Is Vanity all that Bad?

I have felt for a long time that vanity plates on cars serve only to make it easy to remember the license plate of an idiot driver. I mean, if you insist on weaving in and out of traffic, don't use a car registered as "IAM-CRAZY" or similar. Use "374 SDF" or something similarly innocuous.

I am feeling less and less enthusiastic about vanity phone numbers.

A web site gives out its phone number as (area code) (exchange code) 2CLS.

I am expected to squint at the tiny letters on the telephone handset and do the mental brainwork to translate CLS into 257.

"Hate the Work; Love the Money", That's My Motto.

So I dial the number, and what do you know? Somewhere along the line I manage to transcribe a "2" and a "5", or it might have been a "7".

I get a wrong number, which causes confusion on the other end and leaves a bad taste in my mouth; I don't like disturbing people needlessly.

I will try again and with a bit of luck, make contact with my original goal.

But in the time it takes to type this article, I may lose interest.

My workshop on Business Cards leads off with "The primary purpose of the business card is to get the other person to phone you", and following from that, ANYTHING which distracts is working against you.

(I once delivered the workshop, waiting until the end until someone asked "So what does YOUR business card look like?", whereupon I pulled out a card that had "416-621-9458" in 48-pt, front and back, nothing else at all. Think about that).

The Same Rule Ought to Hold for Web Sites and Flyers.

Once they land on your web page, let them know your phone number.

Not your phone letters.

And certainly don't brag about having discovered how to erect another hurdle between you and the next sale.