Peter Waterman, Hasbro: ‘The trouble with PR people is that you love your work so much that you live in a ‘PR bubble’. Try to look at things from our point of view’.
Dave Trott: ‘Clients neither know nor care anything about agencies’.
If clients thought they could get what they want without PR agencies they wouldn’t hesitate. What is it they want? It’s never actually PR… it’s higher sales, better market share, bigger margins, a stronger share-price… from a client’s point of view, PR is a means to an end.
We hope they enjoy the creativity, the ingenuity, the experience of working with us, the awards… but all that is beside the point.
Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt said it best:
Levitt: ‘People want quarter-inch holes, not quarter-inch drills’
This insight can help us make our sales presentations more compelling.
Start by talking about the client’s business objectives or challenges. How can PR help? Use client terminology: numbers, facts, charts, graphs… competitors.
Clients will sit up and listen. ‘At last – a PR team who think like we do’.
Save the great ideas about messaging, channels and execution for the second half of the pitch, once you’ve won their confidence.
Nearly all clients are good with numbers, planning, forecasting; delivering results on time, on budget. Nearly all PR people are good with words, images, ideas.
There’s no reason for clients to learn our vocabulary. There’s every reason for us to learn theirs.
‘We spoke the same language’. ‘We were singing off the same hymn-sheet’. ‘They were our kind of people’. ‘We saw eye-to-eye’. ‘They understood our business goals’.
‘That’s why we hired them’.