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How to Get Your Agency Hired in a #PR Expanded World

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A Guest Post by Simon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO, CommunicationsMatch™, and Steve Drake and Robert Udowitz, founders, RFP Associates

Having just written “A Client’s Guide to Hiring PR & Communications Agencies,” we’ve turned the lens around to provide insights into getting hired in a PR Expanded world.

Agency Hiring ImageOn our journeys we’ve hired agencies, fired agencies, been hired by companies as communications agencies and consultants, and been rejected. As providers of agency search services, we’ve consulted with companies and agencies on what it takes to get hired and the reasons agencies or consultants don’t get hired.

We’ve watched this show from a lot of angles.

In this article we’re not going to focus on marketing, but rather assume that you are actively in the running for a piece of business, are considering a response to an RFP, and/or have a meeting set up with a potential client.

Here are some keys to increasing the odds of getting hired in world in which companies are looking for a range of capabilities that go beyond public relations. Some or all of these may seem obvious, but in our experience, these truisms often get lost in the chase to win business, the rush to prepare presentations, the despondency of failure, and the hubris of success.

You Have to be In It to Win It

Don’t waste your or your potential client’s time with half-hearted proposals. With all the complaints out there about RFPs – from short deadlines, to low budgets, to fixing the process for an incumbent – if you commit to creating a proposal, go all in. If you aren’t confident that a fair playing field has been created for all competing agencies, you probably don’t want to pitch.

Do More Than Your Homework

A minimum amount of due diligence may demonstrate superficial knowledge of a client, but a deep dive and research will ensure that you can demonstrate a thorough understanding of both the company and industry. This isn’t something that can be faked. Clients who live their industry will see through half-baked ideas and answers.

Ensure Your Materials Match Your Story

Communicators are often better at telling other people’s stories than their own. We also may invest more in client projects than our own websites or marketing. You will be judged by your materials and content. If you say you build websites – make sure yours is world class. If you are pitching on the strength of your social media capabilities, expect the client to evaluate you on your feeds and followers.

Bring Ideas

PR Agency Search Got EasierIf a client is looking for ideas, share them — because they illustrate how you think. But be careful!  Because if they’re far-fetched, overly ambitious or demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the company or industry, they’ll just as easily highlight what you don’t know as much as what you do know. Holding back on ideas because you fear that clients might steal them is misplaced. In general, it’s not the ideas that are important – it’s the client’s confidence that you can execute them.

Be Responsive

Your interactions with the prospective client say a lot about work styles and most important – that you will do what you say you will do. Communicate proactively if you need more time and provide reasons, not excuses. Being responsive also means making sure that you deliver within the time that is allocated and provide what is asked for.

Ask Questions

In agency searches or RFPs, asking questions is critical. If there is a defined time and place for them, respect this. Clients will evaluate the questions you ask for what they say about you and your team’s knowledge of the company and industry. Smart questions will help you get hired.

Bring in the Team That Will Work on the Business 

Don’t do a bait and switch. There’s nothing worse than bringing in the big guns and not the people who will work on the business. Clients see through this. They want access to senior people but also need to feel comfortable that they’re seeing people who will be day-to-day contacts.

Be Authentic

In a highly competitive and increasingly specialized marketplace, clients are looking for agencies and consultants they can relate to, with the skillsets to do the best job for their business.

While it may be tempting to try to shoehorn your firm into a pitch that’s not a great fit, the chances of success are low. It’s important to keep in mind that there’s an approach, person and agency for every business. It’s not one size fits all.

Can you fake it until you make it? Maybe, but it won’t last. It’s important to have the discipline to pitch business for which you are qualified or qualify yourself for the business you pitch. The point is, there’s an opportunity to adjust, change approaches, hire people, train, learn, manage your business and how you communicate to fit the needs of clients.

You don’t need to be reminded that building a business is hard. Success is more likely to come when we banish egos and keep in mind the choices companies have in a competitive landscape.  It will make it easier to do what it takes to ensure that your firm is positioned to win.

Simon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO, CommunicationsMatch™

Locke developed and launched CommunicationsMatch, an agency search and engagement platform with 5,000 listed firms and professionals in 12 countries, to help companies find and engage agencies, consultants and freelancers that match needs. A founder of communications agencies and startups, he previously headed communications functions at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank. Become an agency or individual member of CommunicationsMatch. Click here.

