Let’s face it. Accountants are shockingly poor marketers. We’re terrible at raising the flag and hate selling our value even less. As one who has been moderately successful at what I do yet never reached my potential I know this to be true. Whenever I get asked to pitch I wilt. Even in large deals. Is the same true for you? I guess there is a piece of us that writes off our value as something we’d secretly call ‘public service.’ We need get over that.
Enter Hugh McLeod. Hugh and I have known each other since my earliest days at doing the blog thing. We’ve crossed angry swords more times than I’d like to think. Yet I count Hugh as one of my closest and trusted friends. Why? Hugh is a marketer par excellence but without any BS veneer. He lives in Texas, I live in Spain. We might meet in the real world once a year. If we’re lucky. The rest of the time we meet digitally. Hugh tells it as it is. He’s also eminently fair. Example…
Earlier today I called him up. I have a problem between his business and mine. Despite the fact he has many, many customers he just wanted to get the issue solved. His words to me: “I don’t want you pissed off.” How often will you say/hear that or be prepared to acknowledge the same? That despite Hugh has many contacts and a business that makes him a millionaire. It might sound crude but it is a fundamental part of doing business. Back to marketing.
In an earlier Twitter conversation, Hugh offered these epithets:
- @dahowlett All pundits are desperate. Why? Because their job is basically, to prolong the status quo. Courtiers, basically.
- @dahowlett “Aren’t all pundits desperate?” Yes. Because they assume that the SYSTEM they bought into FOREVER is INFALLIBLE. #whores
Much of what Hugh has to say cannot be regarded as ‘work safe’ but then if I have to ask your permission to say something that reflects the world’s reality then how long might that take? Your choice.
Disclosure: from time to time Hugh seeks my opinion. He doesn’t always listen to what I say. Wise man. I buy his art.
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