Golden Practices Blog

Retraining Clients When You've Taught Them to Abuse You (aka Preventing Costly Schedule Disruptions)

Rogue 24 is a new DC restaurant that is apparently so worried about no-shows that it has a two-page contract for would-be patrons. Their terms require payment for cancellations within 72 hours among other (obnoxious) things.

For some, the sense of exclusivity (and jerkiness) might actually be a draw, but last time I checked, restaurants were considered part of the "hospitality" industry and there is nothing hospitable about their approach.

I know a lot of CPA firms who are sick to death of clients not being ready for them when they show up for audit fieldwork. (This post uses audit as an example, but the concepts apply to consulting, website development, and a zillion other types of projects.) 

I can't blame a firm for being frustrated when the audit team appears at a company and the advance PBC (prepared-by-client) list has not been completed. It sucks. It's expensive and it's disruptive.

The auditors either leave with unanticipated open time in the middle of what is typically a jam-packed audit season, or they simply begin to "help" the client get ready. But in doing so without a signed change order, the firm will likely end up writing off the work. Or worse, the firm will later "bill and duck" for this work at high risk of angering the client. 

And next year, when the client is not ready again, the firm is ... wait for it ... surprised. And annoyed.

Parents who are reading this may be able to recognize what the firm has just done.

The firm has successfully trained the client that the PBC list and the work schedule just aren't that important and don't need to be respected or adhered to. 

Feeling taken advantage of, and still not realizing it's partly their own fault, some firms contemplate "policies" that penalize a client for not abiding by the schedule. Perhaps Rogue 24's policy is a good model to follow, eh? Nuh-uh.

There are much better ways to set expectations and prevent major disruptions to scheduling for audits or similar work that needs to be organized well in advance with appropriately skilled people during very specific time periods.

Sit on the same side of the table as your customer.

I'm not the least bit against a monetary penalty for lack of readiness. In fact, I believe timing of work should play a huge role in determining your prices. Timing is usually critical to the client and duration (a maximum) is nearly always going to be essential to your profitability. 

But it's not hospitable to shove an ugly contract in your current or prospective customer's face demanding compliance with your unilaterally decided terms. Doing so creates an adversarial relationship with the customer. (Sorta like billing and ducking does.)

Instead, put some energy into learning details about your customer's exact needs, educating them where it is helpful to both of you, and doing everything possible to help them be ready for you on the day you are going to show up to begin that work.

The best tone to take is "help us help you."

1. Give exact dates.

Be very, very clear about timing in your project quotes (or proposals or statements of work or customer-service agreements — whatever you choose to call them). Many firms take a lazy approach and simply say "30 days before the reporting date" or "30 days after fiscal year end."

Egads, if you don't care enough about the dates to list them, why would you think your client will care enough to honor them?

Don't ever make the customer calculate any due dates!

Do the legwork and tell them the actual dates. Better yet, include a visual. Show them key dates, don't just bury them in text.

Say what is needed, when, by whom, and delivered to whom.

2. Teach them how.

Do you want to win some points for being extra helpful? And do have you have an ulterior motive to make sure it's done right? Of course you do! And that's all right.

Informally talk with them. Show them samples. Provide templates.

Maybe you can offer some formal classes on preparing PBC list items. Education is a terrific complimentary service that you could offer as part of the engagement or charge extra for it. Perhaps new clients get to attend the first one free. Or every client gets one admission included and additional people are extra. 

3. Provide reminders. Early and often. 

Customers appreciate your reminder postcards, phone calls, and emails. They show you care and they emphasize that you're serious about timing and readiness.

This can be done by your admin team on a systematic schedule: a week before fieldwork, two weeks before, 30 days before, 60 days before, etc.

"How's your PBC list coming along?" "Do you have any questions for us?" "Don't forget, we'll be there Monday the 23rd." "Call us ASAP if you have any concerns about being ready two weeks from tomorrow. Now's the time to let us know!"

4. Show you're serious.

Of course there can and should be a stated consequence to lack of readiness if that should occur after all the education and reminders. 

In your project quotes, describe how you'll do everything in your power to help them be ready. Show you are committed to helping them help you help them (did you follow that?). Tell them you share their goal for a successful project and that in order to meet their desired delivery timing, these [list] things need to happen on these [list] dates. 

Tell them that in the unfortunate event that you don't get adequate notice about a date change (two weeks might be reasonable for adjusting an audit schedule) that there will be a $1,000 (or $5,000 or $10,000) rescheduling charge and that their audit would then need to be bumped back to the end of the month (or quarter or year).

And be very clear, in advance, about extra charges (state how much they'll pay for commonly delayed items) for assisting onsite with incomplete PBC work if you even have the time available to perform the work and still meet the agreed-upon delivery timing. This makes obtaining approved change requests a lot easier because the pricing was already spelled out.

When you provide your reminders, remind them that you don't want them to incur these charges or delay their audit and that's why you're being such a stickler about timing.

You can also consider offering rewards for readiness such as "clients who are ready for us will get priority scheduling next year" with first pick of dates which, of course, implies the opposite as a consequence for lack of readiness. 

Training is hard and retraining is harder.