 Steve Drake and Robert Udowitz founded RFP Associates in 2011 after observing the agency selection process from “both sides of the aisle” and recognizing the need to streamline and improve the way searches are made and agencies are selected from an honest, unbiased approach. Between them, over the course of their careers Robert and Steve have worked at agencies, corporations, and trade associations in New York, Washington, and, for Steve, in Beijing and Shanghai, where he opened Fleishman-Hillard’s first offices in Mainland China. In recent years they have also been sole practitioners for a variety of clients seeking media, crisis, and strategic communications counsel.

PR Agency Search in A PR Expanded World

PR Agency Search: Priorities in a PR Expanded World

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A Guest Post by Simon Locke, Founder & CEO, CommunicationsMatchTM

Almost four in 10 respondents to a survey of corporate communications, marketing and industry leaders for CommunicationsMatch’s new PR and Communications Agency Search Report said they were looking to hire new agencies in 2017.  That’s a lot of new agencies being hired, but it also means other agencies will be dropped.

The report shows the primary reason for engaging agencies was not dissatisfaction with existing firms, but a need for new capabilities.  The skillsets most in demand were digital, social and video – no surprise, given the shift the industry has gone through over the last decade from a traditional PR to a PR Expanded world.

PR Agency Search PrioritiesThe answers to a question about what is important to companies when it comes to engaging agencies is also telling.  Creativity, multi-disciplinary/integrated communications, reputation and specialized expertise were priorities in agency search.  Content and social media capabilities followed close behind.

These priorities tell us a lot about the way communications has evolved and the challenges businesses face in differentiating themselves in the crowded cacophony of the digital world.  As a former head of CorpComm functions at Fortune 100 financial institutions, these priorities resonate for a number of reasons.

First, let’s discuss creativity.  There’s no doubt that companies value thinking differently or outside the box because it is the secret sauce of differentiation.  In an increasingly competitive digital marketplace, the ability to stand out requires new ideas and approaches.  Simply put, doing what everyone else is doing just doesn’t cut it.  Digital communications capabilities are important – but are table stakes.  Creative brains and digital brawn are a winning combination.

It’s no surprise that multi-disciplinary, integrated communications capabilities are a priority for companies.  A few years ago, in a former corporate role, the focus was on 360-degree marketing with the goal of reaching specific audiences through discrete channels.  Over time, these channels have become increasingly blurred with success coming from outreach across the multiple platforms where audiences are interacting, e.g. we reach journalists through emailed press releases, Social Media, websites, and newsrooms.  The value companies place on integration lies in the ability to maximize the impact of initiatives through the mutual reinforcement of messages across channels.

Lastly, the expectation is agencies have social media capabilities.  It’s a “Who Moved My Cheese,” moment.  The cheese has moved, it’s what clients expect, and we have had to move with it or lose relevancy.

What do these priorities mean for the importance of public relations as a discipline?  Surely, if the focus is on integrated and multi-disciplinary skills, public relations may be becoming less important?

Communication Disciplines for Business Success

In fact, the opposite is true.  In the survey, public relations was considered the most important communications discipline to business success.  Let me say that again.  PR was considered most important to business success.

Digital marketing and social media closely followed in the rankings of importance, with traditional marketing next.  Lowest ranked were digital and traditional advertising.  No doubt, the perception of traditional advertising would have been different a decade ago.

PR’s primacy is clearly good news for practitioners, but not a reason to rest on their laurels.

In the Agency Search Report, we argue the importance of PR reflects the continued evolution of what public relations means in the minds of clients.  It’s seen as far more than media relations.   The function encompasses the range of capabilities required for successful communications campaigns and approaches.  Again, it’s all about PR Expanded.

But PR’s primacy also reflects a fundamental truth that has not changed since the founding of the discipline in Edward Bernays’ and Ivy Lee’s time.  Media coverage mattered as much then as it does in a digital world.  The survey responses underscore its importance and benefits to driving awareness among target audiences, engagement, SEO and content marketing.

 

The Agency Search Report, which also focuses on how companies find PR and communications agencies, underscores the continued evolution and relevance of the profession.  I invite you to read it and share your perspective.

