Spread the Word: PR is Not Sales Support
Does PR have a case of mistaken identity?
At a recent networking event, I was asked if there were any PR firms that would guarantee coverage to increase sales. The person asking was looking for a freelancer who could promise great publicity at the modest fee of $500 a month.
Let me shout it far and wide — PR is not sales support. Unfortunately, this is a misconception of many innocent clients. Under this philosophy, marketing, and by default public relations, are subjugated to the reactive nature and goals of sales. When PR is used as a method to drive sales, the focus shifts from the more productive question “What information do my constituents need?” to “What can I cram into this self-congratulatory press release that will get customers to buy?”
This unconscious shift is probably the single biggest contributor to the hatred of the media for most of the junk they receive in their inbox daily. Public relations should be used to educate, not to sell.
A few years ago, I took on a new client that was recommended by a good friend. We met a few times, I prepared a PR plan, and set about building the infrastructure needed for a good PR presence. Six weeks into our engagement, the client called me all in a dither. “Where are the sales?” she asked frantically. “I need to have at least 150 leads by May.” I realized with a shock (Oh, foolish Linda!) that this client didn’t understand public relations. She was expecting me to create sales leads and transactions. I explained to her that we had a disconnect, we aggreably ended the contract, and she went on to hire a salesperson. After that incident, I always led my meetings with prospects by defining public relations and what I offered, and included it in the contract specifics as well.
Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, by Dennis Wilcox, et. al. has one of the best definitions I have seen. If you don’t own the book, go out and buy it. If you plan to earn your APR (accreditation in public relations), it is one of the required textbooks.
Public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound ethical communication techniques as its principal tools.
We are in PR to build relationships with an ever-growing constituency of customers, media, individual bloggers, and local and federal government officials. These relationships help build and preserve our clients’ image and integrity. When we deliberate over strategies, we are asking ourselves, “Will it build goodwill?” We are not asking ourselves “Will it create sales?”
Of course every company wants sales – they have to survive. But it’s the role of marketing and sales, not PR, to create those transactions. PR creates honest conversations which in turn help build trust. And customers will buy from someone they trust. They will also defend a product or company they trust.
This doesn’t mean that PR isn’t measurable. Read my friend Katie Paine’s Measuring Public Relationships to graduate from the University of Measurement.
BUT — If a prospect asks you if you can produce sales transactions or specifies a certain number of press releases they want issued monthly, or asks for guarantees of coverage, run away! Run away!
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Comments
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I agree and disagree. I agree in a sense that PR is used to drive thought leadership, elevate company profile, and broaden visibility which at the end of the day helps sales’ job a little easier. On another note, at Lumension, we have done a few things to help the sales support. Recently, there was a lot of noise around Conficker worm http://blog.lumension.com/?p=677. We did several things on the PR front that helped our marketing efforts and our sales efforts. We dia a PR outreach with expert commentary around ways to avoid this nasty worm and protect business critical systems. Second, we turned that messaging and positioned it for a podcast with our expert for our leadgen activity. Third, we turned that into a media alert to push out via PRWeb and linked it to our Twitter account and our corporate blog. I think what companies and PR professionals need to understand is that PR is not longer a siloed function within an organization. It has become heavily integrated or it should be in order to help move the company forward and drive demand. At Lumension, we’ve integrated PR, social media, and marketing as a way to help drive the message into the market, elevate the company’s brand and profile, build thought leadership while supporting leadgen activities (which ultimately helps the bottom line).
Cindy Kim
Twitter: CindyKimPR / _Lumension
April 24th, 2009 at 6:09 am
If PR can’t help a company’s bottom line, especially in these troubling economic times, then PR is going to die.
You can focus on preserving a client’s image and integrity all you want. You can focus on “building goodwill.” If that’s all you do however, and if it doesn’t help lead to increased sales or profits, then you’ll be without a client.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:41 am
PR is all about building the brand and platform so it can be seen, known and recognized far and wide. These days, it is especially helpful with websites and building unique visitors, blog subscribers, fan pages, etc. Once you get those numbers high and can prove them with printed out results, then you can add those impressive figures into sales presentations to prove there is a solid national (or local, if that is what you want) platform. Believe me, the sales will flood in!
April 24th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Love RSS Ray’s answer. As I said last week on a response to a posting on this blog, ask 10 people and 10 out of 10 will say public relations is getting clients in the media. So where is that media? As Seth Godin optimistically pined, by 2012 newspapers will cease to exist. People watch TV on Hulu.