What you are trying to do with all of this is to gain advance knowledge about lack of readiness so you can properly manage and adjust your clients' expectations about price and delivery. And, of course, manage your own scheduling (second to managing client expectations).

Don't budge on your extra charges or rescheduling. Just like parenting, it takes confidence and guts to stick to our guns during the retraining process, but we have to do it to correct the problems we have created and to be taken seriously. The very first time you are inconsistent, you defeat your purpose and have to start all over again.

If you apply these principles with "love" and care (e.g., it's for your own good ... "help us help you") by sitting on the same side of the table rather than coming across as though they work for you, clients can respect and appreciate you in the process of following your approach to serving them.

And they might even prefer to dine with you.

Should CPAs (and Other Professionals) be Active in Social Media?

Bill Sheridan of Maryland Association of CPAs interviewed me asking if CPAs need to be using social media. Spoiler alert: you might be surprised that I answer, "not necessarily."

Also hear what social-media "fence sitters" might need to know and how social media can be used effectively even by a conservative firm. 

 

Sorta Kinda Fed Up With Facebook Disses by Google+ Fanatics

Article after article claims what this one entitled "Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?" does:

Instead of treating all of your friends as equals, Google lets you put them into different groups, called circles, such as “friends”, “acquaintances”, “family”, “sports fans”, and so on. These circles represent a powerful innovation.

They allow us to send more personal updates just to our closest friends instead of forcing us to share with all of our hundreds of acquaintances. This simple task is not easy to do within Facebook. Furthermore, Google+ allows us to chop up our incoming news stream based on what circle they are coming from, so that we can focus on just the updates from our family or just the updates from our coworkers. The Google+ circles concept is powerful and easy to use. It represents the defining, foundational difference between Google´s and Facebook´s vision for social networking. If this new model takes off with users, then Facebook will find itself in the uncomfortable position of having to replicate these features within its own platform.

Nothing against Google+ here. I'm still checking it out as I have been for the past couple weeks. There are some things I like a lot about it. And some things that annoy me. But that's not the point of my post. You can read a lot of reviews elsewhere. 

This post is about the lame claim that groups or "circles" is a new concept or "powerful innovation" as the above post claims. 

Hellloooooo.

Facebook has offered groups, called "lists" for years. I know. I use them every single day. Everything written above can be achieved in Facebook. 

I'll be specific:

• Instead of treating all of your friends as equals, FACEBOOK lets you put them into different groups, called LISTS (such as “friends”, “acquaintances”, “family”, “sports fans”, and so on)
• The LISTS allow us to send more personal updates just to our closest friends instead of forcing us to share with all of our hundreds of acquaintances. 
• This simple task IS easy to do within FACEBOOK. 
• FACEBOOK allows us to chop up our incoming news stream based on what LIST they are coming from, so that we can focus on just the updates from our family or just the updates from our coworkers. 
• The FACEBOOK LISTS concept is powerful and easy to use. 

The author wrote: "[Circles] represents the defining, foundational difference between Google´s and Facebook´s vision for social networking." WRONG.

And he wrote: "If this new model takes off with users, then Facebook will find itself in the uncomfortable position of having to replicate these features within its own platform."

Ack! It's there.

Facebook is NOT in the uncomfortable position of having to replicate these features. Perhaps they can make them more obvious, though. Let me show you how easy they are to use. 

STEP 1 - CREATE LISTS

Very easy. In the ACCOUNT dropdown, chose EDIT FRIENDS. Your screen will have a CREATE A LIST button at the top. It looks like this:

 

Make as many lists as you want.

STEP 2 - ADD FRIENDS TO LISTS

Then on the left sidebar, choose FRIENDS NOT ON A LIST to start, or any list name to edit. To the right of each friend's name you can open your list of LISTS and add the friend to as many or few lists as you like. I have a list called "Nothing" and I have miscellaneous pages and what-not in it.

Let's pretend Led Zep is one of my friends. (oh how I wish.) It would look like this:

 

STEP 3 - POST YOUR LITTLE HEART OUT

Either as you post, or for your default privacy, of for each photo album you have, whatever, you can designate who can see it, or who cannot see it, or both.

To change your default or to edit any individual post's visibility, click on the little lock doohickey under your status box, to the left of the SHARE button.

 

When the lock settings open, designate who can or cannot see your stuff, and save as your default if you want.

Enter a person's name or the name of any list you have created. Add as many as you like. When you start typing a name or list name, Facebook will offer up autocomplete help for you. 

 

Voila. You're done. 

 

UPDATED: Oh, and I forgot to share the other important piece. To view the news feed of any single LIST, meaning just the stuff the list members post, is quite easy.

STEP 4 - VIEW NEWS BY GROUP OR "LIST"

Go to your HOME page and, at the top where it says TOP NEWS and MOST RECENT note the little DOWN ARROW on the button called MOST RECENT.

When you click the button, many options open including the ability to select any of your LISTS.

Guess Facebook isn't so far behind after all. And you can still hate Facebook if you want. But at least I hope that, now, maybe all these people quit claiming this is such a huge innovation on Google's part. Geez.

But, otherwise, that article I mentioned is really pretty good. Just skip the first third of it!

