Even Chocolate Chip Cookies Can’t Help When You Don’t Know Your Audience

Years ago while I was in college a friend that wanted to be more than friends tried to woo me by bringing me homemade baked goods, specifically a lot of chocolate. I’m not a big chocolate fan. Never have been and never will be. In fact, I generally think the worst kind of chocolate is chocolate chips, and that’s what was being brought to my house on a regular basis.

I felt bad because I know a lot of time was being put into these cookies and other baked treats. I would thank this girl for the treats and then set them on the counter for others in the house to eat. Truth be told, I never ate one of them and I’m not even sure if anybody else did or what their ultimate fate was. I just know that after a couple days the plate they came on was no longer on the counter.

I know how that sounds, and I’m not really proud of just leaving the goodies out and not knowing what ever happened to them. However, it raises a good point as it pertains to a very important aspect of PR, the importance of knowing your audience.

One of the things the media despises most is being pitched on topics that have nothing to do with the areas they cover. Reporters talk about this all the time and are quite vocal about the waste of time people are that don’t know what they write about and call to pitch them on things that have no interest to them.

Over the course of my career, there have been a number of things I’ve learned and implemented into the way I approach the media and PR in general that help me understand my audience better.

The most basic of these items is the research aspect. It’s not that hard to find out what individual reporters or media outlets cover. Social media makes it even easier, but even a quick Internet search can provide insights into areas of interest and specific details about how individual reporters like to be pitched and the types of opportunities that exist. By doing some quick research you’ll save yourself from being the person that calls and aggravates the media with stories and pitches that are not relevant. By knowing what their interests are and calling with solid tips or story ideas you’ll become a trusted source for them.

Once you’ve identified the right contacts creating a good pitch is of critical importance. An important part of crafting the pitch is thinking about and identifying all the important aspects that will help make the story a real story as well as the components the press will need to tell a complete story. These components can include photos and images, videos, experts that can provide insight into the story as well as customers to validate what you’re telling them.

When pitching and working with the media it’s important to know what they need and when they need it. Reporters are constantly working on deadlines and absolutely can’t miss their deadlines. If you promise to do something for a reporter, keep your word and do it. And, just as important, do it when you say you’ll do it. When you keep your word with the press, and anyone for that matter, you build confidence and trust.

Another key way to become a trusted resource for the media is to help them even when it doesn’t benefit a client or one of your own self interests. I used to work with a guy that had been an executive producer at a CBS affiliate in Las Vegas, Nevada and the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah. After he left the media and focused on PR he would reach out to the press for his company and clients but he would also reach out to them on a regular basis for other news stories outside of his regular business. For example, in one instance he was driving on the freeway and saw the start of a forest fire along the interstate. He called a couple of the TV stations and gave them the tip about the fire. His call was the first call the media had about it and they were able to get out there and cover the story while providing viewers with valuable information about road closures and delays. While the story didn’t benefit his company or a client, it did provide him an opportunity to reach out the local media and provide them with a valuable news tip, specifically something that was relevant to them and their coverage.

Once you build these types of relationships with the media they’ll turn to you when they need help. I have a reporter friend that I’ve worked with for more than 15 years. He writes about my clients when I pitch him. He also calls me when he has an article he’s working on and needs sources to talk to. In a number of cases I haven’t had clients that fit what he’s looking for but know of other companies that would be valuable resources for him. In these instances, I proactively work with him to introduce him and help him get the interviews he needs to complete his article. By doing this I’ve become a trusted resource to him and he knows that our relationship is such that he can come to me when he needs help.

Years ago it was common to hear new clients express the same desire, to “sit on Oprah’s couch.” The theory was that if you got on the Oprah Winfrey show your business would flourish and you’d be rich. There were so many businesses and products that got featured on her show that everybody believed that a simple appearance on her show equated to guaranteed success and riches.

Many of my clients at this time were technology companies and start-ups, specifically software and hardware companies. Quite often I had to manage their expectations and explain that their product wasn’t the right fit for Oprah’s audience. Oprah featured consumer products that appealed to mass audiences, including books, movies and a variety of other consumer products and services. It was rare that she would feature software products that didn’t enable consumer products.

In these instances, with these clients, a pitch to Oprah and her staff would have been ignored because they weren’t the right fit for her audience. Many times clients were disheartened if they couldn’t get on Oprah’s couch. This didn’t mean that their product or service wasn’t valuable, it just wasn’t what Oprah and her audience wanted.

An understanding of who your audience is will lead to greater results with the media as well as other business endeavors. It’s important to know who you’re talking to. By knowing the interests of your audience you can more easily and quickly get to the point and begin driving results and success.

Being annoyed when people approach you or pitch you on things that you have no interest in is not exclusive to reporters. It’s annoying and frustrating no matter your profession. Regardless of environment, when you know and understand your audience you’ll have far greater success and achieve higher results.

Three Steps To Not Stealing Others Accountability

I recently read Steve Young’s book, QB, My Life Behind the Spiral.  I wrote a review on it and you can read that here. I enjoyed the book and there were a number of topics he wrote about that stuck out to me. One topic in particular that struck me and that I believe is worth a separate blog entry is accountability. It’s a topic that I’ve written about before and that I believe is critically important to long-term and continued success.

In the book Young talks about his early career in the National Football League (NFL), specifically as he was backing up legendary and now hall of Fame quarterback, Joe Montana. Filling in for and eventually replacing a legend is incredibly challenging and Young was struggling mightily with it. As he got more playing time, he was constantly being compared to Montana by fans, the media and even his own teammates.

