Salesmanship In PR / From Media Post

PR person: Hi there, my name is Julie from Acme PR. We haven't spoken before but I'd like to sell you a press release.
Journalist: Thanks, but I'm not interested. I have thousands already.
PR person: Um, what about a pitch then?
Journalist: I've had too many mediocre ones. I'll pass on that.
PR person: Okay, how about a story idea that's the best thing since spray-cheeze-in-a-can.
Journalist: I wrote about that last week.
PR person: Oh. What if I offered you the world's most knowledgeable expert who could talk to [insert latest "trending" topic here]? And some Ginzu knives?
Journalist: Look, I'm really busy and on deadline. (Click.)

So I was kidding about the knives, but that is still not the way to a make a successful sales pitch. Ever.

In any business, what can (and usually does) lead to a successful sale is understanding a customer's wants and needs and fulfilling them, not haphazardly throwing out stuff until something sticks. As a PR professional, my most important customer is always a member of the media.

That is my bread-and-butter customer, my daily staple on whom I rely for everything else to fall into place. Without those core customers, I have little to offer my other customers. And if I don't qualify or assess the integrity of my "leads," review churn and recency rates of my lists, or close the deal with these customers on a regular basis, I might soon find myself out of a job.

While the above terms may seem more at home at a database marketing company than a PR firm, they are in fact part of every sales cycle and a successful selling strategy. In any industry, understanding a customer's psyche is a critical element. Know your customer's pain or pleasure points, and you'll be far more likely to succeed in selling them a product or service.

This is what every successful business does and for those in PR, it should be no different. We are, after all, in the business of selling. Maybe not tangible items, but we are selling -- an idea, a message, a story, an expert.

Knowing how to sell can make you more valuable...

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An Open Letter to The Unemployed, Wherever You Are…

In Florida (where our main office is located), unemployment stood at 12.2% in February, according to NYT’s Economix Blog of March 26, The United States of Unemployment. Catchy title, huh?

If you are currently employed and looking for a new gig, good luck. I really mean it. You’re up against some very hungry people out there, especially college leavers and those who’ve fallen into the interning cycle of “employment,” absolutely desperate to put their multiple degrees to actual use – anywhere.

Now, if you are currently unemployed, even better wishes. Especially for those using the crappiest resumes and introduction letters known to mankind. I am not sure what kids are taught in college these days with respect to putting their “piece of paper” to work, er, like finding a job? It’s been a while since I had to dole out my resume to prospective employers but surely the art of resume writing and selling yourself in 400 words or less has become more important than ever?

Sadly, my assumption is totally wrong. Over the course of 4 days, a colleague and I have sifted through hundreds of the most god-awful applications for a recently opened position within our company. Emails with no subject lines. Emails with no introduction, only attachments. Emails with introductions and plenty of attachments – for completely different job descriptions !#%#$@$.

To be sure, it’s a cruel, cruel world out there. The job market? I don’t envy those looking for work. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and all those clichés but surely job-seekers right now would be focused on creating compelling resumes and pitches to make any prospective employer sit up and pay attention?

Driven to Distraction? Why not Drive instead?

A couple of weeks back I wrote up a brief book review about DRIVE, Dan Pink's latest book. The review was never published, so I've graciously repurposed it here...

Turns out everything I thought I knew about self-motivation, motivating workers and wringing the most out of staff is, apparently, a load of so-last-century rubbish. Drive takes the way we currently motivate our workforce (and ourselves), combines our malfunctioning value system (business, personal) with computer operating systems – which is a clever and easily relatable analogy – and turns the whole lot on its head.

According to Drive, the common carrot-and-stick methods of incentivizing staff with cash and tangible rewards is old school and no longer in keeping with our true and recently re-discovered value system - the system of being purposely-driven vs. profit-driven. Drive seems to be serendipitously timed as we enter a new decade where we're searching for real answers and better ways of living and doing things that really matter - we can make a difference, with real purpose that gives us satisfaction in our working and personal lives – that’s what drives us, get it?

What makes Pink's book different to other motivational-genre books is that it's not at all preachy. Instead, he makes us question what we've been doing with just enough scientific citations to make his reasoning and questioning credible. If anything though, it's a little light on case studies - he could have afforded some more in-depth research to solidify this volume as a must-read for every CEO and manager.

For me, as a small business owner who has been practicing old-school carrot and stick tricks for 15 years with varied success, I’m looking forward making my current business and staff proverbial guinea pigs for Motivation 3.0, using Drive's toolbox as a guide. Check back with me in 6 months to see how we're doing. But first I need to find out if I'm Type I or Type X. And no wisecracks thanks.

To learn more about the book, visit Pink's site at http://www.danpink.com/drive.

Happy Driving!