Should You Let People Pick Your Brain for Free?

Yesterday I read an article on Forbes by Adrienne Graham called "No You Can't Pick My Brain For Free." And it prickled me a little.

The author has some legit points.

Some people definitely do try to take advantage of those who have knowledge and are willing to share it freely. And others are just oblivious to the fact that they are asking advice for which the potential advisor is usually paid.

But I have to say this.... the most successful business developers I've observed are those who are willing to "give a little away" and not selfishly withhold every bit of value within their brains.

Generosity and the willingness to have conversations that go beyond selling "why" they should pay for your knowledge (as Ms Graham advises) have worked very well for me, too. 

Her advice is far too black and white. She writes:

If you’re having problem drawing the line in the sand, here are some rules of thumb you should follow:

...Whenever someone wants to pick your brain, make sure you have your fee schedule in front of you. Give them a quote for how much it will cost them. They’ll either pay it or move on. If they move on, good riddance. They weren’t interested in paying you anyway. Let them figure it out on their own.

...Decline lunch/coffee invitations unless they are strictly non-business. If the conversation swings around to business, quickly and politely tell them you’re off the clock. If they are interested in a consult they can book an appointment and let them know what the charge is for that.

...Keep it light. Some of you will probably cave and throw a few nuggets out there. If you do (I hope you don’t), keep it general. Give the why and what but never the how. Anything beyond the why and what comes with a charge. And don’t even point them in the direction to obtain the how. That’s short changing yourself.

If I had held this attitude, there are many wonderful, very profitable engagements I wouldn't have landed.

IMHO, the problems she writes about weren't in the sharing. They were in being able to sniff out the "takers" early enough, and quite possibly in developing good listening skills.

Set boundaries relationship by relationship. But not in aggregate.

No way would I advise a lawyer, accountant or consultant to "decline lunch/coffee invitations unless they are strictly non-business." Guess you should decline golf and ballgames, too? How many relationships have been built on these age-old knowledge-sharing activities?

The interactions that Ms. Graham tells you to avoid allow for you to LISTEN as much as talk. Listening sells. Talking less so.

So, if you are a crummy listener and don't want the opportunity to learn more about a person's situation and needs so that you can eventually discuss ways you might be able to help them, then, yeah, pass on the opportunity to have a turkey sandwich or cuppa. 

Just don't be cynical thinking that everyone's out for your freebies.

If you're new to business development, it's a fact that you've gotta do a bunch of these things to learn how to sniff out the takers...the people who will never buy from you.

You'll get good at it. Trust me. 

Law Firm Adopts High-Tech Scarlet Letter to Motivate

Humiliation is a great way to boost productivity, isn't it? After all, we can get some results when we chew someone's ass out in front of his or her peers.

Sure. When results matter a lot more than respect. And loyalty. And, you know, people's feelings. 

In the what-the-hell-were-they-thinking category, there's a London law firm that found a high-tech way to slap a scarlet letter on "underperforming associates." This per "Red Faces for Poor Billers," an article in Lawyers Weekly, Australia:

According to RollOnFriday, an insider reportedly complained that RPC has implemented a program that changes the colour of associates' computer screens, depending on their level of profitability.  

A red screen is obviously not so good, meaning the lawyer is losing the firm money, while yellow means they're coasting along okay but could do a little better. Those staring at a green screen can look forward to a few long lunches with the partners some time soon.

Unfortunately for those not hitting the big numbers, their red screens are viewable by all within the firm's open plan office.

Despite the public display of a lawyer's profitability — or lack thereof — a spokesperson for the firm confirmed with RollonFriday that colour coding was used, with the system designed to enable lawyers to "develop their commerciality and understand the work they're doing and the amount of time they're spending on it" and not to shame unprofitable staff in front of their colleagues.

Really? Not the aim to shame people into different behavior? This management approach went out decades ago. 

The professions are fans of "Best Practices" and this needs to be added to the "Worst Practices" list, for sure, right along with blocking social media. 

 

Where Have I Been? Have You Found the Lazy Trap?

I'm not gonna lie. I'm embarrassed that I haven't posted to my blog in about 6 weeks. Especially since I'm a huge fan of blogs, someone who loves to write, and a person who recently wrote a book about how effective blogs can be (if'n ya post at least once or twice a week). So, yeah, I feel like a heel.

Where've I been? I was hoping you could tell me. 

I'm doing lots of speaking and consulting. And some innovating with VeraSage Institute.

But I'm still about the online community and I've remained fairly active on twitter (@michellegolden) and LinkedIn, and I have two biz pages on Facebook.

Those are: Golden Practices, my company, on which I share all sorts of practice management stuff for professionals and the other is the living, breathing portion of my book on social media where we continue the conversation about the constantly changing topic. 

I've come to really enjoy the ability to share links to great stories either VERY fast with just a little context on Twitter or LinkedIn, or still pretty quickly on Facebook with 400-ish characters of supplementary text. I've fallen into the "lazy trap."

Where about half my blog posts were inspired by something I've read and felt compelled to build on, disagree with, or just reference for the benefit of the reader (that would be you) - I now find that I can do that much more quickly in Facebook. Or the ultimate lazy: Twitter. Have you found that too?

