Executive Non-Decision

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This is the kind of email invitation any public relations consultant would love. I was certainly going to follow up. I set up my appointment and went in to meet with what I assumed was going to be the COO.

The executive assistant who sent me the email greeted me and took me to a different floor. We sat in a room and began chatting. It only took a couple of minutes to realize the COO had left his executive assistant in charge of the first round of PR interviews. Maybe the whole process!

With no other choice, I proceeded to ask her a number of questions about the company, their needs, who does what, obstacles, what they were not getting from their present PR firm. While some questions were answered fairly quickly, others she didn't sound too sure and a handful she didn't seem to know the answers to at all.

When I returned to my office, I pretty much wrote them off and was really kicking myself for being blindsided like this. While I've been contacted by numerous assistants in the past who found me through articles, recommendations and LinkedIn, they are often the appointment makers and gatekeepers for the executives in charge, the decision makers.

If these guys were leaving the weeding out to their rather unprepared executive assistant, what was life going to be like if they came on as clients? Who would be my liaison and pipeline of information, my partner in this engagement? What message did that give me about what they thought of the importance of public relations?

Public relations has to be a commitment from the top suite. Any interviews with potential communications partners requires not just their attendance, but an investment in providing information and asking smart questions to make the selection process a constructive and worthwhile endeavor.

Would you ask your school-age kid sister or brother to interview potential marriage suitors for you?

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0 comments on "Executive Non-Decision ".

1. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: January 27, 2011 at 9:30 a.m.

   You made the intelligent choice. Getting paid could be another problem you don't need.

2. John Vickary from l'Attitude Business Development
   

   commented on: January 27, 2011 at 4:20 p.m.

   Au contraire!

   I would see the meeting with the EA as part of a filtering process to "weed out" some of the prima donnas of the PR industry.

   Perhaps the COO judges business partners on the basis of how they treat the "little people"?

   While the EA might not have been able to answer all your questions, I would hope that you made sure you answered all of hers to the best of your abilities - after all she will be the gatekeeper, and you won't get very far if you have "dissed" her!

   As for asking your school-age sibling to interview potential suitors, they just might save you kissing too many frogs before you find your prince/princess!

   JV @ l'Attitude! in Cairns

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