Widgets, watches or wedding dresses: as a corporate PR executive,
you probably know what your company is selling. But are you helping
them sell it?
To inform the media, customers and employees, PR people need to
be updated on the status of their company's sales efforts. Constant
communication with sales staff is the key to receiving updated
information about how many products were sold in a given time period,
who is buying those products, where are they being sold, and, most
importantly, what's so special about these products. The latter
question provides the PR department with fuel for a hot corporate
campaign.
Corporations like Lennox International of Richardson, Texas,
create sales materials, put out by their PR department, for use as
sales tools. Sales reps share their customer experiences with the PR
staff, and the information becomes a lead for a case study or success
story for potential customers to see. Copies of these stories, plus
positive press coverage, press releases, product information and other
presentation materials are given to sellers.
Jane Scott, editor in the corporate PR and communications
department, feels PR can best assist its sales department by giving
all employees the chance to benefit and learn from a specific incident
or success story.
Sharing Internal/External Information
PR is looked upon by sales staffers as a vital information
resource, especially in a corporation that has many subsidiaries, like
Tracor Inc. , a defense electronics contractor in Austin, Texas.
Inquiries about the five different divisions, all at this location,
come through the PR department, headed by Marian Kelley. Her staff
deals with internal, external, community, investor, and media
relations, although a few divisions do have their own communications
consultants.
To ensure she's not missing anything, Kelley speaks to at least
one person in the marketing department of each division every day.
She feels that "sharing company-wide information and building synergy
among the company" are a large part of the PR/sales relationship.
Some PR departments' emphasis is on getting journalists to
recognize a com-pany's products or services. For example, the Medical
Products Group of Hewlett-Packard Corp. in Andover, Mass., has five
divisions, with Shirley Horn as the Worldwide PR Manager for all.
The credibility that the sales reps bring to the PR/sales
relationship is key, she says. For example, if you have a quote from
a doctor in a press release saying that your product is a miracle, the
credibility is enough to use as a sales tool and create new business,
said Horn. Without the sales link, the PR department couldn't get the
doctors to vouch for the product. That's the link that has to be kept
up-to-date and fully informed by the PR staff.
Sales teams give something back to the PR staffers who support
their cause. Stephanie Fulton, senior account executive at
BRSG/Maples, PR counsel for Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, says
that when the press call up looking for a contact or interviewee for a
story, it's the salespeople that come through. A satisfied customer's
name is handed over to the press, who puts in a good word for the
company, for all the public to see. Fulton says, it's "a big boost
for a sales rep to see his name in print."
Handling the Relationship
Fulton says that PR people should get out any information that
may help sales reps to them as soon as possible. Along the same
lines, sales people need to get any information, that may be nesworthy
to PR right away. Michelle Hoey, PR manager within corporate PR at
Digital Equipment Corp. in Maynard, Mass., advises: don't overload the
reps with too much sales information because they don't have time to
sift through it all.
The foundation for a strong, communicative PR/sales relationship
is where both parties will do anything to help each other. PR's sales
support continues to be a basic, necessary presence in corporations,
where everyone's ultimate goal is company growth and profitability.
(Lennox, 214/497-5000; Tracor, 512/929-2870; H-P, 508/687-1501;
Digital, 508/493-5111; BRSG, 214/490-4838)