Now don't get me wrong, I think Twitter is awesome for link-sharing and news or info hunting. In fact, I find useful nuggets every time I check my Twitter feed. I think the key to Twitter, as a user or a reader, is the well-crafted headline. Don't know about you, but I never click a link without a good intro or headline. I never, ever post a link without one. Hope you don't either. But I digress.

Guilt and sincerely "missing my blog" (and you) are bringing me back. I finished my book about 8 months ago and confess that I've been in a writing funk ever since. It's time to shake that off and return. 

So feel free to beat me up and bug me if I appear to be neglecting you. I need any encouragement I can get. Oh, and please see my other social accounts for the brief snippets. Because I know you don't have time to read long musings every day anyway. 

Here's to balance! May we all find it.

Integrating Social Media Into Your Current Marketing

Are you interested in integrating your marketing to include social media channels?

The first question, then, is: “What are you doing now?”

The odds are that you’re doing some things that can be leveraged into social media activities very nicely. Start with an inventory of all your non–social web activities.

Think about what you do and who you do it for, or in front of:

• Print products (brochures, flyers, etc.): What do you produce? How often? Who sees it?
• Websites: Do you have one or more websites? For whom are they geared?
• E-mails: What e-mail communications do you send? How often? Who sees them? 
• Advertisements: Do you have any TV, radio, print, web, or other advertisements? Where, when, and how often do they appear? Who sees them?
• Print articles: Do you write articles or guest columns? How often? For which publications? Who is the target audience?
• Case studies and testimonials: Do you collect or create these materials? From whom? What do you do with them?
• Surveys: Do you take surveys? Of whom? How often? What information do you collect?
• Membership in organizations: Are you involved in any trade, peer, general business, community, or charitable organizations? Who else is involved (audience)? How do you interact with others in the organization?
• Activities or programs: Do you sponsor any of these? If so, what are they?
• Events, classes, or seminars: Do you attend events, classes, or seminars? Which ones? Who else is there?
• Speaking engagements, seminars, webinars: Do you accept speaking engagements and for whom? Does your company host events, or are they hosted by other organizations? Where are they held?
• Media appearances: Do you appear on TV, radio, print, or on the Web as a resource or quoted expert? 

Other opportunities for sharing are our day-to-day interactions such as talking to people, e-mailing them, and print correspondence (including invoices). Any one of these activities can be bridged into another, or into your social media initiatives, as appropriate.

Remember, though, the tone in the social web is MUCH different than in advertising or traditional media.

De-fluff and de-spin with your actions online. In fact, I suggest you do so everywhere. No one likes gobbledygook and spin. 

Social media doesn't have to be a lot of extra work "on top of" what you're already doing.

There are undoubtedly a lot of untapped opportunities to build your reputation as a skilled, credible professional and perhaps even a “specialist” by maximizing what you already do.  

In the comments, let us know how you've made the most of an activity by leveraging it across multiple channels.

 

Above includes modified excerpt from Social Media Strategies for Professionals and their Firms (2010, Wiley).

Specialists, Are you Charging More Yet? Why Not?

Being known for providing specialized services is powerful form of branding.

And the whole point of branding is to increase profits through being able to command premium prices.

CPA firms are good at developing specialities, but most totally miss the boat on leveraging the speciality when it comes to their pricing. Even when their capacity is full!

The two key situations that set you up for raising prices are a) being a specialist and b) being at or very near capacity! These perfect price-raising opportunities are too often overlooked. 

Don't leave all that money on the table! (and the amount left unsold doesn't EVER show up on the balance sheet!

Many thanks to Rick Telberg for inviting me to speak my mind on this topic that had just been raised during the Lessons From the Legends panel at last week's Winning is Everything conference. I wanted to grab the mic and shout it out right there! :) 

Really. How Committed Are you to Caring About Your Customers?

I hate to talk about how amazing Zappos is, because everyone does it and, as David Meerman Scott wrote the other day in "The Trouble with Zappos," doing so frequently elicits eye-rolls from those of us who hear about them over and over and over. David's right. I've seen this myself in front of live audiences.

A lot of people, especially professional service providers, either think Zappos is an anomaly, or that their culture and attitudes don't apply to their firms.

Okay, fine. But please keep reading because this is important.

Last night, I was on the Zappos Facebook page and a few posts down, a customer of Zappos posted a photo of a bouquet and wrote this:

(Rosandra kindly granted me permission to share this)

So. I ask you. Does your firm do stuff like this for your customers?  

I don't mean the occasional congratulatory bouquet or funeral arrangement to the decision-maker at a client's office, but generously and sincerely caring about the people who buy from you and work with you to make the engagement a success? The bookkeeper? The GC's admin assistant? The receptionist?

Yeah, maybe it does cost too much money. Let's think about that. Zappos sells SHOES. Their average sale is probably less than $100. An average customer might buy a pair a quarter or spend, say, $400/year. So, how much is your average sale, again? 

Yeah, it does take extra time. That's the point. Caring takes a little time. No time. No care. How committed are you to the success of your firm? 

NEWSFLASH: YOU DO COMPETE WITH ZAPPOS

Just because Zappos is not a professional firm competitor, they are setting the bar very high among the same, exact people YOU sell to.

