Finding the right PR agency for an assignment or ongoing relationship is nothing to take lightly or rush. Often, however, time pressures or the comfort of dealing with a known person or firm lead busy executives to short-circuit the search process.
This is a mistake, believes Jerry Swerling, whose Los Angeles-area firm specializes in agency searches for corporate clients.
Swerling advises that PR managers heed the following points:
1. Be prepared to commit the time.
A thorough search may stretch out over 10 weeks or more.
2. Have a process. The accountability demanded by top management means that corporate PR executives must be able to present a process or rationale that leads to a selection.
A selection based only on familiarity, or the recommendation of a few colleagues, probably won't satisfy demanding top executives.
3. Gain internal consensus in the selection process. The degree that key groups within the selecting company are involved in the search process will determine the level of support the agency receives.
Swerling advises "talking to everybody at a senior level who [will come] in touch with the PR firm."
4. Conduct a broad search. Confining the effort to just familiar firms, "the usual suspects," Swerling calls them, can shortchange the organization-given the expanding universe of PR firms, and the constant changes taking place even at familiar firms.
"You really want to see a variety of firms that represent a broad spectrum of operations," he says.