If you want a quick approval process, don’t work for a public company

By on March 10th, 2010 In Best Practices

approved stamp imageDrew Kerr writes an interesting post on “How to save yourself from the quicksand of getting approvals,” and his tips include considering not writing a release for topics such as joint ventures, avoiding third-party quotes, and assigning deadlines. 

The kneejerk reaction to write a press release about anything that moves is what prompted me to write my book, “Press Releases are not a PR Strategy,” with the premise that there is more to an overall PR strategy than merely issuing announcements at periodic intervals.

Just choosing not to write a press release however, doesn’t work if you are employed by a publicly held company. There are things such as “material announcements” and Sarbanes-Oxley that help guide what has to be announced.

I’ve worked for a few publicly held companies, and the approval process always was arduous. I found it helpful to establish personal relationships upfront with all the people on the approval chain, and using humor to jolly them along into getting their comments done. I also gave them several hours heads-up that a release was coming their way — and often that was way more advance notification than I personally received about a release I had to write.  With seniority, I’ve gained a closer bond with executives so they’re more likely to work with me and keep me in the loop than they did in my early years.

What tips do you have to help usher the approval process through?

Graphic courtesy of dianagarvilita

Comments

Ana Tackett Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 9:41 pm

Thanks for the post Linda. I think one of the hardest and most arduous approval processes was when Microsoft was my client. We not only had several layers of approval, but had to go through several legal channels as well. I agree with you Linda that personal relationships help. However, here are some additional tips that always helped me personally get quick turnaround when working for an organization that is pulled in a number of directions:
- Be known as a strong and solid writer in the industry. If your client feels they need to always extensively edit your writing, they most likely will give you a harder time with approval.Why trust that someone’s work won’t need extensive editing otherwise.
- Leverage a member of your staff to start third party quote approvals. I most certainly would not recommend leaving quotes out. Third party quotes add to credibility. Get the analyst firms and/or spokespeople to review by giving them a hard and fast deadline. If they are in jeopardy of not making the deadline, use another quote.
- Talk to your client about having a few senior people approve the release (does everyone on the team need to review it?) and/or send them a calendar request so that you can review the release together. Most releases get held up because the client is too busy or simply forgets to review so why not make it easy by carving time on their calendar.
- Give a heads up to the reporter that a release is coming (under embargo) and tell your client that the reporter expects the release by a certain time/date, otherwise he/she simply won’t run with it. This last tip works like a charm. :)
Again, full of ideas. If anyone wants others contact me…tons of experience on this topic.

Linda VandeVrede Says:
March 12th, 2010 at 7:32 am

Ana, I can only imagine what the approval process at Microsoft was like. You’ve walked thru fire, I’m sure!
In all the time I worked full-time for companies, as opposed to having my business, I only once had “staff” to help out – sure would have been nice to have that opportunity more often to split the load!
Thanks for adding these tips.

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