Media & Communications: Why Law Firm Marketers Don't Like PR Firms

Bait-and-Switch

The most common gripe about PR firms is that they will introduce the agency's “top guns” ' a founder or CEO ' to earn the business, and then the client never sees or hears from that person again until they tell the firm they are dissatisfied. Miraculously, at the point of unhappiness, the client will begin to see a lot of that person again ' for a little while.

John Bowers, Senior Business Development Manager at Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia, says this bait-and-switch routine is entirely too common. “Firms tend to have the lead dog ' usually someone with a great journalism background and industry-specific knowledge ' and that person also tends to be a sales person who sees the big picture. He or she has a personality that can sell a concept or an idea,” he explains. “And then the PR firm has people who work on the accounts and touch base with reporters, who usually have some level of journalism experience and maybe some industry knowledge.

“But the major problem is that those people are managing the accounts, and they aren't managing the relationship,” he adds. “They are simply doing the grunt work and advising when the project has ended, or the status of the project. I'm not sure how to incentivize them, but I see a lack of ownership from people who are not principles.”

Solution: First, before your firm interviews PR agencies, think about the kind of relationship you want. Are you looking for a boutique PR firm that will very likely afford you access to the top people on an ongoing basis, or do you prefer a large agency where your day-to-day contact is probably at a lower level? Once you make that decision and identify a pool of candidates to interview, start by demanding clarity about who will be available to you, and how often. And then hold the PR agency to account.

Junior Staff

The unhelpful cousin to the bait-and-switch is the next biggest complaint: junior account representatives who don't fully understand challenging legal issues. In many respects, this problem is worse because it's so overt. PR firms have relatively few meaningful interactions with the attorneys themselves due to inherent time limitations, so all it takes is one ill-advised, uninformed question to cast doubt on the entire relationship. And that makes the in-house marketing team look very bad, which can be a death knell for an agency.

“The people who handle the day-to-day work tend to be earlier in their career, which isn't their fault, but it does mean more of an explanation [of legal issues] is needed,” Bowers says. “When speaking with attorneys, younger reps aren't even thinking about asking clarifying questions, they're just taking notes. It's a common enough issue that they should just do a little bit of homework in advance and come prepared with a relevant question, if need be. After all, reps are usually painfully aware of what they don't know.

“The thing that's so crazy to me is that prior to exposing my lawyers to a junior person, I would give up my time to explain what I know. But oftentimes I'm not even asked. There just isn't that personal investment,” Bowers adds.

Paula Zirinsky, Marketing Director at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, sees inexperience play out in more subtle ways. “I often see a lot of frustration on the part of PR firms when the client says no [to a media interview], and the [account representative] gets impatient. Often a law firm can't comment on something for reasons that are not obvious, and younger PR people get frustrated in ways that a more experienced professional would not,” she explains.

Zirinsky has noted a number of irritating byproducts of inexperience, all of which could easily be remedied simply by having a senior professional with industry experience guiding the ship. She listed a few peccadillos all within the experience rubric:

• “Not knowing what a reporter is really looking for, so we don't step down the wrong path.”
• “Not getting the deadline right and wasting our time” looking for a source.
• “Not knowing when someone's looking for background or when they really want a quote.”
• “Not fully knowing what the client's business is or understanding the strategy and message.”

“PR firms have to think about what it's like being inside,” Zirinsky concludes.

One way to learn about a firm is to ask to attend its meetings. Bowers notes that every practice group within a law firm has regular meetings that are very useful for understanding trends and story angles. “Ideally, the PR firm should attend those meetings with some frequency to go straight to the horse's mouth,” he says. “It's a great opportunity for information-gathering, which account reps can then leverage in their pitches.”

Bowers also suggests sitting in on the marketing department's meetings, though he adds that no one has ever asked him to attend. “There's no replacement for the in-person meeting,” he notes.

Solution: PR agencies, like all service businesses, contend with the tension between providing superior service and making a profit by leveraging their staff. At the same time, the client doesn't, and shouldn't, care about their agency's profit; they simply want the work done the way they want. The key for a law firm is to convey expectations at the outset, and for the PR firm to make sure the budget reflects those expectations.

As discussed earlier, a law firm's first decision prior to hiring an agency is to identify the kind of relationship it wants to have. Hiring a large, several-hundred-person PR firm often means paying for a different experience than hiring a boutique agency, and those expectations need to be laid out in the beginning of an engagement.

