PR...paperclips or partnership?

I was recently approached by a company wanting PR support.  The RFP (which I assumed was the scope of work supported by the company's current agency) specified "...unlimited press releases for the duration of the contract." This got me thinking. How could a company deliver an appropriate margin when it essentially agreed to limitless service?

This odd process reminded me of another procurement discussion that started with the sentence, "You've worked for us for two years and must now be more efficient. Therefore you should charge us less." And how could I forget a recent appeal to ego from six months ago which went, "You are a world-class professional agency with very high standards and therefore can provide cheaper service, so we request a 10 percent discount."

This fundamental principle - best service for the lowest price - can't be faulted from a financial perspective. Certainly, if a company was procuring paper clips as opposed to public relations services, then this makes a lot of sense.  After all (and with apologies to those in the paper clip game), a paper clip is a paper clip is a paper clip.

But PR isn't paper clips. Successful public relations depends on experienced consultants with deep market knowledge and contacts, complemented by a good understanding of audiences, a solid, research based strategy, reliable tactical execution coupled with efficient reporting and measurement.

As such, procuring a public relations agency is a complex process, involving many factors, of which price is an important (but not dominant) part of the decision-making process. Too many decisions are made on the back of tragically little due diligence, and depend far too much on how much service can be delivered for the lowest fee.

While agencies need to competitively price their service offerings, the focus on price alone creates challenges for the agency and can ultimately be the undoing of the client-agency relationship. Agencies, after all, are businesses and need to be profitable. They have ever-increasing costs such as rental and staff salary and need to manage their client programs as profitably as possible.

This doesn't mean poor service or lack of quality control, but it does mean if the agency had to discount dramatically to secure a client's business, then it will need to manage its service levels very carefully. This typically means more junior staff will support the client or the terms of the contract will be rigorously monitored to ensure no additional support is provided.

There's nothing wrong with either of these approaches, as long as they echo the client's expectations. In too many cases, concerns such as "lack of strategic support" or "not enough senior time" turn into issues that lead to external PR support being put up for review. And so, sadly, the cycle begins again.

So... what to do?

I feel there need to be a better expectation-setting in the initial procurement process. There's no point, on either side, of making promises that can't be kept. Be up front on what can (and what can't) be delivered for the fee. Establish real-world success measures that reflect what can be achieved for the budget.

In the interests of partnership (surely the genuine end game of agencies and clients), this type of open discussion is critical. A partnership elevates the relationship beyond the sometimes caustic master / servant model. We shouldn't underestimate the commitment required to get there. Mature approaches to staffing, strategy and skills are critical on both sides.

Defining what success looks like at all levels is also central to the agency / client process. This definition (be it in a PR plan, housekeeping rules document, joint mission statement or shared agenda) should form the heart of the relationship. This needs to be owned by the most senior people on both sides, and referred to often.

The beauty of this philosophy is it isn't dependent on large budgets. It is dependent on a mature approach to PR and relationship planning. Even with a smaller budget, a realistic, cost effective, targeted PR plan that clearly spells out the expectations of both the agency and client can be the basis of a very successful PR program.

Reality is, the "best service, lowest price" school of PR procurement will be with us for some time. But unrealistic budgets, impossible expectations and cyclical agency reviews surely come a poor second to a pragmatic, mature, realistic and results-oriented business partnership.

Jeremy Woolf

Text 100

Senior Vice President

Global Social Media Lead