When Paul Saldana fired his PR firm, he was determined not to burn any bridges. "I wanted to make sure that we still had a cordial relationship," he says. "The company has a
fairly strong reputation in this particular field and we wanted to make sure that it had the same positive attitude about us that we did about the firm."
As president-CEO of Tulare County (Calif.) Economic Development Corporation, Saldana got rid of his New York PR firm because of budgetary constraints. There are many ways,
however, for parting ways. Perhaps the client is taking the work in-house, or the agency is not performing as expected. Or maybe the situation is reversed, and the agency is
cutting the client loose.
Whatever the case, players on both sides of the table say it's possible to sever ties and still preserve a relationship. In late April Susan Tellem, of Tellem Worldwide, was
being let go by a client in the senior-housing development business. Her immediate manager at corporate HQ liked her work, but a manager in one of the client's properties was
complaining. In order to keep things positive, Tellem kept giving it her all, even after she saw the writing on the wall.
"I could have just walked away from that, since they were being difficult, but I didn't. I went to great lengths to try to show how I could help them," she says. The extra
effort helped to cement an already strong connection with the corporate client. "The client and I get along at a personal level and I know that she feels badly about this. In
order to part ways well, you first have to have a good relationship, a trusting relationship."
Having maintained that relationship, Tellem has since offered to continue the corporate work on a project basis -- newsletters, award nominations -- while giving up the
ongoing work with the properties. Yet she fully expects to perform similar project work in the future.
Corporate clients, meanwhile, like to severe ties on good terms, even in cases where they are dissatisfied with an agency's performance. Take National Semiconductor. Jeff Weir
came on board as director of worldwide public relations in June 2000 just as the dot-com boom was about to bust. It took him just three months to dismiss the company's outside PR
agency and yet he did it gently, wary of tainting his company's name among other PR agencies.
He started the process by giving the outside agency a head's up on the changes he was implementing. "I made it real clear that I wanted everybody to be focused on generating
fairly immediate results. I told the agency they would be judged on the results they achieved for the company, rather than simply the effort it put in," he says. Under the new
rules, "the internal team [of nine] really outperformed the agency by miles."
Yet after a month the agency handed him a whopping bill, at which point Weir sat down for serious talks with his account executive. He cut the agency's budget in half. The next
month nothing changed, and he cut the budget in half again. The next month the account exec showed up with a resignation letter in hand.
Weir says he acted fairly. "You have to give each other an opportunity to understand what the expectations are," he says. Having done that, he feels he has preserved his
company's reputation within the PR industry. He knows he is not viewed as an ogre, "because I still get pitched a couple of times a week by other PR firms."
So, the easy transitions come with open understandings, strong personal connections and clear communications. In practical terms, there are a number of solid steps you can take
- whether on the client side or within the agency camp - to preserve a relationship for the future.
For one thing, give early warning, which affords the agency time to start seeking other business; it also gives the corporate client time to arrange the needed PR resources,
whether internal or external. Give clear explanations. Why are we splitting up? Both sides deserve to understand the lay of the land, if only to influence future actions. Offer
recommendations. The exiting agency should brief the client on the PR situation and give advice on how to move forward, including a transition plan. Give mutual support. Assuming
things are amicable, serve as references for one another. The client may steer business toward the agency, while the agency can ensure that straggling media calls get routed on
toward the client.
Then there are the lousy goodbyes, the PR equivalent of dumping the boyfriend's CDs and dirty socks from the third-story window. Solo PR practitioner Ned Barnett has seen his
share of these. In one case, his biggest client was in the process of being bought out by another company. Barnett's contact within the firm could not tell him of the pending
acquisition due to confidentiality clauses. At the same time, the company took all its outside consulting services in-house, including PR, in order to bolster the books.
"They strung things along for two months," Barnett says. "It was: We want to do that project but we're not ready to start it. Let me get back to you for a week or two. Then it
was: Well, I need to check with this person or that person. My first thought was to wonder, what have I done to screw up this relationship?" He finally got word of the
acquisition, but he was left with a bad taste in his mouth.
Indeed, in ending PR relationships things can sometimes get ugly. "The worst experience I ever had was when a client just stopped communicating altogether. I never found out
what was happening there. Did I run over his dog, or insult his wife? I thought they had gone out of business," Barnett recalls.
PR professionals say this is one of the surest ways to profoundly foul up a relationship for the long term -- and it is not all that uncommon. When corporate clients run into
money troubles or make internal changes, too often they will simply fall radio silent. If communication is the key to a positive parting, it's not hard to guess how the silent
treatment will come off. "A client who stops communicating is a dead client," Tellem says.
Contacts: Ned Barnett, 702.696.1200 [email protected]; Paul Saldana, 559.688.3388, [email protected]; Susan Tellem, 310.479.6111, [email protected]; Jeff Weir, 408.721.5199, [email protected]
A Messy Break up...
When Jeff Weir came to National Semiconductor as director of worldwide public relations, it took him three months to fire the company's outside PR agency. Here's how he went
about it:
- He first alerted the agency to the new rules: It would be judged on results, rather than on effort or on hours logged.
- After 30 days his internal team had outperformed the agency, yet the agency hit him with a whopping bill. He cut its budget in half.
- After 60 days, still no results. Budget cut in half again.
- Month three: A race between internal and agency staff to see who could score more media for a major trade show. Internal staff blows away the outside team -- again.
*At 90 days, the agency resigns.
...Is often Caused by Bad Form
Forget big bills or poor performance. What really soured Weir on this relationship was the lack appropriate communication. "This company had been with us for seven years. I
think we were their biggest client," he says. Yet even as things were heading south, "the agency owner never called me once."