The most important pitch you will ever make won't be to a member of the media. Rather, it will be to senior management, whose support and direct involvement in your PR program
spell the difference between success and failure. Too often, PR execs fail to make an effective case for their strategies and programs, or for the budget to support them. The result
is a lack of understanding and buy-in from the top, which leads to less influence, smaller budgets, less respect and less effectiveness than you should enjoy.
Selling your program to senior management requires a thorough understanding of the organization's strategic goals and objectives, along with a thoughtful, proactive approach to
explaining how PR can be effective. It requires the discipline to set measurable targets, expressed in language that management understands, especially the language of hard numbers.
Successful PR professionals follow a five-step approach in planning and pitching senior managers on the power of PR:
1. Know what keeps them up at night: Understand your organization's current goals and leadership vision. Too often the PR team, living in its own world of product-focused media
placements, loses sight of the forest for the trees. It is important to see the big strategic picture while understanding the details of each market initiative. If you understand what
motivates and concerns senior management, you will be able to speak their language and make your case in terms they understand. School yourself on the organization's priorities and
strategy.
2. Get your facts straight: Top management lives by and for the numbers. Make sure you absorb all the market research that has already been done for advertising/marketing. Know the
demographics of your target customers. If possible, commission your own research, which all shareholders will respond to. Spend time with the investor relations group to understand
the makeup of your company's shareholder base and analyst following.
3. Make the sale: There are hands-on and hands-off CEOs, but all of them know at some level that both sales and shareholder value are directly related to reputation. Insist on a
meeting with senior management to formally present your annual program and budget, and on follow-up meetings throughout the year. If you have trouble getting that first meeting, keep
trying. Find champions who will sponsor you. When you do get up to bat, present specific quantitative and qualitative goals, and include such concrete objectives as the specific
messages that you determine must reach each target audience. When you develop your messages, make sure they are in complete alignment with the strategic goals management has set for
the organization. Provide detailed budget scenarios showing expected results per dollar.
4. Measure and merchandise your results: Getting to "yes" is only half the battle. You also need to make sure everyone knows what success looks like. Explain how PR success can
translate directly into sales growth, reputation improvement and greater shareholder value. Then show the results as they come in. You can no longer depend on weighty clip books or on
long printouts of all the Web sites that have automatically posted your news release. There are other more effective measurement systems available today. The best provide accurate
data on the percent of targeted publications running the story, the accuracy and quality of messages conveyed, and reach to qualified target recipients. Use them.
5. Start the cycle again... now: Even as this year's program commences, it's time to start planning for next year. Collecting and analyzing feedback from your efforts should be a
year-round exercise. You need to gauge how well you are executing and determine mid-course corrections. When everyone is on the same page, the feedback truly becomes a tool for
constant improvement: sometimes even falling a little short of a "stretch" goal of supporting larger corporate strategy can be perceived as a success, whereas exceeding an ill-
conceived target can be seen as failure.
When you sell a plan that makes sense to senior management, when you back it up with hard data, and when you merchandise your results internally with an ongoing promise of "more of
the same, and better," you will find your "pitch" to senior management gets easier every year and will be a winner for everyone involved.
CONTACT:
Michael Renderman is vice president of business development, Cision US (formerly Bacon's Information). He can be reached at [email protected].