Marketing Sociology is a new field and the future for building relationships. marketingsociologist.blogspot.com
April 24th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Companies that understand the strategic value of marketing and marketing communications are the ones that will survive long after the short term focused bottom liners die off like Amalgamated Buggy Whip Industries. Marketing and Marketing Communications are branding exercises, while Sales is tactical. “The one shows you how to get there, and the other tells you what do do when you get there.” If you subordinate strategy to tactics you may win a few but you’ll lose the war.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
My college prof defined PR as “doing good things, then telling people about it.”
Sounds a lot like social media today!
April 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Loved your post! And while I agree that PR is NOT Sales Support, what so many PR people often forget is that getting someone on TV or in the newspaper is NOT going to drive sales alone. That’s why ALL PR campaigns should be part of a bigger picture… a fully-integrated marketing picture. When you leverage your PR initiatives with other essential Mar/Comm strategies, you’re bound to be successful at driving sales and volume of your client’s products and/or service offerings!
April 24th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Linda’s right – PR is NOT sales support. As for her question – Does PR have a case of mistaken identity? – the answer is YES.
Whether it’s the broad-based media image (Samantha on Sex In The City) or the very local media image (never ending local seminars on how to pitch local reporters) there isn’t enough out there emphasizing the value proposition of a strategic, integrated PR program focused on brand and reputation management.
PR needs to do some PR for itself, especially in these challenging times.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
PR is business operations support, not sales support. We are integrated, strategic counsel. Done well, our actions both influence and protect sales.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Great response from Pat Elliot. Ironically, being in SouthLAnd, here’s IABC Los Angeles’ upcoming events (it’s pandemic, Pat):
“Inside the Mind of a Reporter with Former CNN Correspondent Mark Bernheimer”
“White House Communications – Lessons Learned from a former White House Asst. Press Secretary Wednesday, June 24, 2009″
As Walt Boyes mentions, those in the buggy whip industry in 1910 were probably saying why their field was so vital to the economy of the day. Probably seeking a government bailout.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Linda,
Although I agree that PR should not be measured by its impact on sales, I’d like to add that we sometimes lose focus of what our much beloved profession is really all about. We must never forget that the main goal a (for profit) company is in business is to make a profit by generating sales. With that in mind, I believe that good (B2B) PR should, to a certain extend, be designed to support the company’s business goals, which includes driving sales growth. PR can most certainly help a sales organization by addressing issues the company’s sales team faces in the market place. This can be a negative perception of the company’s products, services, quality, customer service, etc. It can also mean more specific challenges a sales team faces when interacting with (potential) customers. Misperceptions that often are created by competitors or rumors in the market place. PR can truly help resolve such issues and therefore directly support the sales function for a company.
I believe it is simply a matter of listening to the clients’ needs, and managing their expectations. Too many agencies sign on a new client, then meet with the VP of marketing and develop/execute a PR plan based on their input and/or instructions. To really understand a company’s marcomm needs, we must also listen to the guys in the trenches…the sales force. If they can be more successful because of PR, you have a happy, long-term client.
May 1st, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Linda,
Oh please, did you really say run away from someone who asks for a guarantee? If you truly believe in the clients service or product and you cannot deliver a guarantee that you can at the very least cover the clients investment there is something seriously wrong with that PR professional’s performance confidence. So who should be running?
I’m not talking about promising hits to specific media outlets or even saying that you can generate so many sales from PR but let’s stop the fluff and at least provide that client value, real measurable ROI for what they pay a PR professional. That kind of attitude will do PR a world a good PR.
Viva la Guarantee, because it is possible.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Yes, I really did say that. Run away from someone who asks for a guarantee, because what they’re usually asking for is a guarantee that they will get into the WSJ, or that they will get 15 hits a month, or that they will obtain 45 leads, or…you name it…they think of PR as turning on a faucet and they don’t think of it as relationship building. Absolutely PR is measurable (See Katie Paine’s book) but never ever deal with a client who asks for a guarantee in those sales-oriented terms. I think you and I are in agreement in that the PR professional brings value, but most clients ask for “PR” when what they really need is something else. A good professional qualifies up front what the client is truly seeking, and determines if and where PR fits into that mix.
June 1st, 2010 at 5:51 pm
May I also ask you Linda, if you and the PR fraternity have the guts and frankness to say the statement upfront even before engaging with a client that PR cant be measured with sales success and also say that there is no guarantee what so ever. You dont have to answer to that question as the answer is pretty clear.
Also, I am equally concerned with the un-professional ethics that PR folks carry forward by not saying this upfront and only reveal during a time when the client has made the engagement and paid the money handsomely. FYI – I am badly hit client where a PR agency just did what I have described above.