Reporting to the Firm

The final criticism from clients is that they often don't know what an agency is doing for them on a weekly or monthly basis. Bowers puts the blame partly on his shoulders at times for not demanding more information, but the reality is that there is a built-in incentive for PR firms to keep their clients not just apprised of their work, but overly apprised.

Solution: This one's easy ' reports should be created daily to accompany outreach on announcements (new partners, office openings); weekly for status on progress related to pitching an issue in the news; monthly for an overall assessment of activity on the firm's behalf (pitches that worked, the stuff that didn't pan out); and annually for a complete picture of how an agency spent its time and what constituted success.

Additionally, a PR firm should send a report pretty much whenever a client asks for one. Although time-consuming, reports are a PR firm's best friend, and every marketing department should not only require them, but they should be specific about the information contained within them, and the frequency with which they are produced.

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships” ' the great Henry Winkler.

Conclusion

One of the truly awful experiences PR firms have is when we walk into a new business pitch and are pigeonholed based on the unsatisfying experience the potential client had with its last agency. Communication is the antidote, and it starts with a client's very clear articulation of its goals and its expectations about who is doing the work, and how often that work is being communicated. It never works when both parties to the agreement assume they are on the same page about expectations. Together, we can make our little world a better place where marketers dislike us less, and we never have to quote Henry Winkler again.

Jamie Diaferia, a lawyer and former journalist, founded Infinite Public Relations in 2001. He can be reached at [email protected], or 212-687-0935. Nicholas Gaffney, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a lawyer and former journalist. Nick manages Infinite Public Relations' San Francisco office and can be reached at [email protected], or 415-732-7801.

It's an open, uncomfortable secret among professional marketers that PR agencies often engender feelings ranging from dislike to outright disdain. Among law firms especially, the criticisms are consistent and sad to say, often legitimate. Admitting and evaluating these unfortunate truths, however, makes for a great discussion and provides us with an opportunity to turn complaints into compliments.

Many PR firms ' and it's important to say many, not all ' have earned a reputation for behaviors that make it hard to like us. This became apparent when we participated in a recent panel discussion in New York in front of Joshua Peck's LFMP group (www.lfmp.org), and when presented with the opportunity to submit questions and comments in advance, a pattern of alleged wrongs emerged from the legal community: Bait-and-switches on accounts, junior account reps who don't understand the law, gaps in communication between the agency and the client's marketing team ' the list goes on.

We will address some of the most common grievances with an eye toward offering solutions we use to preserve and improve the PR firm-client relationship. The good news is many of the problems we describe can be addressed prior to signing a contract.

Bait-and-Switch

The most common gripe about PR firms is that they will introduce the agency's “top guns” ' a founder or CEO ' to earn the business, and then the client never sees or hears from that person again until they tell the firm they are dissatisfied. Miraculously, at the point of unhappiness, the client will begin to see a lot of that person again ' for a little while.

John Bowers, Senior Business Development Manager at Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia, says this bait-and-switch routine is entirely too common. “Firms tend to have the lead dog ' usually someone with a great journalism background and industry-specific knowledge ' and that person also tends to be a sales person who sees the big picture. He or she has a personality that can sell a concept or an idea,” he explains. “And then the PR firm has people who work on the accounts and touch base with reporters, who usually have some level of journalism experience and maybe some industry knowledge.

“But the major problem is that those people are managing the accounts, and they aren't managing the relationship,” he adds. “They are simply doing the grunt work and advising when the project has ended, or the status of the project. I'm not sure how to incentivize them, but I see a lack of ownership from people who are not principles.”

Solution: First, before your firm interviews PR agencies, think about the kind of relationship you want. Are you looking for a boutique PR firm that will very likely afford you access to the top people on an ongoing basis, or do you prefer a large agency where your day-to-day contact is probably at a lower level? Once you make that decision and identify a pool of candidates to interview, start by demanding clarity about who will be available to you, and how often. And then hold the PR agency to account.

Junior Staff

The unhelpful cousin to the bait-and-switch is the next biggest complaint: junior account representatives who don't fully understand challenging legal issues. In many respects, this problem is worse because it's so overt. PR firms have relatively few meaningful interactions with the attorneys themselves due to inherent time limitations, so all it takes is one ill-advised, uninformed question to cast doubt on the entire relationship. And that makes the in-house marketing team look very bad, which can be a death knell for an agency.

