Monday's PR Confession #1: "No, we're not personal friends with everyone at CNN, WSJ, NYT, Reuters, etc."

This week, I am making a daily entry confessing to the realities of what we do in serving our clients and pitching new business.

Got any confessions of your own?  Send them along to me at: alan@weinkrantz dot com.

Confession #1 for Monday, April 2: "No, we're not personal friends with everyone at CNN, WSJ, NYT, Reuters, etc."

When making new business presentations, I am always very clear about one thing:  yes, we have good contacts, but the truth is that we're only as good as our last pitch to that particular contact. 

1. Just because we got client "x" a story in The Wall Street Journal, does not mean we will do likewise for you.

2. The "media" is a huge marketplace. Yes, we have connections and good relationships in place, but don't expect us to know everyone on a personal basis.  Large agencies and boutique firms alike have the same issue.  We are only as good as our last pitch.

3.  I would rather you let us cultivate a relationship with a great story idea to pitch, rather than your thinking that we can call someone up shove a story down their throat.

4.  No, we are not going to call someone up to see if they got our press release.  Huge No-No.  If we have something important to pitch, we'll pitch it before it goes on the wire service or via emails we might send to the media.

I tell the client to be: 

'Don't hire us because you think we are so connected.

Hire us because we're really creative and very good at what we do."