How to hire a PR firm By Fraser P Seitel published October 01 Fraser P. Seitel has been a public relations consultant, teacher and author for 30 years. His book, The Practice of Public Relations, is the largest selling US college textbook in public relations. He can be reached at yusake@aol.com  Corporations, many of them having reduced their public relations departments, are turning more and more to outside PR counsel both for long-term and project assignments. Public relations is a difficult buy. We have to be very careful if we are to get what we pay for. To help you retain a consultant who is reputable, reasonable and reliable, I have come up with a dozen rules. 1.  Whenever possible, seek competitive bids. Consultants, like most of us, react in a more reasonable way when they know there’s competition. Whenever you can, put the consultant assignments out for bids, assessing not only the most economical bidder but also the most creative. By seeking competitive bids, you guard against consultant complacency. They know they're in a “fight” for the business and can't take anything for granted. Beyond this, of course, by seeking several bidders and making them spell out their intentions for the account, you can pick up valuable tactics that may have application later on. You should, of course, pay for any ideas that you have taken from these presentations. 2. Get references, and interview them. You wouldn’t hire a new employee without checking references. Nor should you hire a consultant without discovering the experience that others have had in using the firm. Even larger, well-known public relations firms should be checked. In soliciting references, avoid generalities. Ask specific questions of those for whom the consultant previously had worked. What was the nature of the assignment you had the consultant work on? Did he or she finish it on time, on budget, with a pleasant attitude? Are you still using what was produced? How do you suggest I use this consultant and his or her people? References can be invaluable not only in determining the worth of a particular consultant but also in structuring your specific assignment. 3. Insist on specificity. Make consultants specify exactly what their work will achieve; in other words, their goals. Make them commit to milestones along the way. Make them specify how much each element in the program will cost. And set a time limit for when the program will conclude.  Insisting on specifics keeps a consultant honest. You and he or she are both aware of what the program's objectives are and whether or not they are being attained as time goes by. 4. Negotiate down large retainer fees. There's an old saw, “If you owe the bank a $1,000, they've got you. If you owe the bank $1 million, you've got them”. The same holds true with consultants. For a consultant, nirvana is the state of charging a huge monthly retainer for “general services”. It’s not unheard of, for example, for a PR consultant to ask for a monthly fee of $25,000 or so, exclusive of expenses or special projects. They may suggest it. But don't buy it. Rather, negotiate with the consultant. Counter offer to start the firm at a reduced rate, hopefully a much reduced rate, to give both parties time to assess and work into the relationship. If, after several months of activity, the consultant proves invaluable and well worth $25,000 or so a month, then revise the agreement accordingly. But don’t give in to the first proposal. Negotiate down the retainer fee. Ninety-nine times out of 100, a consultant will lower an exorbitant initial retainer proposal. 5. Challenge monthly bills. And speaking of costs, don’t be a patsy with the charges you receive. Review monthly bills, monthly. Check the mode of transportation that firm representatives use to visit the company. Where do they stay when they do out-of-town work for you? Where do they eat on project time? The point is that it’s your firm’s money. You should treat it as your own. So scrutinise, challenge if necessary, every monthly bill the consultant sends. If the firm gets away with something early in the relationship then by your initial silence, you condone this behaviour. And you deserve to be gouged further, as surely you will be. 6. Beware the management audit. The first thing any self-respecting PR consultant wants to do is “get to know” the organisation by interviewing top management. Resist this request whenever possible. First, top executives are busy and don’t have time to be interviewed by every new outsider hired to consult the company. Second, some consultants use the “management audit” as a guise to get to higher ranking executives for future considerations. So while there’s nothing wrong in concept with first researching the beliefs and aspirations of senior management, you, as a spokesperson and conscience of the organisation not to mention sponsor of the consultant, should approach the “management audit” with caution or at least question its necessity. 7.  Don't leap up for the big “name”. There are an awful lot of published authors, former congressman, media personalities, and quasi-celebrities running around masquerading as “public relations consultants”. In many cases their speciality is whom they know, not what they know. Often people of this ilk who claim they are “plugged in” may well have had the “plug” pulled when they left the office. Much better than hiring a former or quasi-anything as a PR consultant is retaining a firm in whom you have confidence and with whom you are familiar and comfortable. Indeed, many veteran consultant users suggest that “personal chemistry” between the client and the consultant is an eminently more meaningful measure than the name recognition or celebrity status of the advisor. 8. Buy creativity. Just as you don't want to buy a consulting firm for its name or hire someone you can’t stand, neither should you dish out hard earned corporate money for mediocre advice. In other words, avoid the “shelf shill”, the consultant whose every answer is safe, bland, and straight off-the-shelf, having been used many times before. You have the right to insist that you not be “peddled” the research, analysis, or solutions used for other clients. As W. Edwards Deming, a founder of the quality improvement movement in Japan and the United States, has put it, “Don't look for instant-pudding answers”. Rather, hire creativity. You and your staff can provide “safe” counsel to management. You hire a consultant to bring you a different, more creative perspective from which you can reach a more thoughtful conclusion. And don't stereotype a PR consultant by the size of the firm. Sometimes the largest consultants are the most creative and the smallest are the least. 9. Resist the “waffler”. By the same token, the worst advice a consultant can offer is “waffling” advice, counsel that yings and yangs but never commits to a specific point of view. “On the one hand, you might do this … but on the other hand …” etc. Advice like this just isn’t worth the money. PR consultants must take a stand. Make them commit to a point of view. How else can you find out how good they are? The kind of thumb-sucking analysis that leads to overprudence and a risk-adverse paralysis isn’t something you should buy. 10.  Beware “hidden extras”. Keep your eyes open and your wallet closed to the “nose-under-the-tent” phenomenon that enables a consultant, once through the corporate door, to rack up additional revenues through the sale of extra services such as special reports, studios or speeches. Sometimes a PR firm will start you off for “free” with a service you haven’t requested as a special bonus for signing on. Then after a few months of receiving the bonus, you are asked to pay for it. Unless the service is in fact “special”, don't bite. Keep your mind and your money on why you hired the consultant in the first place. 11.  Make demands. You’ve hired the consultant for a reason. Maybe he or she thinks better than you do, and you are paying for the privilege of using the consultant’s brain. So use it, often. Call frequently for advice and counsel. Make consultants know that you’re depending on them and plan to get what you’re paying for. Make a habit of talking to all consultants at least once every couple of weeks. If a consultant takes you for granted he’ll never produce. Rather, as one design consultant put it, you want to be the client the consultant thinks about at 10 o’clock at night. 12. Quickly disengage. Finally, don’t be reluctant to fire a consultant. Sometimes the client and consultant just don’t click or you overestimated the potential of the assignment or the relationship. By the same token, if you find the consultant offers neither increased brainpower nor inspired creativity and also isn’t particularly a thrill to be around, disengage at once. In addition, keep your eyes open about “cancellation clauses” at the start of a PR consultant relationship. Many firms insist on cancellation notices of two to three months and stipulate as much in their contracts. Suggest instead a one-month cancellation clause be adopted. By relying on rules like these, you can ensure that the counsel you receive is well worth the cost.

PR Influences Australian Public Relations Newsletter. Article: How to hire a Public Relations company or consultants. Information Content: Managing PR