Just like Disney, Apple, The Ritz, FedEx, Nordstrom and all the examples we are "tired" of hearing about.

You/we HAVE to pay attention to this and learn from loyalty-creating behaviors they exhibit. We have to become committed to caring if we want to keep our customers. Both law and accounting professionals report that "client retention" is a top issue or concern for them now and in the short term. 

Keep rolling your eyes at companies like Zappos and client retention isn't going to improve.

Why "Personal Brand" is an Oxymoron & Doesn't Jive With Today's Online Marketing

You won’t hear me talk about building your “personal brand,” and that is because I feel strongly that brands are best suited for products and large companies. Brands are inherently IMpersonal.

Conceptually, I didn’t have a problem with substituting “personal brand” for reputation over the past decade or so, as popularized by Tom Peters in his 1997 Fast Company article, “The Brand Called You.” These concepts dramatically changed how employees set themselves apart from the organizations they worked for, which you could call personalizing, but in a way that maintained a corporate-like veil of positioning (spin) to the public.

But this was before online marketing was essential and social media came into play.

If we venture into social media (or any online presence) with a purpose of “branding” ourselves, it’s easy to think we ought to represent ourselves in a corporate-like, sanitized (aka inauthentic) way. This is exactly the opposite of how we need to present ourselves in the social Web.

The fact is, the social Web has truly lifted and burned the corporate veil. Spin is deplored.

Authenticity is a core value in the online world (any world, actually). The online community values usefulness, authenticity, altruism, and validation by outside parties.

If you go back and understand branding’s original purpose, it is to enable premium pricing, thus higher profits. For professionals in firms of any size, excellent reputation or specialization accomplishes the same.

And sadly, of all the professional firms I know who have spent vast sums to brand themselves, very few actually leverage their brands in their pricing! But I digress...

Our focus: a corporate brand isn’t essential for professionals to charge premium prices. A reputation, however, IS.

Being a “brand” can even be harmful to professionals. Why?

Because brands are impersonal and with very few exceptions, people (even on behalf of companies) don’t want to buy personalized knowledge and advice from an impersonal entity. Therefore professionals are far better off presenting themselves in their full, unique, human-y glory, than as a corporate brand. Add to that the fact that corporate brands are generally viewed as inaccessible and, to a great degree, unaccountable, and it becomes clear it's not the way to go for relationship-oriented professionals.

Even the largest corporate brands are trying very hard to position themselves more personally. 

At a recent marketing event featuring top brands, including Radio Flyer, Tropicana, Ford, Chevrolet, GM, Best Buy, Domino’s, Comcast, and Kodak, the single greatest take-away for blogger Jennifer Beese was,

It’s not about the product, it’s about the soul of the brand. It’s about people, not logos. In short, humanize your brand.

Professional firms, too, should recognize this shift and, like traditional "company" brands, stop trying so very hard to corporatize themselves. And rejoice because professionals have a tremendous advantage over corporations in doing this—the professional IS the product and good relationships are part of highest-quality service delivery. It's what customers WANT, hope for, and expect. 

If you are a professional, don’t worry about a building (aka manufacturing) a "brand" for yourself.

Instead, just focus on being true to who you are as you establish and maintain your professional reputation. Seek to do the work that inspires you most, and achieve a strong reputation through excellent expectation management. Being passionate about what you do, and professional and personable while you do it are the best things you can do for your practice to thrive and grow.

 

This is a modified excerpt from Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms (©2010 John Wiley & Sons).

Managing Your "Private" Life on Facebook While Developing Business

I'm witnessing an increase in the number of people creating "extra" accounts on Facebook to help them manage (separate) business and private personas.

This might seem like a good way to manage privacy such as protecting kiddos or allowing you to let your hair down among close friends and family while maintaining your professional decorum among business associates or even strangers who want to know you, even if you don't know them.

Others do it not so much for privacy concerns, but to avoid sending business-y messages and links to family and "old" friends who aren't into your business. That's thoughtful for sure, but there are other ways to manage this. 

Having multiple Facebook accounts is a bad idea for several reasons, one of which is that it violates Facebook's Terms of Use (see 4.2)

In the FAQs, they more thoroughly explain, 

If I already have a user profile, can I create a business account?

Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason.

Facebook instead wants you to create a "Page" for your business presence rather than a separate personal profile. So, even if you have a company page (like mine) they would prefer that I set up a "Michelle Golden" business person page.

This is what Facebook "likes"!

They describe in the FAQ that you can manage all your Pages (and ads) that you create from your personal account. And if you don't want people clicking into your personal life, they won't. Facebook explains:

Please keep in mind that the fans of any of the Pages you administer will not have visibility or access to your personal account or profile. Any actions that you take as a Page administrator on your Page will show the Page’s name as the [poster] and not your personal name. To create a Page, simply click on the "Create a Page" link under the Sign Up section of www.facebook.com.

This is actually really cool because people can "like" and share your business page and posts so your content can go a lot further than just among your circle of approved "friends." Also, with a "Page" you can see (aggregated) statistics that tell you if you are engaging well with others, or are having your post stream hidden by others! (gasp)

But let's talk about the other reasons you might not want to divide your "friends" between two accounts in the first place.