As things went poorly or didn’t pan out the way Young hoped, he made an effort to be accountable to his teammates for mistakes, poor play as well as for the good that happened. He struggled with being accountable and in many cases was trying to own and be accountable for things outside of his control.

As he struggled with this, his former Coach, Bill Walsh called him and asked him to come see him.

“When I arrived I could tell he was upset. He scolded me for taking all the bullets. ‘All you do is take the blame!’ he said.”

“I hung my head. “Joe wouldn’t have missed the receiver in the end zone. I said.”

“I can tell you right now that if Joe was playing and these guys were playing the way they’re playing, things wouldn’t be any better.”

“What am I supposed to say? It’s not my fault.”

“There’s no better quality than being accountable,” Walsh said. “But there’s such a thing as being over-accountable. You actually steal other people’s accountability.”

Football, he explained, is not a one-man game. The quarterback is the leader. But it takes all eleven men to succeed.

“You are not letting other people down,” he said. “You are being let down, left and right.”

I take great pride in being accountable for my actions and at time find myself doing the same thing as Steve Young, trying to take too much accountability and responsibility. One more than one occasion I’ve found myself frustrated by the lack of accountability from others I’ve associated with, especially in business environment.

In some cases, a lack of accountability manifests itself in a number of ways, including how Jerry Seinfeld wrote it for a season 7 episode in 1996, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvcxvVLFG6M. In this episode, a new colleague pretended he couldn’t hear when t was time to work. As a result, the work ended up being passed on to Elaine to complete. Needless to say, she was skeptical of his hearing loss as she said it seemed to kick in every time somebody tried to assign him something.

Over the course of my career I’ve worked with people that don’t want anything to do with being accountable and are more than happy to pass the buck and allow others to be responsible, good or bad. Some of the situations I’ve experienced are just as bizarre and creative as the above referenced Seinfeld episode. Regardless of how it happens, it’s frustrating.

In addition to Coach Walsh’s advice, I’ve found that there are three key steps you can take to keep yourself accountable and to ensure others are accountable for their own actions.

Decide responsibilities right from the start: Years ago with a client I was working with, I had a team of people I was directing. One of the team members came from a very specific background that I believed would be a huge benefit to us. I assigned her to oversee this aspect of our client’s program. She accepted and proceeded to do absolutely nothing.

We held a weekly call with the client to update them on progress and I made it clear to this individual that she needed to be the one to provide updates. During our first weekly client call she kept quite, even during her portion. I jumped in and provided updates and after the meeting asked her about her silence.

She said she would speak up in the next meeting. During the next meeting, when her time to report back to the client came, she again remained silent. Again, I asked why she didn’t say anything and she provided another excuse. During the next week I monitored her efforts and it quickly became evident that she wasn’t providing updates to the client because she wasn’t making any effort during the week and simply had nothing to report back to the client.

During our third call she was convinced that I would again step in and cover for her. I had decided before the meeting that I wasn’t going to do that again and that she was going to have to speak up and own her responsibility. When the time came for her to make her report she remained silent and I responded by saying, “This is your area, please go ahead and give your update.” She stammered on about a few things that made no sense and quickly ended her report with the client having more questions than they did going into the meeting.

It was an embarrassment for all of us, but more so for her, and it was evident to all that she wasn’t doing anything.

Be honest: I remember a few years ago beginning work with a really cool client that specializes in a popular convention. When the client first reached out to me, I had a colleague attend our first meeting. At the time I really didn’t have the bandwidth to take on a new client but my colleague did. The intention was or my colleague to lead the account. I was however, heavily involved in the initial phases of getting the client up and running. I spoke to our client contact a lot and we quickly developed a strong relationship.

It didn’t take long for the client to consider me his go to guy. My colleague was not exactly the hardest worker in the world and was more than happy to not step up and lead the account as planned.  As I worked with the client and we finished their first event, it was a huge success. The media coverage was phenomenal and everybody knew what it was and wanted to be a part of it.

I spent more than 100 hours working with this client the week of and during the three-day event. I was exhausted but invigorated as the event was a smashing success. Along with the success came praise from the client, the fans, the media and city and state officials from where the event was held.

As the praise came in, my colleague that was quick to back out and avoid any work on the event approached me and said, “Thanks for letting me be a part of this event.”

I looked him dead in the eye and responded, “Don’t give me that crap. I begged you to get involved and you wouldn’t. Now that it’s a huge success and the client is singing my praises, don’t come to me complaining. You had your chance.”

While I know he wasn’t happy with me, I didn’t care. I had to be honest with him and hold him accountable for his lack of effort.

Don’t accept excuses: This is always difficult as there are always exceptions. However, I’ve found that the exceptions happen far and few between. Most excuses fall back on bad decisions or laziness on the part of the person giving the excuse.  In these instances, you have to take out other competing factors and focus exclusively on results. Things like friendship or familial relationships can’t come into consideration here.

If an assignment or project isn’t completed as expected or assigned, the only explanation is incompetence or as stated earlier, poor decision making or laziness.  There are no excuses for these reasons and you can’t accept excuses. You have to allow or force the person to be accountable for their actions or lack thereof.

By following these three steps you’ll avoid being taken advantage, being over-accountable and stealing other people’s accountability. More importantly, you’ll of ensure that others are accountable for their own actions and efforts.