The practice of public relations has enjoyed a glamorous image of late, but when one specializes in business-to-business marketing oriented PR, you find yourself involved with industry issues and executives rather than “in” celebrities. Still clients are clients, whether CEOs or heartthrobs and they can either speed the course to a successful campaign or be pose the biggest obstruction to progress.
Let’s review six common client behaviors that can spell doom to one’s public relations program:
The Bermuda Triangle Effect (the disappearing press release)
Breaking news – stop the presses! The client calls and you pen that urgent press release in record time, submit it to your client and, that’s the last you hear of it. Beware the Bermuda Triangle Effect, aka – the legal department, which being good brand stewards often over-cautiously smothers releases. Then, when the news leaks to the media, everyone points fingers and scrambles to cover their tracks.
Solution: Agency and client should agree upon Release datelines. All materials should be prepared well in advance of their proposed release and vetted through the clearance process. Consider, in lieu of a formal news release, using a letter or fact sheet that covers off the key points that may not require a formal legal OK before sending to key journalists.
I’m too busy for that reporter/publication
“But it’s only a trade magazine and I’m too busy to be bothered,” says the client, as he/she commits one of the most damaging miscues in the business. After all, most stories originate in the trade press and filter up to the national media. And, making friends in your industry is crucial to developing a leadership position based on positive coverage.
Solution: In today’s always-connected world, there is no longer an excuse for not being available. If you can’t chat, request the questions via e-mail, then sneak out of the all-day meeting, hit the john and dash off a reply.
The “know-it-all answer”
Yes, we live in the age of the “bite” or “byte” and being pithy and concise are valuable interviewing skills, but so often clients are so close to the action that they reply in five or ten words and think they’ve covered off the topic. That doesn’t garner one much editorial real estate whether in print or electronic media.
Solution: Plan ahead for key topics. Prepare a cue card with bullet points and examples to illustrate topics you expect to be queried about. If you can find the time, read these out loud and time them. Practice does make perfect and can help one avoid the “did I really say that?” syndrome.
“No comment”
“They’re not going to corner me with that issue. I’ll just ignore their calls, e-mails, faxes, SMS, etc.,” thinks the client. This is always the wrong move. The media love to include “no comment” or “numerous calls were not returned” in their coverage. Those are not the kind of press clips that further one’s business or reputation. The trickier the situation, the more one needs to plan a response, but “no comment” is the last resort of scoundrels and miscreants.
Solution: When the going gets tough, the tough get organized. Difficult situations rarely emerge fully-grown from the head of Zeus, so be forewarned and prepare some response, hopefully one that is truthful. In this are of transparency, no comment bites harder than every and lingers longer than an elephant’s memory, making it difficult the next time you have something you want to tell the media.
The Etherized Speech
The PR agency has worked hard to get that speaking platform and the client decides to prepare the presentation since; after all, he/she is the expert. And what happens, the client creates a handsome (hopefully) PowerPoint deck, goes off and delivers the speech to loud applause, then sends you the deck and tells you what a success he/she was. End of story? It shouldn’t be.
Solution: A speech should be treated as a news-making event. The PR team needs the content of the speech, not just the PowerPoint. An easy way to capture the content is to ask the client to rehearse the speech, record it, and e-mail the file to you for transcription, in advance of the event. If they are too busy to rehearse, they should record their presentation from the podium with their own digital recorder. Transcriptions can be outsourced to Indian firms for economical, overnight turnaround, which enables the PR team to make material available to media in a timely manner.
Oops, that was a deadline?
We’ve all been there. The client swears to pen, review, edit the column copy that will bear his/her name, but gets too busy to do so. But deadlines are deadlines and nothing damages a publicist’s reputation more than missing a commitment.
Solution: This is a tough one since it wins no points to constantly harangue a client about a pending deadline. The best we can do is to work as far ahead as possible (give the client a false, early deadline) check in regularly to offer help with research, interviews, etc., to make the client’s job easier, and hope they care enough to both foster then own reputation and that of their company’s.
Len Stein is president of New Rochelle, NY-based Visibility Public Relations.
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