1) MISSING OUT.

When you divide your feed, and "depersonalize" your interaction to the business peeps, you miss out on the whole purpose of using social media for business development! (more below)

2) MANAGING CONTENT RELEVANCE.

By creating "friend lists," you can designate content you DO want to go to certain people or DON'T want to go to certain people. In other words, if you don't want to burden "family" or "jr high friends" with your business posts, create a group for them and when you write the business post, simply set the post to exclude viewing by that group.

3) MANAGING PRIVACY.

Take advantage of Facebook's incredibly rich privacy settings. Avoid sharing your vacation photos (or any other content or links) with your business peeps by placing photos in a special album just for lists of "family" and "close friends."

REMEMBER, ENGAGING IS WHAT MAKES FACEBOOK VALUABLE AS A BUSINESS TOOL

Facebook is not for broadcasting! (No social media are for broadcasting.) It's for interacting.

Bottom line is that the much of the point and purpose of using social media in business is for people to become closer. As in friends. As in learning what they have in common and stuff.

I have some Facebook friends who only "do Facebook" for business and it shows. There is no personal engagement. No relationship building. No point (at least for me). It's dry. It's boring. It's a broadcast. No thanks.

REAL RESULTS

Yet there are other Facebook business people that I hardly knew or totally didn't know before friending on Facebook. Yet we got closer through Facebook. And these people actually constitute the largest percent of people that have hired me or referred business to me as a result of getting to know one another via ANY FORM of social media. More than LinkedIn and more than Twitter.

From personal experience (I haven't conducted a formal survey, but maybe I should) I attribute this to the fact that I am fairly personal (aka "myself") on Facebook. And they seem to be, as well. I share and they share. And we get to know each other. We mutually participate and banter. I congratulate them on their marathons, "like" their family photos and song posts, commiserate when they have a rough go, wish them well when they are ill. And I mean it. And they do the same. And it results in building our relationships.

HOW TO GET YOURSELF HIDDEN

People who only feed their Tweets, blog posts, and Foursquare without otherwise engaging others are completely missing out on the benefits of the relationship development aspect of Facebook. Typical user behavior is to "hide" the posts of these people.

There are also some people who, when others comment or congratulate, ignore the messages. Typical user behavior is to stop commenting on these people's posts. No one likes to be ignored. Sometimes hiding the posts of these people or even unfriending them is a next step.

Again, Facebook is not for broadcasting. It's not one way. Even brands that merely broadcast, and fail to engage, get "hidden" from user feeds.

WHAT NEXT?

So, instead of creating a separate business presence, first try the friend lists feature to control privacy and/or content distribution.

If that doesn't suit your needs, create a "Page" for yourself as a professional (even if your company has its own page...you can cross link the pages). But if you go the Page route, be sure that you still engage, and still show some of your personality there. If you want relationships to develop, that is!

Cutting CLE / CPE in Tough Times. A Very Bad Idea.

I just came upon this article (hat tip to Jordan Furlong via Twitter: jordan_law21) on Law.com about economic cutbacks including "extra" professional development. CPAs are doing the same thing.

There are so many things wrong with this I couldn't possibly name them all, but lets start with these two:

• Professionals, you ARE your brains. 
  
  Your knowledge is your only source of high-value offerings. OJT is nice, but cannot be solely relied upon for increasing your knowledge. 

• CPE requirements are low, and CLE requirements are ridiculously low, already.
  
  Per the ABA, minimum CLE by state requirements average 10-15 hours annually. Are you kidding me?? For a knowledge profession like LAW? I really hope this is wrong. If a firm thinks that 1-2 days per year is adequate and that they should "cut" anything they support in addition to that, then I'm scared for the future of law. The AICPA has this state-by-state CPE chart that reflects most states require 40 hours of annual continuing education. Physicians' CME requirements by state, at about 20 hours/year, are greater than law, but lower than accounting. 

For knowledge professions, these minimum requirements are far from adequate for average performers, and they sure won't result in very many superstars.

As a buyer of services with the sort of stakes we are talking about... my LIFE, my financial security, and my legal protection, I certainly don't want a lawyer with 2 days per year of learning and a doctor with just 3 days. I'm scared and you should be, too.

Some might argue, well, there is great value in on-the-job training. Ok. OJT guided by senior practitioners meeting minimum continuing education requirements does not excite me. Further, I've worked inside of great firms, large and small. Are you telling me the knowledge transfer from senior to junior is anywhere near where it could or should be? I didn't think so.

Do you realize the Container Store invests 241 hours in employees' first year training and 160/yr after that? Seriously. I wrote about it before at Your CPE is Your R&D, Don't Underinvest. Closet design and storage solution service delivery merit more education than a DOCTOR?  The Container Store gets it. Look at the leadership training and resources here. And the positive impact on morale. And the happy customer trail. This is not mere coincidence.

At any rate, these comparisons are only as useful as navel-gazing can ever be. Firms need to be breaking OUT of the pack. Not cutting back on their most important "asset" - their ability to grow their knowledge and create more value for customers than others can or will add. Knowledge is the only way.

"Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes." 
~Peter Drucker

Law and accounting are already under-trained on leadership, management, and service, if not technical matters. Invest in your human capital.

Please, firms, don't cut eduction. It's the worst decision you could ever make. 

2010 Accounting Today Growth & Profitability Summit

I'm really excited about this upcoming event, the first put on by Accounting Today (& WebCPA)! Check it out and watch Bill Carlino's short video. It's at the Wynn in Las Vegas, Nov 17-18.

Many awesome speakers including VeraSage senior fellows, trailblazers & supporters. And several great bloggers & Tweeter!

Also, Bill Carlino says there are at least TEN of this year's Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting presenting!

TODAY is the last day to register with a $200 savings (PROMO CODE: GPBRO).

Don't miss:

Tom Hood of MACPA, keynoting

Mark Koziel of AICPA, keynoting

Ed Kless of Sage and VeraSage Senior Fellow on "Setting Price at a Professional Firm"

Jason Blumer and Jody Padar, next generation firm leaders and innovators(!) talking about "You Have Your Dad's Firm, Now What?"

and me, too, on "The Intersection of Business Development & Social Media"

plus many other notable figures.

During the event, several great firms are going to be acknowledged in the awards for 2010 Best Accounting Firms to Work For including at least one VeraSage Trailblazing firm, soon to be named. 

See you there!

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...

Tom Pick Aptly Gathers Ammo for the Great Social Media ROI Debate

There's a great blog post I saw today that happens to refer to my past piece, "'What's the ROI of Social Media?' is the Wrong Question."

Check out Tom Pick's great approach to the The Social Media ROI Debate found on his blog Webbiquity and on Social Media Today. (I really enjoy following them on Facebook!)

Tom shares his own worthy perspective and then links to several resources either in favor of or supporting measuring ROI "of social media" in general, several who say it's not necessary or even impossible (where I stand with regard to a TOOL, yet ROI for an initiative can be), and a few in the "maybe" camp.

All the links he references (have looked at several so far) appear to be great reads (and I'm very honored to be included among them).

Where do you stand on the ROI discussion?

 

Building Trust

Super quick blog post for firm owners, mangers and employees. And, well, everyone, really.

Please buy and read this book. 

Buy it for all your partners and managers. Read it before your next retreat or meeting. In fact, you should create a retreat specifically to discuss it.

The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work 

by Charles Feltman

It's 68 pages of brilliance and life-changing perspective from a wise man who claims "there are no new ideas in this book." Well, he does a beautiful job, then, of taking nuggets we need to know and putting them into a form we can apply to our business and personal lives. 

I met Charles when I took his full day session in April at the International Association of Facilitator's conference. It was a day of learning that changed my thinking significantly. But more importantly, it struck me how absolutely helpful this book will be for professional firms.

It's as applicable to customer relationships as it is to firm management. 

After you read it, please let me know what you thought of it. 

Who Are You Talking To?

Got a great question, or set of questions, this morning on a recent post. My answer got so long, I decided it's a post of its own. 

Jim Caruso asked about whether he should start multiple blogs or a single blog since he's thinking about writing for clients/prospects, his peers, and his personal interests. 

Here are my thoughts:

For anything we do/write/etc, always begin with the question "who is the audience?" And if the answer is that there are multiple audiences as you've described, you then have to ask yourself, where do their interests intersect and where do they deviate? 

The key with writing, especially in a blog where you desire loyal readers and subscribers, is to stay relevant to your audience. If the discussion can stay relevant to all your audiences (covering the "intersection" of interests) then by all means, approach writing for all in one place. 

BUT, if one audience will likely be bored, annoyed, or otherwise feel as though the content is not applicable to him or her, then break your blogs up. People, being SO busy and flooded with info, seem to pretty readily unsubscribe from previously interesting things that stop meeting their needs. 

The more specific your content is to any one common-interest group (say, martial arts on the personal side, or family-owned businesses on the work side) the more meaningful your content will be. 

Sometimes just one off-topic post on my part, and I lose a couple subscribers. Other bloggers I know have lost followers by talking a lot about their sports team or elections...veering off from their usual stuff.

Writing for peers in the same place you write for prospects and clients is probably not the best approach. 

A good post on this appeared yesterday by Jordan Furlong on the Stem Legal blog talking about lawyers writing for lawyers versus for others. Jordan wrote that the client cares about what's in the FedEx envelope while lawyers care about how you get to what goes in that envelope.

The occasional post about your personal interests or whatever is great. I've been downright shocked by the warm response to a couple of these that I've shared...like my son's return from Afghanistan (he's a soldier) -- the outpouring from business friends was very moving and that post is among the 10 most "clicked" on my blog.

Pick your audience first. 

Ideally this is based on what your greatest business passion is (because blogs without passion are awful). 

Think, literally, in terms of "common interest groups."

In the event you choose to focus your business blog on your peer group and not the end client, you can still gain a little out of it for marketing, but it's not truly a marketing effort. Certainly some prospective clients may see this writing and think, wow, he knows what he's doing, and you'll earn some credibility for that. But don't necessarily expect them to subscribe to your feed. 

