AS a PR agency head who has worked with different clients for over three decades, I can rightfully say that I’ve had the pleasure of working with a slew of professionals that I have also come to love. These wonderful people have enriched my career journey with priceless lessons that I wouldn’t trade for anything else.
Yet, it does not cease to amaze me that for all the harmonious work relationship we’ve had through the years, it is the friendship and goodwill we have forged that make all the hard work worth it.
But as with any profession, there are inevitable pitfalls that PR practitioners need to deal with—tricky situations that need as much sensitive handling as any other issue. These, for the most part, are the exception rather than the rule.
And because I have been asked, from time to time, what PR professionals need to watch out for, I would like to share a few “cautionary tales” for the benefit of my industry colleagues and for aspiring PR professionals out there.
1 Potential clients who take advantage of and use your ideas but “forget” to remunerate you. Even before “fake news” came along, we in the PR profession have had encounters with “fake clients.” Check out their modus: they send you an e-mail at first or call you under the pretext of being new at their business, then very “enthusiastically” pick on your brain, claiming that they need to see if engaging in PR services would be the right move for them. Before you notice it, you are being enticed to share your ideas and suggestions on what they can do initially. They’re such good actors that they even mention a target date and venue for the event or launch that they have in mind.
You know how this ends. I did mention fake clients, did I?
When we were just starting out in PR, we would be over-generous with our time and ideas, and would dish them out without first ensuring that the project would push through.
Over time, however, the wisdom we gained from years of experience taught us how to tell which clients were only out to get “free services.”
How to avoid them?
Choose your clients or potential partners well. Make sure they were referred by someone you know and trust. You can also do your own online research to check out their company background and credentials. If agencies or suppliers are required to present their credentials to clients, we should, likewise, claim our right to ask potential partners for validation. They must show solid proof that they pay their agencies or suppliers the professional fees due them.
2 Clients who do not live up to agreements and pretend to know more about your business than you. I once had a client, a foreign-based Filipino woman who, through a common friend, persuaded me to help her with a personal cause that she started for her disabled son. I initially believed that she sincerely wanted to help build a community that would benefit a specific disadvantaged sector, so I agreed to assist her in publicizing their fund-raising event that would help this proposed community.
After we succeeded in generating considerable attention and support for her event (which was quite well-attended), she refused to pay the amount we had agreed on at the start of the project. She claimed that according to her “other friends who also know PR,” she should pay us only after we did a post-event publicity campaign, something that we had not included in our original agreement.
She changed the terms of our engagement midway, so I did what was best at that point—we resigned and quit while we still had the dignity to just let it go. We did not even demand payment for our services.
How to avoid them:
Make sure you have a signed and written agreement between yourself and clients with specific details, especially if they are based abroad or if you hardly know them.
It will also help if you double-check a potential new client’s reputation. I found out too late that this woman who cheated us out of our professional fees had earlier conned another PR colleague, who had exactly the same misfortune of trusting her.
And once something like this happens to you, you should warn other PR friends against working with the same.
3 Clients who want to copy all the ideas that they like about other products that may not necessarily apply to their own. There are potential clients who like to monitor and check out everything that is written about their competitors and then expect you, their PR agency or consultant, to try to outwit, surpass or even preempt the success of their competition.
Now this is only possible if they provide you with considerable lead time and sufficient resources that will allow you to utilize all the tools needed to achieve their objective. But if all they are willing to give you are words of motivation without the support of a proper budget, then you know their goal should be filed under “wishful thinking.”
How to avoid them?
If a client has this inclination and you expect to be working with them for a period of time, I suggest that you honestly and candidly advise them about what is achievable given their budget. Help them manage their expectations by giving them the reality of costs vis-à-vis objectives. (You may also refer to my previous column titled, “Dear Client: Here are some ways you can get the best out of your creative team,” published in this paper on March 18, 2019. Here is the link: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/03/18/dear-client-here-are-some-ways-you-can-get-the-best-out-of-your-creative-team/)
4 Clients who have no respect for your time. It is extremely unprofessional for clients to set meetings and then forget about it, or worse, tell you, “So sorry but can you come back this afternoon because something came up?” when you are already at the venue. Clients who do this must be made to realize that they also need to respect our time and that we have other business matters in our agenda.
How to avoid:
Always keep your professionalism and confirm your meetings consistently. If they continue to disregard your concerns and act unprofessionally, you may need to call their attention in a formal letter. If this is a client worth keeping, they will take such matters at face value and resolve to adopt more professional behavior.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior communications professionals around the world. Joy Lumawig-Buensalido is the President and CEO of Buensalido and Associates Public Relations.
PR Matters is devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.