Golden Practices Blog

In Great Company on Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People of 2010

How exciting to be included on this list and join so many thought leaders and true change agents who've been named over the years, such as the brilliant and provocative Ron Baker who earned his place on this list multiple times.

And Rebecca Ryan whom I admire for not holding back from speaking what she really thinks. (I like to think I have a bit o' that in me too!)

Not to mention this will likely be the only time in my life that I'm included in a list with the pres of the United States...

Congrats to all past and present honorees but I offer an extra special congratulations to those who've made the list for their first time like Eric Majchrzak.

Eric is the excellent marketing professional of Freed Maxick in Buffalo whose ground-breaking marketing activities were discussed not too long ago in this blog and are featured in more detail in my upcoming book. It's a pretty rare thing for an in-house marketing professional to make this list unless he or she is the reigning president of Association for Accounting Marketing or AAM's recent Marketer of the Year.

It's wonderful to see the evolution and innovation showcased in this list. Thank you Accounting Today and Source Media!

 

Doh, almost forgot! Here's a link to the Top 100 List!

Do You Make it Easy for People to Call You?

When people find you online, whether via your website, blog, or social media profile, can they easily place a call to you or email you?

I'm going to talk about two aspects of "ease": 1) access to your contact info, and 2) giving too many choices.

Where's Your Contact Info?

When they find YOU via social media profiles, they usually have your name so they know who they want: you.

But it's astonishing how many professional (accountant or lawyer) blogs I find with no contact information for the author. Sometimes I cannot even find the NAME of the author or a link to his or her company's website. (Hint: there are even some sites on the Accounting Blog List where this is the case... hope yours isn't one!)

And some firms don't have contact names and info right there, on each industry or service page of their websites. Why?

It's unfortunate that all that work being invested in marketing can't generate the phone calls these people probably would love to have.

There's another similar problem that stumps would-be callers: listing multiple names, but without context.

Which Person Do I Ask For?

When you run an ad or have a web "service" or "contact us" page that tells about a service you offer and lists multiple names (this is generally done for politics, yes??) answer me this... How can the reader decide who it is that he or she should ask for? 

A charming, witty friend of mine (let's call her "Jenny" since, well, that is her name) posted on Facebook this weekend about her foray into fantasy football and confessed that her approach to selection was to pick players based on whether their names sounded like those of a person she would have dated or would have named her children.

I was sufficiently amused. But if this was your business development at stake, you wouldn't be.

Well, when you list several names, it's literally a crap shoot as to which name the reader will select. Kinda like my friend's approach.

Only, what happens if some of the people whose names are listed are less equipped (personality-wise) to convert an inquiry to a sale? What if the person called is not very responsive? What if the best person for this role is not the most "senior" person, does the senior person get listed anyway? 

Some orgs list multiple names because they don't want to make the difficult decision about which ONE to list. So they'd rather delegate the choice to the reader (!?) and suffer the consequences of allowing them to select one that is less effective or advantageous for the firm?

This is a prime example of letting politics peel layers of marketing result value off of what could otherwise be an effective initiative.

To make it easy as possible for someone to call you, and ensure the best possible result, list ONE name: the name of the person most committed and most equipped to support the sales effort. 

Or, if you list multiple names, state WHY. I came across this firm, the Cadence Group, today.

THIS is a best practice! Emulate this in your calls to action.

When you list multiple contacts, tell people WHY. 

Does each person handle a different region? Does one handle A-L while the other takes M-Z? One for English speaking inquiries and the other for Spanish?

When you tell people exactly whom to call, and why, they can do it more quickly and more confidently. It is easier for them, and it gets you more and better results.

Don't make people guess. And don't make them hunt.

And don't ever, ever have just a "contact us" form with no alternate ways to reach you. Unless you don't actually want to be reached, that is...