program for principals. SVA’s Sales Entrepreneurs produced over $700,000 in new sales in FY19.
About a dozen firm professionals are selected bi-annually to take part in another Somermeyer initiative, a public speaker training program (SVA Speaker Source). The firm markets their program graduates as experts on a variety of business topics to speak at trade shows, conferences and expos primarily in the Wisconsin markets of Madison, Milwaukee and Fox Valley.
The “Measurable Results” branding campaign is one of her most successful initiatives to date. The campaign features two-minute videos and/or written stories that highlight the results clients have achieved while working with SVA. High interest in the Measurable Results stories pushed her to produce an additional eight videos, which have been well received on both social media and in print advertising, pushing the total to 34 in the CPA firm and 23 in SVA Consulting.
“Our tagline ‘Measurable Results’ became more than just branding, it set a benchmark in how we internally measure our own success,” says CEO John Baltes. “We now have a growing portfolio of success stories told by clients, in their voice, on how SVA helped them be successful. Delivering measurable results has become the driving force in how we service and attract clients.”
COO Jennifer Hoege, who nominated Somermeyer for this prestigious award, calls her visionary, tenacious, knowledgeable, dedicated and an exceptional leader. “Her team are raving fans and will walk through fire for her.”
Somermeyer says she is a straight shooter and is passionate about what’s best for SVA, which may not always be the best for individual partners or principals. “The other thing I do is ask – ask for support, ask for funds, ask for technology tools, ask for people – one has to have the courage to simply ask for what you need in order to have impact in a greater way than in the past.”
In addition to her work developing the firm’s strategic vision and serving on numerous firm committees throughout her tenure, Somermeyer is heavily involved in the Madison community, where her volunteering has helped the Girl Scouts, Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, among other organizations.
This is the seventh year that IPA has sponsored the Marketer of the Year award. A panel of independent judges, themselves leaders in the profession, were selected by IPA to review and score each of the 2020 nominees.
Chicago-based Baker Tilly, an 
Atlanta-based Aprio, an 
Saul has been with the firm since 1999 and has over 20 years of experience in performing and supervising uniform guidance audits of U.S. Department of Education student financial aid programs and a variety of federal funding, as well as program audits and agreed-upon procedure engagements of various state-funded programs.
The annual report, which also lists the best accounting firms for women, is a project of the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance and the Accounting MOVE Project, which is based on research partner Wilson-Taylor Associates’ methodology, which examines money, opportunity, vital supports and entrepreneurship for women.
Westborough, Mass.-based AAFCPAs, an 
Leadership and management consulting firm ConvergenceCoaching recently completed the 2019-2020 spring program of its Transformational Leadership Program (TLP) with 25 new graduates. The TLP is a one-year accelerated educational program for CPA and consulting firm new partners and emerging leaders.
