What Are We-- Meeting Planners?

It is unavoidable. No matter who your client is, or what demographic they are a part of -- old line companies with brand pedigree, start ups with deep VC funding, or a nonprofits dedicated to doing good – they will have their internal meetings during your weekly PR conference call. Write it down and file it between “The sun will rise tomorrow,” and “Paris Hilton is annoying.”



The scenario works like this: Your agency team is assembled around the speakerphone, breathlessly eager for the weekly client conference call. The call begins and the account manager is effortlessly traversing the agenda like clockwork. Then it happens.

Innocently enough, the client’s public affairs officer remarks to someone in charge of online marketing, “Did you know that division one’s marketing campaign starts on Monday?”

“We didn’t know anything about it!” responds the online marketing guy.
The train has now left the station. Before you know it, the client team is chatting amongst itself about budget, collateral and everything else under the sun, all the while forgetting – or ignoring altogether -- that the purpose of the call is external PR.



What are we, Mr. Client? Chopped liver? Last night’s dish water? I think we should add a meeting coordinator fee to our monthly retainer. If you want to pay us to get your inside ducks in a row, we are happy to help, but that isn’t our business and it surely isn’t in our contract. We are PR pros, not meeting planners. And you are wasting everyone’s time.

The agency team had worked tirelessly to execute last week’s objectives and to move forward on any new tasks. The team has questions, too, and they need to get them answered in order to be effective service providers.

The intrepid account manager, responsible for using everyone’s time efficiently, is sitting there befuddled; she wants to make sure this call isn’t bogged down in a morass of minutia.

She has to regain control of the call—this instant. Although the client team appears to enjoy the chatter and might bristle at first when you rein them in, they will ultimately appreciate how much you value their (and the paid-for) time.

It is very easy to simply press the mute button on the speakerphone and make silly faces at the cacophony on the other end. Resist the urge. That’s too easy. Use the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills and gain the client’s respect by getting the call back on track.



When the leader of the call takes a breath from his tirade, interject with a hearty, “As we were saying…”

If, perchance, someone on their side of the call says something germane to your PR efforts while they’re musing on their own, use that to your advantage. Say, “We’d like to piggyback on what so-and-so said,” or, “He has a good point…” The goal is to get back in the conversation and return to your well-planned agenda.

If none of the above works, then “Team, let’s get back on track” should do the trick. If that doesn’t work—hang up. You owe it to your client to keep them on task. Plus, you have PR to provide. Let someone else plan the meetings.

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Tag, You’re It: Answer your phone now!

“You have reached the voicemail of…. I am out of the office until…” How often have you gotten voicemail when you’ve called a friend, your client, a reporter [your mother!]? At that crucial moment, the important question: Should you leave a message?

Let’s say no. Because unless you are calling your mother, you don’t truly expect a return phone call. Sometime between eagerly waiting by the phone for your crush to call and screening your cell phone caller ID so you can avoid the loser from last night, we became a society that doesn’t returns calls.

That’s where our disconnect lies. Media relations thrives—no, survives—on a practitioner’s ability to woo a reporter or a blogger or your mother on the phone. Crafting a perfect pitch is successful if you have a human on the other side to talk to. You can’t tell the client you scheduled an interview with BusinessWeek if they don’t pick up.

As children, we used to run around the playground during recess trying to catch all the other children running away from us, just so we can stop chasing. [I still do that.] As adults, how much of your day do you lose re-dialing the same people…reporters to schedule an interview, clients to confirm a time, third-party sources to give their expert opinions, friends for dinner? But, with so much technology at everyone’s disposal, they’re all running and you’re “it.” Good luck getting someone on the phone.

There is strict etiquette about answering a call before the third ring, keeping your cell phone on vibrate on the bus, and not texting during a dinner party—but why not a rule about calling someone back? Professionally it’s frustrating while personally it’s maddening! Returning phone calls is an essential part of building strong relationships. It is the foundation for a successful feature and a lucrative future, so how did we become a culture lacking this most common courtesy?

So, PR pros, I challenge you to buck your impulse to delete your messages and ignore the incoming. This is karma talking. Pick up your phone! Be the person who answers the ones who call you, be the one who returns those messages. Start a trend that will persist throughout the season and check your voicemail, review your caller ID, make the effort to see who it was that wants you on the phone. People will be so impressed with class and don’t be surprised when your phone rings off the hook.

Oh my. Look at that! It’s the Times calling you back.

I’m now Twittering with karma in mind at www.twitter.com/laermer