And if you go down the road of a personal blog, assuming the content is publicly appropriate (not airing dirty laundry or constant party pics) go ahead and add the blog to your LinkedIn profile. This shows you are a dynamic person with rich interests. Others who share your interests might ultimately reach out to you on a business level.

Bottom line, think of what you're passionate about (enough to fuel ongoing interest in writing) then think about who the audience for those subjects might be. And then think more broadly about what they do and don't care about. Know your audience well. Stay as true to their needs and interests as possible.

Tell-tale Signs of an Amateurish Blog

 Blogs have been around for a decade so there are a lot of great blogs out there and a well-established community to learn from. 

Lots of newcomers are entering the blogosphere, and ya'll are welcomed with open arms. However, there are some things that newbie (or noob) bloggers do or don't do that a) make their blogs less usable or b) scream "we don't know what we're doing!" 

So to spare newish bloggers some embarrassment, I've compiled this list of signs that they may lack appropriate participation in the blog community:

•    Comments are disabled (in my opinion, this disqualifies it from being a true blog)

•    No outbound links in the posts

•    No blogroll in the sidebar

•    No indication of who the author is or about the author link/page

•    Too many or duplicative category names, or no categories set up (10-15 is good number)

•    Underlining of text that isn’t a link

•    Walls of text with no subheadings and paragraph breaks

•    Corporate speak, or text that seems "sanitized" by the PR department

•    Approved comments that are obvious spam

•    Calling their blog post a “blog” instead of a "post" (e.g. “in the blog that I wrote yesterday”)

•    White text on a black background – this is not readable! It hurts the eye.

•    Using Blogger.com but not removing the Blogger logo at the top of the professional firm’s blog

•    Ending posts with “For more information call or email me” or similar pitch. They won’t. That’s not how blogs work.

When I asked Twitter and Facebook friends what they believe signals that a blog is amateur, these friends answered with their thoughts:

•   "Infrequent updates" suggested by three people: Ginger Lewis (@Ginger_Lewis), Andrew Rose (@NadenLean), and Jason Blumer (@JasonMBlumer)

•   "Internal focus versus external focus" from Ed Kless (@edkless)

•   "Relying on memes instead of creating original content" wrote Robin Wheeler (@poppymom)

•   "Minutia—quantity over quality can help develop the blogging habit but writing about minute details of life without going deeper screams amateur" also from Robin Wheeler (@poppymom)

•   "No clear relationship/brand beyond the blog, itself" submitted by Langston Richardson (@matsnl)

•   "There is no RSS feed" from Ginger Lewis (@Ginger_Lewis)

•   "Typos" and when "links are broken" sent by Susan Gorham (@susangorham)

•   "Consistently poor grammar and spelling" contributed by Debra Helwig (@dhelwig) who elaborates: “If you can't take the time to proofread, or have someone check you, how can I believe you'll be careful when you do work for ME?”

and an especially important one:

•   "Asking to swap links—gotta earn that" submitted by Robin Wheeler (@poppymom)

This list is from my upcoming book, Social Media Strategies for Professionals and their Firms.

APPENDED: July 28

Just to be crystal clear, while the first list is my list of traits of amateur blogs, the second list are traits submitted by the persons credited with contributing the trait. These were suggested publicly (Facebook and Twitter) with notice of my intent to publish them.  I am not suggesting they are guilty of the trait shown. Thanks!

Clearing Your Mind and Your Business-Related Indigestion

Received a forwarded article today from pal Rob Nance of AccountingWEB fame. So good, I thought I'd share it with you. 

It's from Amex Open Forum and it's entitled "6 Things to Think About on Your Summer Vacation" by Jane Applegate.

It is somewhat marketing related...

CLIENT SELECTION

#1 on Jane's list is "Stop working with anyone that gives you a headache or stomachache" 

My take: this applies to clients AND employees. Bummer customers suck you dry. Bummer employees suck everyone in your organization dry (one rotten apple spoils the barrel) AND they don't represent you well externally, either.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

#2 is "Admit that everything takes three times as long and costs twice as much."

My take: this pertains to the expectation setting you should do when committing to work, the pricing you give to your customer, and meeting delivery terms.

KNOW YOUR MARKETPLACE

#3 is "Don't operate your business in a vaccuum." 

My take: pay attention to what others (your competitors, yes, but also companies you aspire to emulate from a service and impression standpoint) say and do.

KEEP YOUR QUALITY HIGH

#4 is "Put yourself first at least one hour a day."

My take: you cannot be a "great" thinker and service provider when you are are operating on an empty tank. In order to have the energy to innovate and solve problems for people, you need to recharge.

BE LIKABLE

#5 is "Keep your sense of humor."

My take: if you are too serious, you're probably not that fun to be around. Lighten up by looking at the brighter, or funnier, side of things more often.

DON'T OVER-PROMISE AND UNDER-DELIVER

#6 is "Cut the email and phone tether."

My take: not only do we need a mental break from being constantly accessible, but technology can render us less effective than we otherwise would be because we underestimate the affect of 24/7 intrusion on our time and thinking. The distraction often disrupts our ability to get done what we promise. See #2.

Enjoy the read and wish me luck because I definitely need to apply this advice too!