PR practitioners, If you would like to make a difference, to get some attention; to get great relationship with the people that matters to you; to get a sustainable and long lasting relationship with your audience – stop aiming for sales leads as if it would be the purpose of your efforts.
Business leaders, If you would like your business to be one of the premier institutions – the crown jewels – in its industry; if you would like your business to be widely admired by knowledgeable business people; if you would like your business to make an indelible imprint on the world in which we all live – a sustainable business year after year – stop striving to make a profit as if it would be the purpose of your business.
If the purpose of a business is to make a profit. And the purpose of PR efforts is to generate leads and sales – you will fail.
Visionary companies - the best of the best in their industries
After six years of research, Jim Collins, the author of “Build to last”, found out that the common themes of what he call “the visionary companies” is that they all have got a “visionary framework”. He has chosen the term “visionary companies”, rather than just “successful” or “enduring” companies, to reflect the fact that they have distinguished themselves as a very special and elite breed of institutions. They are more than successful. They are more than enduring. In most cases, they are the best of the best in their industries, and have been that way for decades.
The purpose of their business is not to make profit
The key elements of the visionary framework are core values and core purpose. Values – the essential and enduring tenets of an organization, a small set of timeless guiding principles. And Purpose – the organization’s reason for being; the soul of the organization. Elements that never changes.
The purpose of a visionary company is not to make a profit. Visionary companies strive to provide value, change things for the better, solve problems and meet needs.
A few quotes from people mentioned in the book:
John Young, former CEO, Hewlett-Packard, 1992 said: “…profit – as important as it is – is not why the Hewlett-Packard exists; it exists for more fundamental reasons.”
In Merck & Company’s, Internal management guide, 1989, it’s written: “We are in the business of preserving and improving human life. All of our actions must be measured by our success in achieving this goal.”
And Don Petersen, former CEO, Ford, said 1994: “Putting profits after people and products was magical at Ford.”
The purpose of your PR efforts shouldn’t be t to generate sales leads
I believe this applies to your PR efforts as well. Unfortunately, we’re now drowning in posts that’s all about how to generate sales leads as a result of our PR efforts.
Ian Cleary (PR Daily) invited us earlier this month to “Convert Facebook fans to customers…” He said: “It’s easy to get caught up with the number of fans you have on Facebook, but we’re in the business of selling our products and services. Your time spent on Facebook needs to be rewarded.”
No, we PR practitioners are not in “the business of selling”. We are in the business of serving our community.
A year ago I read another article by Mike Santoro, President for Walker Sands: “8 Ways To Measure Return On PR Investments”, where Mike says: “Good PR [...] driving leads to your door. When your company prioritizes strategic placements in trade and consumer publications, your sales organization will inevitably experience a bump in the area of inbound leads.”
And furthermore: “A robust PR strategy should substantially shorten the length of your organization’s sales cycle. In general, the use of thought-leadership materials and media placements reduces sales cycles by 10% or more–creating efficiencies that can be leveraged to increase the volume of prospects and leads that are managed by your existing sales team.”
From my perspective, a great side effect, but hopefully not the goal, nor the purpose.
The Council of Public Relations Firms in U.S made a statement in a post by Tim Marklein that “Money matters: Rethinking ROI for Public Relations”.
The Council had earlier that year “established a new measurement committee to help drive development and adoption of industry standards for public relations measurement” which argue “for a strict definition of ROI for public relations focused purely on financial calculations of return against investment.” And the committee argues for that a “strict “money in, money out” definition is critical for public relations leaders to embrace if they are to maintain credibility in the executive suite and boardroom.”
Don’t do that. Please, stick to your mission instead and fulfill the real purpose with your PR efforts.
Because, as another blogger said: “… it is not a matter of selling campaign, the role is more structural to bring confidence from the reader to the informer.” Or as Alison Theaker explains in his book the Public Relations Handbook: “Public Relations is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and understanding between an organisation and its publics.” Period!
Meghan Peters wrote an very interesting post “The Future of Community Management” for Mashable, relating to the same topic. He refers to Kathy Sierra, a programming instructor and game developer, presentation “Building the Minimum Badass User“, in which she said:
“People don’t buy your product because they like the product; they buy your product because they like themselves”. And Sierra argues that “this is the brand-user disconnect: Community managers want users to think the brand is awesome — but users want to be awesome.”
Like Mashable’s Meghan Peters, who urges his reader to “focus on a vested community”, I strongly recommend you to serve the people your are there for; the people who are the reason for why your business exist. Period! Money will follow.
