At TechComms, we believe building strong relationships with our clients is how we do our best work. For PR professionals, there is no greater success than working alongside a client to help them achieve their PR goals. It’s a feeling akin to winning a hard-fought match where you know your team has come together to do the impossible. Our team works incredibly hard to deliver great results and impact positive business outcomes for our clients. We are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together—award-winning campaigns and ongoing PR success.
Today, we’re sharing what goes into making a client relationship work well. It’s not as easy as it looks, we can assure you of this! It takes time and patience, and a little science, too. We’re talking about chemistry; that elusive, but critical element that can make or break a successful client relationship. You can’t fake it or manufacture it. And, if it’s not there, our advice is to politely part ways and wish them well. They will find a partner more suited for their needs and you will free yourself to find the kind of clients you can easily and authentically connect with.
Here’s what we’ve learned after 20 years of being a client-centric B2B Tech PR partner to some of the world’s leading-edge software, cloud, cybersecurity, ecommerce, IT, unified communications and telecommunications companies.
The essential list for maintaining excellent client relationships:
- Be hyper-responsive. Always be one step ahead. Anticipate your clients’ needs before they ask, offer suggestions, and respond to their requests quickly. We’re talking in hours, not days.
- Offer expert counsel. Collaborate with your clients on strategy, provide direction, recommendations, insights, and intel to lead their PR efforts to a successful outcome.
- Respect your clients’ Point of view. We might be the PR experts, but they are the experts of their company. They deserve our full attention, active listening, and genuine interest in what their vision is and the strategic direction they’re planning.
- Practice patience. Adapting to whatever the client needs is vital. Internal goals are continuously changing, and stakeholder expectations change quickly. Be ready to pivot at a moment’s notice. This is where having a Plan B, C, D can be helpful!
- Stay on top of everything client related. Always share press coverage in real-time, where possible. Know when big announcements are coming up, as well as company events and milestones. Show you’re paying attention and keeping track of everything relevant to your clients’ PR needs.
- Key points to avoid when building long-lasting client relations:
- Take care not to overpromise. It’s important to be realistic and manage your clients’ expectations. Try not to overcommit to delivering results or promising media/analyst placements.
- Don’t lose sight of the budget. Avoid scenarios where you’re spending all the budget and then needing to ask for more. Manage the budget wisely, and if it looks like you’ll overspend, alert the client immediately to what is going on and why this may be happening. Clients are perfectly reasonable so long as they’re in the loop.
- Never make a client chase you for work/results. There is nothing worse than a client having to reach out to you to follow up on something you have agreed to own and execute on. Keep your client up-to-date on everything you’re working on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. There is no such thing as overcommunicating when it comes to getting work done for your client.
- Avoid overwhelming their inbox. Clients are busy people juggling lots of to-dos so we need to be mindful of their time. Yes, we need to keep them informed (see point above), but we need to be respectful of their work boundaries and their time limits. Pro tip: Set a time of day to send an update email along with any questions in advance with your client.
- Don’t miss on achieving the PR goal. With clear direction and a set strategy from your clients, it’s critical that PR pros stay focused on meeting clients’ goals. No getting sidetracked with other long-term goals that are outside of the agreed upon PR scope of work.
What are clients looking for in a PR agency partner?
In our experience, we’ve found clients are looking for a B2B tech PR partner that can be a true extension of their team. Our job is to forge positive relationships with media and other key stakeholders (analysts/influencers) on their behalf and this requires us to understand the market and the media landscape specific to the client. Being a trusted and experienced resource helps with building the necessary relationships with senior management to coordinate media and analyst interviews and briefings.
Bottom line: We love our clients and are grateful to them for trusting us with their PR programmes. We’d welcome the opportunity to share our expertise in client relations with you. Contact us on info@techcomms.co.uk.
