Spotlight on the AICPA’s CPA Ambassador Program

By Lois Whitehead, Public Relations Manager

Communication experts coached members of the New York State Society of CPAs to put polish to the profession’s public image, during an all-day training seminar in February.

The American Institute of CPAs held its CPA Ambassador Training Program on Feb. 3 at the Society’s headquarters, offering 14 NYSSCPA members insights into how they can individually help continue restoring confidence in the profession.

Seminar host James A. O’Malley, the AICPA’s senior vice president for public affairs, said the image of the CPA has taken tremendous strides forward in the past two years and is well on its way to a full recovery, partly due to grassroots efforts.
“Advertising will not work in the current scenario,” he said. “The CPA Ambassador Program has been designed to get the grassroots membership delivering key messages for the profession.”

Instructors Andrew Gilman and Michael Sigman, of CommCore Consulting Group, trained members of the NYSSCPA’s Public Relations Committee in “critical” areas they can focus on to help “reintroduce” the profession to the American public. These included improving financial literacy in the public, and recruitment to the profession. The experts reviewed support tools such as prepared speeches and talking points, and offered guidance on handling tough media questions, along with briefings on issues related to the profession that dominate today’s headlines, including Social Security.

After their participation in the training program, CPAs who take on two spokesperson opportunities or media interviews will earn a special CPA Ambassador pin and have their names and placements cited on a newly designed section of the AICPA website.

The training “provided insight as to how to adopt a different posture when dealing with media,” said Bart Fooden, a member of the Society’s Public Relations Committee.

Breakout sessions throughout the day allowed participants to take questions from peers in mock media interviews that were videotaped and immediately reviewed so that their responses could be critiqued. The trainers emphasized the importance of creating three key messages as part of a presentation or media interview, and of repeating them throughout the presentation.

The instructors also offered a variety of public speaking tips for CPAs making public presentations to groups. These included methods a presenter can employ for making eye contact with a large audience, and for mentally dividing a room into quadrants to make it easier to the speaker to identify receptive listeners, such as a “friendly face” or someone who is responding with a nod of the head.

Other tips for dealing with media included a suggestion to always stand during an interview, especially one given over the phone, to help create energy within the message. These messages should be tailored to an audience, whether it is the media, a business group or a school board.

Both trainers said that “sound bites” are key to getting a message across in any form of media. The first part of an effective sound bite should be based on facts, while the second part should succinctly make the audience understand why they should care. A sound bite should absolutely be considered before the interview begins, and while it is fine to use the phrase early in an interview, it’s always good to repeat and reinforce the point again later.

Finally, the trainers stressed the need to take ownership of an interview, saying that should a reporter stray too far from an agreed-upon subject, it is the interviewee’s job to be able to bridge back to the key message and control the agenda.