Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 10th, 2009
Susan Young has an amusing and somewhat realistic blog post on the 10 things that clients say that scare PR professionals. It’s worth a read. For those of us in PR, it will make you nod your head and chuckle. For clients, have a read with your sense of humour turned on, you may find yourself nodding and laughing too.
The post raises a good point and one that we, at AHA, discuss quite often. We have a range of clients from senior communicators in large corporations to CEOs and business owners to start up entrepreneurs. And believe me when I tell you that they each have their own personality traits, experience and expectations of what PR can provide.
When we opened AHA almost seven years ago, we had strong discussions about what kind of company we wanted to be. One of the key points we outlined was that as a company and as people, we wanted to be authentic. That includes respectfully telling clients when there was no news in what they wanted us to pitch to media or to communicate to staff, the public or other stakeholders. That’s not always easy to do, but when a client engages AHA, they do so because they want our experience, expertise and skill set. If we didn’t give them our advice—no matter how that will be received—we aren’t doing our job.
I have been in some very interesting, very intense discussions with clients (and sometimes their legal department or counsel) about the right way to deal with an issue or crisis. PR people see the world differently. Not only does an organization and its senior team need to do the right thing, they need to be seen or perceived as doing so as well. What people believe is their reality, whether or not it is the truth.
Getting back to some of the points in Young’s blog post, we have experienced many of the things listed. That’s part of the role and, for the most part, is manageable. What I can say is that we have turned down the opportunity with several new clients when the initial meeting showcased that we were expected to be order takers and not a real part of the team. For us, that’s key. At the start of the relationship there has to be a connection where we understand their objectives and goals, and believe in what the organization or person is doing. They also need to appreciate what we bring to the table and are ready to give us the room to do what we do best.
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