Morgan McLintic on PR and Performance

Some marketers are liars

And Guy Kawasaki has a list of the lies they tell. Too true.

The customer is always right

That's the golden rule of customer service. But what if the customer is wrong? Seth Godin offers us this elegant insight: If the customer is wrong, they're not your customer any more.

If the customer is indeed wrong (for instance they make egregious demands), you should politely decline to do business with them. You might as well since if you treat the customer like they are wrong, they won't stay your customer for long. When customers leave of their own accord, they spread the word about the bad service you have provided.

The customer is never wrong, you just have the wrong customer. That's why agencies fire clients.

Poll results: PR professionals are over dependent on email

82% of you think that PR consultants are too dependent on email. We use it for pitching the media and bloggers, for updating clients, for team organization, agency management, partner relations - the list goes on. In fact, when the email server goes down, many PRs don't know what to do or how to operate.

Email is an addiction. One from which many PRs suffer. According to Wikipedia: It is quite common for an addict to express the desire to stop the behavior, but find himself or herself unable to cease.

Perhaps it's time for PRs to kick the habit?

Ten common mistakes in selecting a PR agency

Selecting a PR agency is difficult. It's a high-involvement, low frequency purchase with multiple decision-makers and influencers. The budget can represent a significant proportion of the marketing spend, it's a high profile appointment and getting it wrong can set the campaign back by months.

Given these dynamics it's little wonder that the process often goes awry and the wrong agency is selected. Here are a few of the most common mistakes:

1. The review is unsanctioned - it's surprising how many PR managers embark on an agency selection process without getting necessary sign off for the budget internally and without the buy-in of the management team. Clear the path for the new firm to come on board and the relationship will have a solid foundation. Strong agencies won't pitch unless there is a clear remit, approved budget and senior team buy-in.

2. There is no selection process - regardless of your timeframe, you must have a selection process. This could be as simple as issuing a request for information (RFI), meeting a few agencies, asking three to pitch and making your choice. Develop a timeline, and stick to it. Most selection processes take between 6-12 weeks from start to finish. If the next steps are vague, the agencies won't know how to respond or what you are looking for. This will either result in an underwhelming pitch or overkill. Having a clear process shows you are a serious buyer and will make a good client.

3. The selection is too involved - time is money for agencies. All agencies will be willing to invest their time in winning your business. They'll want to show willing and to demonstrate their understanding. But don't abuse that dynamic or you'll lose them. The selection process is there to help you decide which agency is the best for your specific campaign, and for the agency to decide if it can successfully implement that campaign. Don't turn it into a hoop jump. Common examples here include getting agencies to write numerous 'dummy' case studies, press releases and PR plans within condensed timeframes. Sure, it shows responsiveness, but good firms don't need to repeatedly prove themselves, so be careful not to put them off.

4. The pitch is a crapshoot - don't ask more than four, or at a maximum five agencies to personally present to your team. If you feel you need more, then you should commit additional time to your shortlist process and decide exactly what's important to you. The reality is that your shortlisted agencies should all have the credentials to do the job, so you're mainly looking for proof of that and cultural fit during the pitch. Again, if there are ten agencies all pitching, bear in mind that those firms will look at the odds and decide how much effort to put into the pitch. Some will withdraw based on that analysis, perhaps even your front runner. And you don't want your senior team tied up in numerous, tepid pitches since you've spread the net too wide.

5. The brief is too brief - don't underestimate how much time it will take to brief the shortlisted agencies. You'll need at least one face to face meeting with each firm, and most of those firms will also ask to speak to the other company executives. Assume each will come back with a raft of questions, some quite involved. You've asked the agencies to devote time to understanding your business, and you need to reciprocate. A written brief is a must. Make sure this includes sufficient detail - not just a repaste of the web site. Disorganized companies have a one page brief and answer all requests for further info with a rather offhand 'you have all you need' or 'we expect you to find out'. Again, this sends the wrong signal. The selection is the first step in getting your new firm up to speed and building a strong relationship with them - start on the right foot.

6. The pitch is too brief - allow at least an hour and a half for agencies to pitch. One hour for them to present, and half an hour for the Q&A. Trying to get it shorter than this doesn't do you or the agency justice. Most pitches actually run to two hours, so provide run-over time in the schedule, particularly if you don't want your agencies meeting in reception (which I quite like but others don't).