“The people who handle the day-to-day work tend to be earlier in their career, which isn't their fault, but it does mean more of an explanation [of legal issues] is needed,” Bowers says. “When speaking with attorneys, younger reps aren't even thinking about asking clarifying questions, they're just taking notes. It's a common enough issue that they should just do a little bit of homework in advance and come prepared with a relevant question, if need be. After all, reps are usually painfully aware of what they don't know.

“The thing that's so crazy to me is that prior to exposing my lawyers to a junior person, I would give up my time to explain what I know. But oftentimes I'm not even asked. There just isn't that personal investment,” Bowers adds.

Paula Zirinsky, Marketing Director at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, sees inexperience play out in more subtle ways. “I often see a lot of frustration on the part of PR firms when the client says no [to a media interview], and the [account representative] gets impatient. Often a law firm can't comment on something for reasons that are not obvious, and younger PR people get frustrated in ways that a more experienced professional would not,” she explains.

Zirinsky has noted a number of irritating byproducts of inexperience, all of which could easily be remedied simply by having a senior professional with industry experience guiding the ship. She listed a few peccadillos all within the experience rubric:

• “Not knowing what a reporter is really looking for, so we don't step down the wrong path.”
• “Not getting the deadline right and wasting our time” looking for a source.
• “Not knowing when someone's looking for background or when they really want a quote.”
• “Not fully knowing what the client's business is or understanding the strategy and message.”

“PR firms have to think about what it's like being inside,” Zirinsky concludes.

One way to learn about a firm is to ask to attend its meetings. Bowers notes that every practice group within a law firm has regular meetings that are very useful for understanding trends and story angles. “Ideally, the PR firm should attend those meetings with some frequency to go straight to the horse's mouth,” he says. “It's a great opportunity for information-gathering, which account reps can then leverage in their pitches.”

Bowers also suggests sitting in on the marketing department's meetings, though he adds that no one has ever asked him to attend. “There's no replacement for the in-person meeting,” he notes.

Solution: PR agencies, like all service businesses, contend with the tension between providing superior service and making a profit by leveraging their staff. At the same time, the client doesn't, and shouldn't, care about their agency's profit; they simply want the work done the way they want. The key for a law firm is to convey expectations at the outset, and for the PR firm to make sure the budget reflects those expectations.

As discussed earlier, a law firm's first decision prior to hiring an agency is to identify the kind of relationship it wants to have. Hiring a large, several-hundred-person PR firm often means paying for a different experience than hiring a boutique agency, and those expectations need to be laid out in the beginning of an engagement.

Reporting to the Firm

The final criticism from clients is that they often don't know what an agency is doing for them on a weekly or monthly basis. Bowers puts the blame partly on his shoulders at times for not demanding more information, but the reality is that there is a built-in incentive for PR firms to keep their clients not just apprised of their work, but overly apprised.

Solution: This one's easy ' reports should be created daily to accompany outreach on announcements (new partners, office openings); weekly for status on progress related to pitching an issue in the news; monthly for an overall assessment of activity on the firm's behalf (pitches that worked, the stuff that didn't pan out); and annually for a complete picture of how an agency spent its time and what constituted success.

Additionally, a PR firm should send a report pretty much whenever a client asks for one. Although time-consuming, reports are a PR firm's best friend, and every marketing department should not only require them, but they should be specific about the information contained within them, and the frequency with which they are produced.

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships” ' the great Henry Winkler.

Conclusion

One of the truly awful experiences PR firms have is when we walk into a new business pitch and are pigeonholed based on the unsatisfying experience the potential client had with its last agency. Communication is the antidote, and it starts with a client's very clear articulation of its goals and its expectations about who is doing the work, and how often that work is being communicated. It never works when both parties to the agreement assume they are on the same page about expectations. Together, we can make our little world a better place where marketers dislike us less, and we never have to quote Henry Winkler again.

Jamie Diaferia, a lawyer and former journalist, founded Infinite Public Relations in 2001. He can be reached at [email protected], or 212-687-0935. Nicholas Gaffney, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a lawyer and former journalist. Nick manages Infinite Public Relations' San Francisco office and can be reached at [email protected], or 415-732-7801.