Using PR to Drive Sales
in the Current Economy:
Effective Measurement
Determines the Value of PR

by Sabrina Horn, President and CEO of Horn Group, Inc.

A tough sales environment just got a lot tougher. The length of the sales cycle may have doubled. Hot prospects may have deferred their purchasing decisions to the end of the quarter or next year. And the pipeline suddenly looks a lot less promising than it did a couple of months ago.

In addition to all the other cutbacks your company is considering, you’re going to slash marketing, right? Well, before you do anything rash, consider this: public relations, strategically planned and flawlessly executed against specific business goals, can be one of the most effective drivers of sales leads, particularly for high tech companies.

At no other time is PR more valuable as a sales tool than in challenging economic environments like the one we currently face. Turbulent markets present unique opportunities for innovation, innovation that requires strategic communication to build a company’s marketplace and mindshare. Now is the time to be bullish about all the good things that your company is doing to build investor, customer and employee confidence. Sales is clearly the function most imperative to helping your organization survive and thrive. And PR can be the most cost-effective, credible means of helping your sales organization succeed.

PR as a strategic sales weapon.

To those outside marketing, public relations is frequently misunderstood as nothing more than a tactical press release machine. Unfortunately, PR is often an afterthought to strategic planning, and can be out of sync with overall marketing, sales and general business goals. The best PR efforts require creative and intelligent execution, as well as great content and planning. PR should be tightly integrated with marketing; it requires the support, commitment and involvement of the highest levels within the organization, and should be inextricably tied to sales and tangible business objectives. At its most basic level, PR is the presentation of a company’s image to all of its constituents through a variety of means, most frequently the reporting media. PR serves as the conscience of a company, facilitates change and growth, and is fundamental to helping companies build value. Sounds great, but actually getting started with a smart PR program can be challenging.

Base your PR program on measurable business objectives.

First, make sure you have seasoned internal PR executives or hire a good agency with appropriate domain experience. Put them in the same room with your C-level execs, including sales and business development. Ascertain what the company’s financial goals are for the next 12-month period. Calculate how many sales leads it takes to generate one good deal. Determine the length of the sales cycle. Choose potential vertical markets with low-hanging fruit. Identify current and future competitors. Map out upcoming product releases and services that will create or meet market demand.

Once these overall objectives are set, establish a few, very explicit business goals, such as “increase sales leads by 50% in financial services,” or “help generate an additional $25M in revenue in telecommunications over the next 12-month period.” Then devise a strategy and tactical PR plan around these goals that gets management support.

One word of caution: There are also intangible, more generic goals, such as “build market awareness,” and “educate and build credibility in key target markets” that can be central to your public relations efforts. These goals are likewise important, and must also be measured. It is essential to justify your PR investment at the CEO and Board levels.

Measurement techniques: Is PR helping sales?

Each established business or PR objective must be paired with a measurement tool or methodology that tracks its success. These tools and processes should be monitoring PR performance over the course of a program to determine what is working, thereby enabling a company to change gears midstream if needed. Following are a few high-level business goals with accompanying PR strategies and measurement tools for guidance:

A case in point:

The ultimate measurement of a business success is a sale. Typically, PR can help build a pipeline that your sales team must work and close. But in some cases, the output of a PR program can actually bring home a deal. For example, one terrific analyst reference established as a result of a good PR program could help close a customer. Datasweep, a maker of supply chain software based in San Jose, California, did exactly that when an analyst of a major IT research firm provided a large telecommunications company with research and insight that lead to a multi-million dollar order. The ROI speaks for itself.

To provide context for the PR and sales challenge, Datasweep was a 25-person, privately-held start-up at the time with a new management team, a complex technology story, and competition from industry giants claiming similar capabilities. “Public relations is the most strategic marketing investment this company has ever made,” said Matt Holleran, former vice president of marketing. “The positioning work and hard-hitting media and analyst results PR generates each quarter pay for themselves 10x over what we invest. One of the reasons why is because we have been so focused on using PR to drive a handful of sales and business goals.”

Business successes attributed to public relations:

• Overall, PR generated 5x more sales leads than advertising, as measured by Datasweep’s lead tracking system from business press and trade press coverage.
  
  
• Q4 2000 sales were 150% higher than projections.
  
  
• Awards programs and local news coverage helped boost employee morale and recruiting in efforts to triple the size of the sales force.
  
  
• IT and vertical market coverage helped gain additional partners, more visibility, and increased Web site traffic.

Myths of measurement

• Any ink is good ink. Never fall into the trap of quantity over quality. You may get lots of coverage, but is it positive? Does it mirror your current positioning and benefit messages? Less is more. One good paragraph on a major customer win in the The Wall Street Journal will help you reach more business decision makers than a column in a 10-page industry trend piece in Database Programmer’s Journal.
  
  
• PR is free advertising. It is a mistake to equate PR column inches with advertising dollar value. The beauty of PR is that it results in editorial coverage from a journalist that has far more credibility than ad copy any company with cash can write and pay for. Again, advertising dollar value is a quantitative measurement that takes no accounting for quality or credibility.
  
  
• Pay by the hit PR. Compensating PR professionals according to when a story is published is highly inadvisable. Unlike advertising, journalists do not make any guarantees on coverage. It just doesn’t work that way. In PR, the journey really is the reward. To be compensated based on the occurrence of a hit cheapens the strategy, thinking, relationship building and effort baked into helping a reporter put together a balanced story.

Next steps

During these challenging economic times, public relations can be a primary driver of sales opportunities. The key to any successful PR effort is close alignment to tangible business objectives, and measurement of that effort against those objectives. If you’re ready to get started (or start over), begin by determining what your company’s business goals are for the next year.

Sabrina Horn is President and CEO of Horn Group, Inc. She can be reached at info@horngroup.com.