Simon LockeSimon Erskine Locke is Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatchTM a global communications-focused matching search engine.  With 5,000 U.S. and International agencies and professionals listed, it is a go-to resource for businesses seeking communications services providers with expertise in areas including: public relations, internal communications, government affairs, investor relations, content marketing, social media, SEO, website development, photography, and video.  Prior to founding CommunicationsMatch, Locke held senior Corporate Communications roles at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank and founded communications consultancies. 

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Communications Careers: Measuring Progress in Steps Through Peaks & Valleys

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A Guest Post Simon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatchTM

I recently read an inspirational tweet about progress being measured in steps.  Achieving success in your PR, communications or any career is about putting one foot in front of the other and repeating the process.  Over time, by following this mantra, you will get where you want to go.

Communication CareersThere are caveats to this.  If you keep putting one foot in front of the other and there’s a cliff in front of you, you’ll fall off.  So we need to add into the mix, progress is also about making smart decisions and being on the right path.  Hills and even mountains can be surmounted with this simple approach.

To illustrate how far you could go, assuming you could walk on water and the world was flat if you walked 10 miles every day in 10 years would have been able to walk around the world.  You can go a long way with small steps.

This reminds me of something my former boss at Morgan Stanley told me when I lived in Japan.  In life, the progress we make is a series of steep inclines followed by plateaus.  In other words, steps of the kind that take you higher.

Communication CareersI had not thought about this for a while.  But it’s very true.  The idea of steep inclines and plateaus is instructive for a number of reasons:

  • When we are going up the incline it is the time we learn the most and fastest. This may be the result of taking on a new job or working on the launch of a new campaign or learning the fineries of Social Media.  Because you’re on a steep slope, if you look down or up – the experience can be uncomfortable and lead to doubt.  In these moments we face our fears and make choices.  Do I stretch myself and continue up or give up and go down to the comfort of the plain below.
  • Getting to the top of the hill takes work and you are in competition with a lot of other climbers. There simply is no other way.  In a rapidly changing world, if you are not going up you are likely falling behind.
  • When you get to the top of the hill you will have an opportunity to consolidate. You will realize how far you’ve come and how comfortable you may now feel.
  • But, of course, when we get to the top of the hill, we know we will see the next mountain range ahead of us. But knowing that we were able to get up the first incline, provides the strength to keep going.

Our career or entrepreneurial journey’s all follow some version of this path.  We will find valleys or obstacles in our path to be overcome.  Some will at decide to pursue a different path or career that forces us to surmount new and unfamiliar terrain.  All of us will come to a place where we may say enough is enough.

With this in mind, it’s worth stopping for a moment where ever you are in your career to ask yourself:  Am I growing.  Am I going up the incline or am I on a plateau?  Am I stressed, because I am learning or because I’m not stretching myself?

Picture3As you think about your career, thinking about where you are in the context of these steps and plateaus may well be a powerful way to understand the challenges you face, get over doubts you may have and recognize that you are not the first on this path.

I once spent three days hiking in the Himalaya’s with the goal of seeing one of the most spectacular views of Annapurna, the world’s first 8,000-meter mountain to be climbed (I encourage you to read the book).  The climb was unceasing, but we stopped at tea houses on the way up to rest and recuperate.

The first morning was the hardest and scariest, with sheer drops to the side of us.  But once I knew, there would be respites and had got through the first sections, the climb got easier.  At the beginning of the third day, we were rewarded with spectacular views.

I could have gone even higher, but for me, I’d achieved my goal.  It was time to focus on the next objective.  This is important because the measure of achievement is not about becoming a CEO, it’s about feeling that you’ve got to where you wanted and fulfilled your potential.

Success is achieved by putting one foot in front of the other on all types of terrain, but it takes effort and making good choices.  We also need to stop on level ground every now and again to gear up for the next incline in the knowledge that you’ve succeeded before and will do so again.

Watch a video summary of this article on the CommunicationsMatch YouTube Channel.

Simon LockeSimon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatchTM.  CommunicationsMatch is a search tool that helps companies find communications agencies and consultants by industry and communications expertise, location and size.  The site has 5,000 agencies and consultant profiles in areas including crisis communications, public relations, internal communications, government affairs, investor relations, content marketing, social media, SEO, website development, photography, and video.  Listing & Search are Free.  See more articles on our Insights Blog.  Prior to founding CommunicationsMatch, Locke held senior corporate communications roles at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank and founded communications consultancies.