The Telephone–An Appreciation

For the past 14 months I’ve spent a lot of time volunteering for a political campaign. My first task was fundraising. I figured we could get together a few people from the neighborhood, raise a couple thousand dollars and send it off to the campaign.

Guess again my young political neophyte.

The candidate’s staff hooked me up with a couple of real political pros: one chatty and avuncular, the other more inclined to cut to the chase. On my first political organizing call, the more personable of the two explained chatted me up and explained the event itself. Our goal was to raise half a million dollars.

As I was working on the math, the cut to the chase guy laid it out: each person attending would have to fork over my monthly salary when I was a senior staff auditor. He put it to me ever so delicately. “How many people can you bring?”

Umm…somewhere between zero and none?

Apparently “Ten” was the correct answer, so I was forced to amend my initial response. Quite an introduction to the world of political fundraising.

But you know what? I did it. And when it came time for the Colorado caucus, I was given a new goal: get 25 people to show up and caucus for our guy. We got 91 and won our precinct 70% – 30%.

Moral to the story: if you’re running for office, you want me on your campaign.

No, wait. that’s not it.

Moral to the story: work the phones. The only way I was able to meet these outlandish goals was to get on the phone. Period. E-mails don’t do it. You have to get out there, call people and make personal contact.

Candidates put in “call time,” reaching out to important fundraisers, supporters and, as we’ve now learned, uncommitted superdelegates. Here’s how it works. Staff members from the three main functional areas (finance, political outreach and field operations) submit requests for the candidate to call a specific person. The request includes critical information about the person to be called and the candidate’s “ask” of that person. Campaign strategists prioritize these requests and several times each day (or most days) the candidate schedules “call time” to make these calls.

If I was still in public accounting, I’d set up call time for myself. I’d schedule 3 – 5 hours each week to reach out unsolicited to key people in my professional life. Remember that these are outreach calls, not calls you normally make to resolve issues or follow up on something already in the works. These are outreach calls to start something entirely new. Here’s how I’d do “call time.”

• I’d create a couple of buckets of key players. Clients and potential clients could be a bucket. Colleagues at other firms or in other functional areas or offices of my own firm could be another bucket. Managers and key staff members who work for me could be a bucket.

• I’d structure the calls like a candidate. Solicit input from others on my team. Who should I call? What is the ask? There has to be an ask–these aren’t chats.

The important thing is to get call time on the schedule and stick to it. At first, you might not think you have much to talk about. But knowing you have 3 – 5 hours of call time each week will force you to come up with something productive. Not sure you know enough people to call? Great! Get a referral from people you do know and call a few strangers. (This may sound a little wacky, but remember, the guy writing this is used to calling up complete strangers and asking them to sign big checks).

If I was an audit parter with 4 hours of call time on his schedule this week, here’s who I might call.

• Clients whose jobs are in the field. To prepare for the call, I’d ask my managers for input and ideas on what we should talk about. No audit issues to discuss? Ask them about their business.
• Clients whose jobs are coming up. Need some ideas for talking points? Look at Appendix A of SAS No. 109.
• Clients whose job just finished. Having reviewed the workpapers, it should be easy to find things to talk about. Can you spell SAS 112?
• A colleague from my own firm in a different functional area. I’d ask them about the hot topics in tax or consulting and have them send me some collateral on the subject that I might want to pass along to my clients. (Following up with these clients would be a good topic for call time in a few weeks).

That’s a lot to do in just 4 hours. You’ll be amazed at how fast the time goes. More importantly, you’ll start to create value in ways you never imagined. Value for your clients. Value for your firm.

And when you leave the profession maybe you could run for City Auditor.

1. Brian Kush Says:
   April 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 am

   I wish I had learned many years ago to put a specific routine like that into my week. It’s one thing to agree that it is important to your clients, your firm, and your own personal development; it’s another to make it a non-negotiable time-block in your calendar.

   One idea, which you alluded to, was once you have this routine down in your schedule, considering breaking up the time. You could spend a few hours for example in talking to your internal folks. Then you could spend a few hours, possibly on another day, in calling up clients. Talking to strangers might seem like a different task with different preparation, so you might want to break that out into a separate day also. For some, making it one time block and getting it done on one day might be best. You need to do what will work best for you.

   I would love to hear about other people’s routines (what has worked, what hasn’t) in the sales and communication areas.

2. MJRamos Says:
   April 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm

   Here’s one thing I found. A majority of people I call say “thanks for reaching out to me” or “thanks for calling.” People appreciate it when you contact them.

   You certainly get a lot fewer rejections calling clients and colleagues than you get calling strangers and asking them for money or for their vote.

3. ChuckManganiello Says:
   April 3rd, 2008 at 6:18 am

   Great column! One other mindset to have is to be on the lookout when you reachout for ways you can help the other person.

   So, instead of the conversation going like this…Hey Bob – though I would give you a call to let you know what I am up to….

   Reverse it and make the reason of the call like this.. Hey Bob, I wanted to give you a call to see what you are up to. Chances are you might be able to help that person.

   I read in How to Win Friends and Infulence Behavior a long time ago,,, you can have everything in life if you just help enough other people get what they want. And you know what…..it makes you feel real good!

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