The First Pitch
This has been an interesting week. We returned to the great Northwest for two main reasons: one, to retrieve what few belongings we have still in storage here; and two, to pitch some new business. It’s the first time we’ve had to pitch a client as a fully mobile PR office. And I’d be lying if I said the concept was easy to distill.
“How do we know you are going to be available if we need you?” potential client X asks.
“Can we be sure that your local media relationships are solid if you are no longer here?” they continue.
It’s not unique to being mobile. It’s an issue that arises whenever a PR shop looks out of its traditional locale to find business. Some clients want the reassurance that if it came down to an emergency, you could be there in an instant. I’m not sure that even such a promise could even be delivered honestly by a “local” shop. After all, we all have (hopefully) more than one client. And even if we don’t, our professional and personal lives don’t always allow us to be instantly available. At least physically.
It’s an emotional ideal. The concept of a virtual “in-house” PR team.
Yet this particular client I’ve been working to woo is in a unique situation. They’ve had PR for for past decade. And it’s been handled locally. This is the first year the idea of looking beyond the local shores has even entered the vocabulary of the board in charge of naming new PR counsel.
The process of explaining how my availability is not hindered by geography has been eye-opening. It’s shown me that the strengths such a concept as mobility brings to the table are even greater that I had originally attempted to detail when we went public with the idea. Most notably, the biggest strength I’m finding in these back-and-forth dialogues with leaders of this group is the combined perspective of one who knows the local scene with one who has by nature a broader view of opportunity. By nature it is broader precisely because it is influenced by experiences beyond the walls of any one client. It’s the fundamental difference between in-house and agency PR. And it’s why many clients look for an agency to handle their marketing and communications.
That’s somehow a much easier concept to explain when you are a traditional agency. But when you are, like us, a very non-traditional agency. An agency built upon moving and meeting needs where they are. When that is your core, it adds a new dimension to the conversation.
I think we’ve done a good job of sharing the strengths of that unique approach. But the proof, as they say, is in the contract. In the next week or two we should learn if the proofs have been made cogent enough to sway long-held tradition and convince an established organization to trust something so different.
I hope to come back to this blog soon with an announcement of our first win as the fully functional mobile PR shop. And I hope to do it soon.
In the meanwhile, the very mundane yet real need of collecting our belongings, renting a u-haul, loading our gear and driving for two days due Southeast with two kids who frankly are ready to get out of the car and stay out of it for a while. That real need is most present. And most pressing.
I can at least be confident in knowing that we didn’t lose any opportunities to share our strengths. We did our best. We were our own honest selves, full of enthusiasm and ideas for how to take the proven success of a client’s core offering and take it to the next level. So for now, I can sign off with a borrowed phrase from pre-24-hour-cable-TV….
News at 11.
