Why Good PR People Fail

 I was recently at a lunch event for the PR industry. I noticed a peer from another firm, who attends all these types of networking events, wasn’t in attendance. I called her cell phone. I was looking forward to seeing her at the event and it was odd that she wasn’t there at all, never mind there early.

After getting voicemail, I sent her a text message and continued to mingle. She still didn’t reply after an hour went by. Then, about ten minutes before the event ended, I asked another peer where our mutual networking friend was. “Oh, she was fired!” I couldn’t believe that response. She was such a great PR person and loved networking. “For what,” I questioned.

It turns out, the clients assigned to her were not happy with their media value ROI or clippings results. I knew this woman. I knew her campaigns. I knew how hard she worked. I’ve seen her clients on TV and in the local papers often. I become more puzzled. I decided to call her boss, who I also knew well.

The boss stated she did do a wonderful job. “So, then why did you fire her?” His response was that the clients weren’t happy. This was ridiculous. Clients often have grandiose expectations of a PR campaign- at any level outside of Academy Award status. I told him even a fool knows better than to take a client’s word on results. The numbers and clippings don’t lie. Clients just have terrible expectations of PR people.

I never did get a text back from our peer. I think she was embarrassed by the situation, or frustrated with people in general. My point is – don’t give up. If you are unlucky enough to have a boss that gauges performance on not meeting a client’s expectations (which are always unrealistic) vs. producing actual results, then it is time to think about going freelance or with a different PR firm.

Until tomorrow,

Coco the CEO