Stick up for what you believe but with calm and intelligence, and when a client cannot be persuaded, put the matter to one side. Later he may reconsider your point of view. In the meantime you will have avoided being aggressive.
What the client pays for your services: The usual system is for the client to say how much he will spend as a working budget during a certain period of time. This is in addition to his fees which cover your time and talent, the cost of running your part of the consultancy, and the profit. The working budget is for expenses you incur in carrying out your program for the client. Fees are normally paid monthly or quarterly in advance, while expenses are charged out each month after invoices from suppliers come in to you.
Using outside suppliers: Here are just a few of the outside suppliers you will use in PR work: printers, typographers, car hire firms, script writers, freelance journalists, temporary secretarial services, home economists, film makers, TV and video producers, directors and studios, publishers, product, label and packaging designers, artists, art directors, photographers, radio producers, telephone answering services, entertainers, pop stars, special newspaper insertions, house to house delivery services, in hospital and new mother suppliers, scientists such as bacteriologists, financial experts, economists, airplane and helicopter services, hot air balloonists. Any service is possible in PR work which is more than half the fun of doing public relations. In what other job might you call in and use a hot air balloon to appear over a city on a publicity stunt and that same afternoon sit in on a seminar which you have arranged as a scientific event? It is not only the enormously varied clients and public relations problems which makes your day exciting and different, it is also the number and range of outside specialist services you use.
The quality of achievement: Two national newspaper mentions may be more important to your client than thirty provincial newspapers and magazines. It is not just the quantity of your achievement during a campaign that counts but the quality. It is now not uncommon for consultancies to include in their proposals for a campaign how they intend to measure its success. This establishes at the outset for both parties the criterion for evaluation of work done.
It remains difficult to measure precisely the success of a campaign or event when the purpose of the exercise may not include media targets where clippings and recording serve to show the audience reached. Even here the quality of that achievement remains more important than sheer numbers. Where a shift in public opinion is the public relations goal, then sophisticated research needs to be undertaken before and after the exercise to measure achievement.
New business: Public relations consultancies no more want to stand still than any other business enterprise. For this reason the pursuit of new business is an exciting and exhausting experience that stimulates, tires and sometimes defeats a consultancy. Exciting because you will join colleagues in a mad rush to write a public relations proposal for the prospective new client and to create a hopefully imaginative and pleasing presentation of these proposals. Exhausting because there is never enough time it seems between being invited 'to pitch' for the new business and actually getting everything ready for the big day. Stimulating because new ideas, creativity, brain storming sessions and the prospects of winning make for a great feeling of esprit de corps. However, you will be tired by all this flurry of activity because you will still be doing regular work and the proposal writing may take you into late nights and weekend work. Consultancies all lose clients so they must keep getting new ones.
The key elements in responding well to a brief from a prospective client is to read it thoroughly, think it through, consider what he actually wants, make a proposal which is sound and creative within his expected budget, present these to him in a clear, unconfused way which you have rehearsed, and finally to give him your proposals in a well written form. All this should speak well for your fluency with language and clarity of intellect. If this sounds a tall order, it is. Only a few consultancies come up to this standard. But in the near future clients will expect it from them all.