7. The pitch is a spectacle - it's best to limit the number of people from either side to five. I've been in pitches with 12 on the selection panel. This isn't a pitch it's a funfair sideshow. You can't get consensus from a large selection group, and the dynamics of the session tend to be both intimidating for the PR agency, and not conducive to questions from the panel. The agencies will walk in, do their stuff and walk out with little feedback or interaction. Just introducing all the panel will take quarter of an hour. Having a large team client side also encourages the agencies to come mob-handed which means little airtime for each team member.

8. The pitch isn't the pitch - it's important to get the key decision makers in the room for the pitch, and the key agency team members to present. There's no point in having the agencies present on the understanding that a decision will be made, only to find the CEO would like to meet the agencies after all, and so another round evolves. Agencies often fly team members in for international pitches, so these kinks mean the CEO might not get to meet them.

9. The pitch wasn't a pitch - during some selection processes it becomes clear that the decision has been made and that the rest is just formality and compliance. Sure there will be faves and stronger candidates in the field, but if the decision really has been made, cut the charade and spare the agencies the work. This will save you time and protect your reputation - firms talk to each other and don't like being cannon fodder.

10. The decision is postponed indefinitely - once all the firms have presented their plans, make sure you have pre-booked a time to bring the selection panel together to make a decision. You will learn nothing new, barring reference-checks from this point. Many selections get blocked here and the process can lose momentum. You may also lose the team which the agencies put forward since they won't be on the bench for long. Move fast to lock down contracts with the winner and then inform the other firms. Do this live via the phone rather than email or voicemail. The agencies will all want feedback so they can improve and learn - and taking time to reward them with this will maintain a good relationship. You want that, just in case you backed the wrong horse.

Monday poll: Are PRs becoming over dependent on email?

Email has become an essential PR tool. It's a key part of client and media liaison. But are PRs starting to hide behind the 'email pitch'. Are email volumes becoming unmanageable? A one-to-one verbal conversation is much richer, clearer and sometimes faster when updating clients or asking for an opinion. But email does provide a good record of what's been agreed, means pitches can be refined and is a key part of team management.

So are PR professionals becoming over dependent on email?

[For those reading this via a newsreader, there is an AJAX-based poll pasted below which may not appear in this post via RSS. Please vote on the site - thanks].

Where are all the in-house PR bloggers?

Why are there so few PR bloggers who work client-side? The PR blogosphere is dominated by agency bloggers, freelancers and students. Where is the client's voice?

There are PR bloggers who work in-house, like Tom Murphy, but they seem under represented. Is it because agency-types, freelancers and students all have a commercial imperative to raise their profile and to demonstrate their understanding to the market, whereas there isn't that same dynamic for client-side PR pros?

Or am I simply missing the client-side roll call?

Poll results: PR agencies shouldn't take equity in their clients

PR firms shouldn't take equity in their clients in lieu of fees. That's the view of more than three in four who voted in last week's poll - a sizable majority, showing the lessons learned in the downturn are still raw. The logic is clear - PR firms are already exposed to business risk from their own operations, without the double jeopardy of taking a stake in their clients' future as well.

Taking equity, not fees, puts a strain on cashflow and reduces the firm's ability to invest. While the lure of a large payout following a client's liquidity event is certainly attractive, such venture investing is a specialist skill. Many start-ups fail for reasons way beyond the control of the PR firm. Meantime neither of the main costs of a PR firm, salaries and accommodation, can be paid in options.

Given agencies work at somewhere between a 10-20% margin, giving away services in the hope of a high return, can easily erode short term profits. Profits which are required to reinvest for expansion or to seize opportunities which might arise.

That said, some agencies do agree performance-based bonuses with their clients. These payoffs only become due if stretch targets are reached. In these instances, it would not present an operational risk to accept equity as the bonus element. This still provides a meaningful incentive to the team to perform, but does not jeopardize short term cashflow. I know some freelance PR pros also work on this basis. They work with several fee-paying clients in order to provide a base salary and take on a small additional client on an equity-only basis as a 'bonus'. If that client doesn't succeed, no real harm done bar the opportunity cost of the cash.

For clients, I still think it's worth asking your agency if they'd accept equity but to plan for PR as a line item in the marketing budget. If the agency does accept equity, be clear about why they will accept yours in particular, and how often they do this. You want to make sure they'll be around for the duration of the campaign - after all, it's not just start-ups which occasionally fail.

