Strong business relationships with the client and their
stakeholders are the key to success in PR, without them you have no clientele
and no work. But like any relationship you must be willing to share, give and
support not just take.
I have come to realise that the best way to build a
relationship and maintain it is to develop more than a business relationship. I
don’t mean this in a sense that you hang out on the weekend. I mean that you as
the practitioner understand the client’s life and get to know them. Remember
their passions, milestones- babies, illness, promotion- it may seem simple but
it’s the little things that count.
This will help you to understand what makes your client
‘tick’. I recently attended a meeting with one of Perth’s leading high-rise
developers. It became evident to me that the client was very laid back and
liked to listen and enjoyed us providing him with a list of suggestions for
certain campaigns. He was not the sort of man to express what he wanted. This
was refreshing and allowed for us to get creative with our ideas.
When building and maintaining a relationship with a client
is it important to understand what medium to use, when its right to email,
phone or attend a face to face meeting. I don’t think there is anything worse
than building a relationship via email. I don’t think it sustainable and I
think you become a face behind the screen and nothing else. Hence why I choose
to phone over email in most circumstance. The minute you pick up the phone, you
become a person, you have a personality, tone and emotion. During the week, my
understanding that phoning was more beneficial then email really became evident
when I had journalists getting back to me straight away and remembering my name
and who I was when I called at a later date. I found that building this
relationship gave me a ‘one up’ over other. So much that at the end of the
week, one of my colleagues asked me to get some contact details for a
journalists, who she was unable to get contact details for. I rather surprised
myself when within 5 minutes I was able to fulfil her request. Saying this I
think sometimes its beneficial to use email. For example when fact checking or
asking a simple question. There is no need to bother your client with a phone
call. Of course when the need is there, you get out of the office and go see
your client face to face. One of my mentors visits his clients on a weekly
basis, just to touch base.
Being seen is so important in building and maintaining this
relationship and developing yourself as a respectable and trustworthy PR. This
week alone I have attended multiple outings. I helped in the activation of the
McWrap Patch, attended a opening and assisted in the filming for a cook off
between Kymba from 94.5 and The Standard head chef Chase Weber. You never know
what advantages showing your face might bring. In this case we got to eat this delicious
dish that will be on the menu for Breast Cancer Care WA long table lunch.
It is important that we build and maintain these
relationships with Grunig’s and Hunt’s PR Theories in mind. I believe that
two-way communication is important in PR. Not only does it allow for a balanced
and mutual understanding but it also allows for your message to be expressed.
As an end thought I would like to leave you with a quote
from Tony Robbins “To effectively
communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive
the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with
others."
Thanks
Georgia
