The Right Way to Market

Like most folks, I regularly get solicitations in the mail - whether snail or electronic - from various entities looking to drum up business. If it’s not an insurance company promising they can cut my auto and home rates in half, it’s financial and estate planners warning me about the dangers of suddenly expiring without a plan or will.

But lately I have been getting inundated with e-mail and or phone requests for the following: to meet in person for a custom-fit suit; with representatives from a sales lead generation company; a pushy sales person wanting to immediately speak to the person in charge of our company’s phone system (that was a quick hang-up); a staffing firm wanting to know if Transition Advisors is in the market for senior level tax managers or auditors; and finally, a clinic that recently opened in my neighborhood that specializes solely in stretching.

As I am to flexible what a rusted bolt is to a pair of pliers, the last one hurts just thinking about it. I predict I will be able to perform a full split about the same time our national deficit is eradicated.

Believe me I have tried to put a stop to this.

Painfully I have discovered that contacting the “Do Not Call” registry has been about as effective as the time my principal ordered a series of “no smoking” signs put up around school property.

Which in a sort of roundabout way brings us to my message de jour – the right way and the wrong way to announce a merger to your accounting clients. It’s more about packaging as opposed to marketing.

The other day I received a frantic call from a managing partner of a firm that had just merged into a larger practice and he was more than a little concerned about how to approach his clients.

“I can’t just send them a form letter,” he bemoaned.

No, you can’t I assured him. First, you need to break up your client list into A, B and C categories. The A or top clients should get a visit from you personally along with a member of your successor firm. The B clients should receive a phone call from you or one of your partners while the C clients should get a snail mail letter – but I warned him to put it on his firm’s stationary as opposed to the successor firm because most will toss it away thinking it’s a solicitation. (and I have more than some experience with that!)

He thanked me and said he would get his team right on it.

In the interim I just got a call from the stretching facility advising me about the dangers of having tight hamstrings.

This could be one marketing voicemail message I just may think about returning.