In corporate America, some leaders long to be featured in major newspapers, but the most overriding desire, says Rodger Roeser, president of The Eisen Agency, is to grow their company’s sales.
Therein lies the problem with PR’s frequent misalignment with sales, says Roeser. There’s a massive misconception—much of it stemming from the communications side—that PR is more about media relations than it is about bottom-line results. “It makes my head turn to cottage cheese,” sighs Roeser. “PR’s job is to help the organization better relate to its publics, and in many cases you’re trying to tie in something that you’re doing to some level of growth.”
BARRIERS TO ALIGNMENT
Which is why the alignment between PR and sales can’t be underestimated. But misconceptions work both ways, because what a sales force does is very different from what a PR team does, says Susan Tellem, founder of Tellem Grody PR, based in Malibu, Calif. “Though both public relations and sales should have the same ultimate goal of selling, it’s hard for sales to grasp what PR does and how it can help them,” says Tellem.
Then there is sometimes the case of when PR and sales are at odds. In the case of automotive information company Edmunds.com, which empowers automotive consumers and sells advertising to auto industry clients, there are times when its content targeting consumers makes things difficult for the sales staff. A case in point, says Jeannine Fallon, executive director of corporate communications at Edmunds.com, was PR’s promotion of Edmunds.com’s “Confessions of a Car Salesman” series of exposé articles. “That posed a challenge for the sales staff, but the company believes in editorial integrity and fully supported the initiative,” says Fallon, who adds that PR often hears from the sales staff when clients complain about the popular “Confessions” series and other controversial consumer-focused content.
Another problem, and perhaps the most pressing one, is that because of the complexity of proving PR’s worth in driving sales, there is often no concrete strategy as to what PR will do to help sales, says Hope Gibbs, president of Washington, D.C.-based Inkandescent Public Relations, which counts small businesses among its clients. “Small businesses want dollar-for-dollar ROI with their PR,” says Gibbs. “That is difficult.”
To identify the most effective ways PR can help sales, ultimately improving the PR-sales connection and the bottom line, PR News asked sales-centric PR pros for their strategies and tactics.
$trategy 1
Establish your organization as a leader in its field: “ Customers must look at your organization as a leader, so in the long-term, your brand will be a conscious choice,” says Roeser. How to you do that? Via bylined articles in targeted trades, press releases and speaking engagements.
But don’t stop there. Go for deeper engagement by slapping a QR code onto a reprint that points the reader to an online video. “You’re creating an almost-experiential PR opportunity,” says Roeser.
$trategy 2
Arm the Sales Team With PR Tools, Training: Try the following proven tactics:
• Develop a multi-pronged how-to PR guide: Explain to the sales force how they can implement their own simple PR programs and publicity, suggests Tellem. “Tips on how to create news around their own community activities such as volunteer efforts, awards or even a unique hobby will get the attention of local media,” says Tellem. “Then you weave your professional life into the story.”
• Hold a social media seminar or Webinar for the sales force: “Help them understand “the big three,” says Tellem, whose agency recently did a Webinar for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for the Malibu Chamber of Commerce.
$trategy 3
Rethink, and possibly redo your Web site: A site where content is well presented draws more eyeballs from potential customers than one that doesn’t, says Inkandescent’s Gibbs. “Since a Web site is usually your content hub, you need to start there,” she says.
$trategy 4
Use client newsletters, Twitter and direct distribution of press releases and key news coverage to keep clients in the information loop: Twitter has become a favored platform of automotive information site Edmunds.com to distribute news to automakers, dealers and auto industry insiders, says Fallon. Edmunds.com tweets its own content to some 25,800 followers, and retweets media coverage. “It’s interesting content, journalists appreciate it and it enhances our credibility with our clients and others in the industry,” says Fallon.
$trategy 5
Target regions: Fallon has regular discussions with the Edmunds sales team on a variety of issues—one of which is what regions are most needed for targeting. “For example, we’re using vehicle registration data to determine which markets have seen the most traffic from female car buyers,” says Fallon. Her team will create both national and regional press releases around that data, which will help the Edmunds sales team in different pockets around the country.
$trategy 6
Meet regularly with key business functions and work towards the core sales objectives: Roeser recommends a one, three and 12-month plan, with specific PR outcomes linked to sales goals.
For example, a QR code on an article reprint yielded X number of video views and the sales team made X number of follow-ups to registered viewers. “The overall goal should not be how many impressions were gained, but how many client meetings were set up by sales,” says Roeser.
Edmund.com’s Fallon believes in the power of PR as a conduit for sales. “Twelve years ago, Edmunds was a site that some automakers were aware of,” she says. “Through public relations, now we’re on the lips of everyone in the auto industry.”
To drive recognition and sales, she says continuous reinforcement of messaging is critical. PRN
CONTACT:
Rodger Roeser. [email protected]; Susan Tellem, [email protected]; Jeannine Fallon, [email protected]; Hope Gibbs, [email protected]; Scott Gillum, [email protected].