"My name is _________ and I am the Executive Assistant to the COO for _________. We are interested in your PR services, including but not limited to, preparation/distribution of information to news
media and industry analysts, innovative and strategic communications counsel, and a myriad of external publicity activities." 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.
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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?