Third Thursday

A quick thank you to Mike Manuel, Jeremy Pepper and Giovanni Rodriguez for organizing last night's Third Thursday PR meet-up. Special guest Mike Arrington of TechCrunch braved an audience of 60 PRs and gave us a good insight into the way he works, what he's looking for, how to contact him, general trends and why consumer-facing Internet start-ups should have a blog. He also told us about his fave start-ups, well mainly Riya.

A few take-aways - Mike spends 15 hours a day working on TechCrunch, he's honesty and obviously interested in Web 2.0 companies, he'll honor an embargo (and ideally would like 72 hours notice), he prefers embargoes to end at 9.00am PT rather than 8.00am ET but has been known to stay up to post at that time, he thinks press releases are the bane of his life (gets 50 a day), and he now sees his 'competition' as BusinessWeek and Wired rather than other blogs.

Great to see Matthew Podboy and the team from Voce there too.

The next Third Thursday is planned to be in San Francisco - you can sign up here.

Technorati Tags: Third Thursday, TechCrunch

How to resign from your job

Unless you plan to work for your company for ever, at some point you’ll need to resign. In PR, with average agency churn rates standing at 30%, that’s probably every three years. For in-house staff, my sense is that it’s about the same. Believe it or not, there is a right and a wrong way to resign. Get it wrong, and you’ll burn your bridges and tarnish the reputation you’ve so carefully built up. Get it right, and the door may be open to come back if the grass didn’t prove to be greener.

Since this isn't something we do often (at least I hope not), here are a few pointers to make sure it goes well:

Don’t resign out of the blue – if you’re thinking of a change of employer or career, discuss it with your manager first. They may be able to adapt your role to suit your goals or have the power to remove the insurmountable barrier you perceive. We all have wobbles, so you might find the discussion to be cathartic and not as daunting as you initially thought.

Resign to your line manager – not the HR team. This person has mentored you, trained you, appraised you, backed you up, and invested a lot of time in your career. Just because that journey is ending, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to them first. There are few things more annoying from a manager’s perspective to find their report has resigned to someone else. And for the HR team, it’s not great having people knock on the door and resign for reasons beyond their direct control. Job satisfaction – that ain’t.

Keep an open mind – if you are good at your job, it’s likely your employer will want you to stay. Sadly employers are not clairvoyant and can’t see inside your head at all times. So mistakes are occasionally made – and can be corrected. Be prepared for your employer to counter your offer (that’s easily done) but more importantly to adapt your role / change your location / change your department. Even if you feel your mind is made up, you should at least explore the options.

Put it in writing – follow up with a letter to your line manager. This is a chance to say thank you – and you should probably take it. Make sure you’ve spelt and formatted your letter correctly. You want to leave a positive, professional impression – so that scribbled ‘I’m off’ note probably doesn’t cut it.

Agree a reasonable end date – your new company will naturally want you to start tomorrow. You don’t want a prolonged handover, but you should ensure sufficient time to find a replacement or to reallocate your workload. Hand things over in strong state, perhaps even training up your successor.

Keep up the pace – performing well during your notice period is the hallmark of a professional. Once the end is in sight, I’ve seen many PR pros do their best work to end on a high. These people have gone on to great things at their next employer. Some have even come back to the firm. Those that just spin down, clock watch and slope off on the strike of 5.30pm amount to little. In fact, you run the risk of irritating your former team mates who have to then carry the burden.

Arrange an exit interview – this would normally be with the HR team or a senior director. All companies want to learn, so approach this like the company’s appraisal. Constructive feedback is always welcomed since firms don’t like to make the same mistake twice. But this isn’t a forum to give the company a piece of your mind. Sure, you might feel like it, and perhaps it’s even warranted, but don’t curse the dark, light a candle.

Go for goodbye drinks – again this can be cathartic and reaffirms personal bonds with your team mates. Part on good terms with them.

Don’t make a lot of noise – you’re not the first to leave and you won’t be the last. However important this transition may seem to you, your company will still be there tomorrow, and your co-workers will sit at the same desks, doing the same jobs. Bow out gracefully, perhaps with a short email to your immediate contacts, rather than a group wide vale dictum to those who never knew you.

Keep your head - working in a fulfilling role is an emotional process. Bringing it to an end is too. It's easy to upset people's feelings during the discussions and transition, so keep your head and your cool.

Keep in touch – make sure your HR team has your future contact details. Try to keep in touch with them and your manager. It’s worth keeping these lines of communication open. You never know what the future may hold.

100 years since San Francisco's Great Quake

Today San Francisco remembers the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires on the 100-year anniversary.

Technorati Tags: San Francisco