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By Don Levin
Buyers must trust you; they must feel they're shrewd; they want their boss to approve their judgment; they want to return to you in five years when the product errs; they want to use the product quickly, easily. They don't want a hassle or voice mail or red tape.
War Stories: PR from the Trenches
Small is In: Small companies want us because their previous mid-size agencies only paid attention to their largest clients. Big companies want us for the daily work while they maintain big firms along with us for their next crisis.
There's nothing like calling an editor. We thought we had exhausted a project after producing the desired publicity stream. The client wanted more. We went back to all the reporters who had said "no" or "maybe"--even those we had gotten to for the umpteenth time. It worked. At the minor risk of wearing out our welcome, we produced more ink.
Your PR firm must be on your wave length, pro-active, responsive to both opportunities and danger signals. We're getting a new client from a very successful and productive competitor because they apparently won't take the time to work effectively with the CEO, who rightly feels underutilized, uninformed, second fiddle.
If you're on a fixed monthly fee and service is light for two or three months, get the fee trimmed for those months. If your firm has to over-service, let them charge extra during that time period.
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