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The PR Council published a Buyer’s Guide to Modern PR this week. It includes three documents telling clients and procurement teams how to buy PR. The headlines:
1. “Buy outcomes not activity.”
2. “Expertise is the product.”
3. “Separate price from payment.”
This is the sellers handing the buyers a manual explaining why the buyers are doing it wrong. It’s bold and overdue. But here’s my confession: I rarely go in on RFPs.
Not because I’m above them. I run a one-person consultancy, and I can’t afford to be above anything. But they’re too corporate. The whole apparatus of RFPs works best for big agencies with pitch departments. Consider the 40-page response template. Consider the procurement spreadsheet asking for “blended hourly rates.” Run the math as a small firm: Three weeks of unpaid work for a one-in-20,000 shot at a client who chose you on price. Might as well just buy a lottery ticket with homework attached.
The PR Council is offering good guidance, as far as it goes. But it’s guidance for an industry most of my clients will never hire. I work with the good causes — NGOs, foundations, the people trying to save the world on a budget. Still, before you assume the nonprofit world is better at this: It isn’t. The conservatism wears different clothes. Corporate buyers are conservative about process; nonprofit buyers are conservative about being seen to spend. The overhead aversion is real, and it is vicious. A foundation will spend millions on programs and then balk at a comms budget that would make those programs work. All because somewhere a board member is terrified of a headline about charity money going to “PR.” Never mind that the alternative is doing great work that nobody hears about. Worse still, the work you funded falls over for lack of further funding. Don’t promote it, and you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
This is the irony the guide doesn’t get to. The organizations that most need sharp communications — the ones with the least margin for error and the most hostile information environments — are the ones least willing to buy it properly. The corporate world at least has procurement departments to reform. The nonprofit world has boards, and boards run more on vibes and fear.
Still, next time a foundation asks me for my rate for “senior consultant, 60 hours,” I can point to the industry’s own trade body and say: That’s not how this works. Buy the outcome. The outcome is people knowing your work exists. When it comes to expertise being the product, you’re not buying 60 hours of my time. You’re buying the 25 years that make those 60 hours worth paying for.
Lastly, when it comes to “separating price from payment,” I’m a huge fan. Pricing reflects the value received. Payment terms are a separate negotiation. For a big agency, late payment is an annoyance. For a single-person consultancy, cash flow isn’t optional. A 90-day payment term is a client saying, “fund my working capital for a quarter.” So, yes. Negotiate the price. That’s commerce. But the payment clock is not a second discount. Indeed, paying your suppliers promptly is, in my experience, the very best way to ensure that you will get our best work.
If you’re considering paying for PR or strategic communications advice, I hope that was helpful.
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Matt Davis is a strategic communications consultant.
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