One of my best friends in the world is a dentist. He often gives people excellent advice about their teeth, but he’s also used to it going by the wayside. I was joking recently that a good title for his memoir should be: “Well you would say that wouldn’t you because you want to rip me off.” Although he’s convinced nobody wants to read a dentist’s memoir. I still think The Terrors Of Turkey Teeth could make a fantastic children’s adventure. I am not comparing my professional credentials to my friend’s. But we’re both used to seeing our good advice ignored.
Many communications people can’t stand it. They often channel their frustrations into humor. Helen Reynolds, who I recommend for comms staff needing training, draws cartoons! Her “comms facepalm bingo” series makes me chuckle. It’s about the ridiculous requests people make of communications people.
But here’s the thing. Most people ignore good public relations and strategic communications advice. It’s not a few people. It’s most. In fact, it’s a rare miracle that I’ll give somebody a nugget, they’ll take it, run with it, and actually put it into action. Recently, for example, I told one of my in-laws I thought she could run a fantastic side-business. She’s so good at planning vacations with Excel spreadsheets of excursions and hotels. I bet wealthy New Yorkers would love to pay her to be their vacation concierge, I said. Next thing I know she’s gone and qualified as a travel agent and is getting herself a website. I’m like, “ah ha!” It’s so nice to hear that one’s insight has landed! It felt great!
Often, though, telling people that media coverage or communications work can be strategic? It falls on deaf ears. People want quick wins. I once had a client fire me because I told them that calling a thousand journalists and landing them no coverage for a back-of-a-napkin idea conceived at a moment of desperation would be a waste of their money. They were a blue chip client with significant backing from investors. Their internal comms lead said, “we’ve just got to get some press hits, Matt, I don’t care how.” Instead, I suggested they should invest in producing something that presented them as leaders in their field. Something they could release once a month based on all their data and insights, including a narrative introduction by their chief exec. I even had a great idea of a journalist who’d lap it up. But the client lacked vision, and they were too stressed. I was glad to be shot of them.
I went through an annoyed phase over this sort of thing. If you’re paying my retainer, why would you squander it? Then I realized there must be something I’m doing that means people aren’t listening. What I needed was to be more strategic. Wear a suit. Start an incorporated company. Put “founder, president” in the footers on my emails. Don’t show up mob-handed to meetings, but offer valuable advice on my own and back myself. Say “no” more often.
Those things help. But the truth is, I’ve also realized that most clients, even if they say they want your advice, don’t actually want it. The trick with such clients is to end the relationship as soon as possible. It’s hard, because you’re giving up a bird in the hand. But you need to find those rare clients who actually want you to help them. It’s not about you. It’s about communications as a practice. If they want somebody to just say “yes, ma’am” or “yes, sir” and do an insincere dance to pretend they’re following up on the client’s bad ideas, without delivering, but then billing huge amounts for the work, there are a few agencies I could refer them to. I won’t name them, of course. Unless you’re asking. The managing director of one of them once told me he’s in the client service business. “If the client asks for a mullet, you’ve got to give them a mullet,” they said.
What a tragedy. What an utterly unambitious and uncreative attitude. What a loser. Get me away from this person. Those were some thoughts I kept to myself at the time. What a disservice to our profession.
Sometimes listening, as a client, to your comms advice, starts with a crisis of confidence. A fantastic client of mine came to me after they’d let an in-house person go after several years. “We realized they didn’t know what they were doing, and we’d been relying a lot on their expertise,” they said. Other such people come across, at first, as shy. “I don’t feel I actually deserve attention but my board is making this a priority,” is how another very successful client relationship of mine began.
What I will say is that if I were the chief executive of any organization I would put my strategic marketing and communications officer on my senior leadership team. I would consult them often and if they were advising action counter to my drive and ambitions, I would pause. I would also compliment their efforts with a trusted external consultant like, say, yours truly. And I would pay them both well. When the sh*t hits the fan, they would be on speed dial, although I’d also pay them to prevent it doing so. I would not hire an agency on retainer for enormous sums a month and then ignore them, too, just to boost my ego.
We may not mind your ignorance, but strategic communications professionals are also steely. The more experienced we are, the quicker we are to swipe you left and move on to the next potential match. Ask yourself if that’s ever in your interests, and then commit to listening to us more often. Or, you know…don’t. Because I’m long past trying to convince anybody I know what I’m talking about. You either value me or you don’t.
#MemoirTitlesForStrategicCommsAndPublicRelationsProfessionals
—Matt Davis is a communications consultant and writer for a wide variety of clients. He also teaches yoga and lives with his wife and son in New York.
