When PR Pros Need to Walk Away
Yesterday, I wrote a piece about the importance of arming the PR team with the information they need to do their job well. Today I will take it a step further.
Let's say you already have a client or a pro bono client. At what point, is it time to walk to away? This is not an every-day question. It is also not even a common situation. PR pros can be tenacious and persistent,;they are not known to give up easily. PR pros also don't look for reasons to walk away from clients.
1. Do No Harm
You know it's time to leave when the client wants you to draw up messages or action plans that can be remotely construed as an insult or attack on an organization, issue, a person, or his/her character. Can you name one group that has benefited by using this tactic? Did any group follow this approach and still manage to look good? Even if the client is absolutely right, you got to ask yourself this: would it be possible to present this information (and take the "high road") without raining on someone else's parade or detonating another person's reputation?
2. PR People Can Only Handle the Truth
Jack Nicholson played Colonel Nathan R. Jessep in the movie, "A Few Good Men", and is best known for saying "You can't handle the truth."
You know it is time to leave, when the client consistently (knowingly or unknowingly) withholds information you need to do your job well. PR strategies can still fail when plans get created and executed using incomplete information. Forty-five minutes before a client was scheduled for his financial TV interview, I was in the room when the client was on the phone with his attorney. I heard the client talk about his ongoing inquiry from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It was news to me. Once I had this information in hand, it prompted me to change the client's course of action.
Even if PR pros are not informed of pertinent facts, the public still expects the PR pros to know. When the public expects info from the PR pro and does not receive it, then the public might incorrectly assume that PR people are not being truthful.
3. Preserve Reputation and Trustworthiness
A PR pro's value is mostly measured by his/her reputation and trustworthiness. The best plans are the ones that achieve the communications goals for the client without compromising anyone's reputation and trustworthiness.
You know it is time to go, when the PR person does not have enough information (aka equipment) to row with the team or when the direction the boat is going could take the team to a tricky, risky or dangerous place.
What do you think? I know there are more reasons than just these. Every PR person has his/her own. What are your reasons?
Source for the images: istockphoto.com