Five Questions to ask a potential PR Firm

Zusatz: In Julie's blog post, Relationship Reality: Stop Asking who I Know at USA Today, she reminds companies on the hunt for a PR firm that press relationships are table stakes: any good PR person has them.  More important to getting great press is hiring a savvy, aggressive, and committed communications team

If not relationships, then what questions should you ask?  I've proposed five questions below that will help you to dive deeper into a firm's capabilities.

1. "What did you think of [major competitor X]'s launch?" - First, this question checks to see if the PR firm has done their homework.  They should know about your major competitors and their communications strategies.  Second, this question gives you insight into how the PR firm uses competitive knowledge to influence its campaigns.
2. "How would you determine if our launch/product launch was successful?" - a good way to figure out how the firm thinks about both qualitative and quantitative metrics.
3. "What's an example of a client who asked you to do something that you thought was incorrect and how did you steer them in a better direction?" - use this question to determine the level of honest you'll get from your firm.  You want a firm that's going to stop your cockamamie ideas and try to transform them into something workable.
4. "What are the biggest challenges we'll face in our PR campaign?" - bad PR people tend to put a positive spin on absolutely everything; a good PR firm will be a trusted adviser and be honest with both your opportunities and the problems you face.
5. "What excites you about doing PR for my company?" - probably the single most important question you can ask.  If your potential PR team doesn't have a solid answer for this question, don't hire them.

These are really just some examples of how to get into the head of your potential PR team and figure out if they've got the talent, the smarts, and the dedication to be your partner in marketing.

I'd love to hear ideas from other people, both from the client side and the marketing side.

(Note: this post is part of the dialectical project (not to be confused with diabolical) of Julie Crabill and Mark Johnson.)

Comments

[Julie Crabill]

Excellent post, all of these questions will help you determine if the partner you are considering is the right one for you. One more worth asking: "tell me about a time you did something wildly creative that didn't work out quite as planned" - this will help you see how they work when it comes to big, crazy-ass ideas - and let you know that they can fail with style and get back up and try again.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8500813]

Love this post, Mark! You are so spot on with these questions. Another good one to ask the PR team is "what do you need from us in order to be successful?" It's easy to make grandiose promises of what PR can do, and quite another to know what tools you need in order to make good on those promises once you're in the trenches. The hallmark of an expert PR team is their knowledge of what kind of news, statistics, trends and other facets of your business will lead to a successful launch.

[Todd Defren]

Good stuff, Mark. Funnily enough, at the agency we were recently shooting the breeze about the "tough questions" we often get asked in pitch situations.

These questions are good. (Another good one is, "Tell us about a client who you brought from startup to household-name status (in their industry)." This one can be a lil tricky in that many of the best startups get acquired before they achieve household-name status (as you know all too well!), but it can provoke a good dialogue.

Meanwhile we decided to create our own list and I'll share it with you once it's all done!

[prdude]

#6 should be how much employee turnover do you have?

[Mark Johnson]

@tdefren, I look forward to SHIFT's list of questions, since you have to go through the process.

One of the best questions that a friend suggested today was, "Have you ever fired a client?" which is related to Q3 on my list, but I think gets at the issue more precisely.

[Davina K. Brewer]

Mark- Good list of questions, thanks for sharing. A lot of these deal with successes, so I'd ask questions about failures: "Talk to me about your least successful campaign. What were the challenges, what did you change and how did you turn it around?"

An agency trying to win business is used to showcasing their wins; I'd also want to know how they handled mistakes/loses and if they learned from them.

[Marisa Corser]

This is an excellent post. Authenticity is king, and these questions will reveal a lot about a PR/marketing firm.

At Deeter Gallaher Group LLC, we pride ourselves on effectively sharing our clients' business stories with their target markets. We're good at it because we sincerely believe in our clients. Any firm you choose needs to be as passionate about your products and services as you are.

[Tableau Condos]

Great questions - I actually think #4 is more important than #5. What about asking how the firm would handle a major negatively spun situation?

[discount mbt]

I am now going to tattoo course , most of all my tattoo taken by me from richard's desig

[mein tenu samjhawan ki]

it helped me a lot man :-)