The problem with this CEO was that he went too deep. Too deep into explaining what his company did, when the article’s focus was not at all about him or his company. He failed to stay on theme.

He also failed to listen, resulting in the reporter’s inability to pose a question.

The CEO simply fire-hosed the interviewer. The result? A one-word mention. This, after talking non-stop for an hour.

A basic interview rule was breached: The interviewee is there to service the interviewer, not vice-versa.

As PR pros, we have to remind our clients that the story/article must come first. We are there to service the press. We are there to service the story. We should be doing everything we can to help the writer write the best story they possibly can.

An interview is not a platform to sermonize how great your “solution” is. Wikipedia editors who are gifted with well-developed draconian noses for smelling puffery, call this kind of puffery “peacocking.”

Expert sources are sought after by the press. Since most stories are about people and not companies, we need experts to humanize our pitches. So-called “domain experts,” like to show off their expertise, more so if they had to suffer through long classroom lectures to earn a coveted certification. And when this happens the interview can suffer. The expert source goes too deep. He goes subterranean. He images himself a professor standing before a lectern.

The interview was about the gains in speed, agility, and convenience that can be achieved by a flying car. The pontificator instead chose to talk about the physics and mathematics involved in making the car fly.
He got too myopic, and he failed to listen. He was the expert, after all.

But he didn’t service the call. A grade ‘F’ showing appeared on the final published report.

This disease is something I call Vendor Myopia.

Vendor nearsightedness happens naturally in most closely knit communities. It happens within families, teams, clubs, clicks and clans, just as it happens within companies.

How does this happen?  It happens because closely knit groups tend to develop their own private language that can easily alienate outsiders.

It’s a condition developed by too much familiarity among employees sharing common corporate messages that circulate for years inside of walled gardens with little ventilation or outside influence.

Jargon & Acronyms:  these are the children of Vendor Myopia.

So when conducting interviews with people outside of your immediate company circle or industry, be aware that these outsiders– people who you need to evangelize to, who you need to buy into your products and services or philosophy —  are likely hearing your company messages and POV for the very first time.

So you need to temper your communications accordingly.  And make the assumption that outsiders have little to no prior knowledge about your company.

Don’t get caught with Vendor Myopia disease.

A big challenge for PR people is how well they surf a news wave. Like the waves crashing off Rincon, Puerto Rico, news cycles break suddenly and dissipate gradually.

Tidal-wave news is easy to spot: Michael Jackson, BP oil rupture, Japan’s tsunami, bin Laden, Sony and Michael’s data breach… all tidal waves easy to spot. (I wanted to add the Royal Wedding to this list but we all saw that one coming ashore miles away.)

And here is where the savvy PR person can show his/her surfing talent. It begins with recognition. Real work begins once you spot the sustaining power of certain news stories. Preparing for these in advance of their occurrence correlates to another kind of preparedness: crisis communications.

But really now, most companies have no need for CC.  My small tech clients don’t build nuclear plants or food or pills that can actually kill people. Tidal-wave stories need another kind of preparedness: educating your vendor/client to the PR pitch process.

Preparing for the big news cycle is this: the savvy PR person will know that there is always a Day 2.

We cannot predict the Day 1, when front headlines cry for attention. The opportunity is realizing that reporters will be more desperate on Day 2 to find new angles and expert sources; they’ll be most receptive to your pitch.

And the almighty pitch is where it’s at. How can you link your vendor-client into the big picture? What new analysis or opinion or conclusion can be drawn from yesterday’s headline story?

I bring up CC because it has a lesson to teach. Your client spokespeople should be ready to go for Day 2 of tidal waves. They need to be told that daily reporters demand immediate action and response. Press deadlines are yesterday.

And vendors should give their PR people direct access to key spokespeople with no ‘pre-approval’ delay by gatekeepers.  Trust is a factor, of course. The vendor needs to respect the PR process and trust the PR person. (Of course PR people must first earn that trust.)

A sense of urgency has to prevail, and PR people must prevail upon the expert source. It starts with education, trust, and some media training.

# # #

The first place I tend to look is at a company’s press release. When these are distributed via a wire service, the contact is always there, but for some reason a lot of vendors delete it once it gets posted. Why, I don’t know.

About the best example I’ve seen among vendors for addressing the big peeve is Enterworks (not a client). I’ve never seen a vendor care so much about ‘servicing’ a press query. And service is what it’s all about. They write, “We welcome media and analyst inquiries. We respect the value of your limited time, and will prove it with quick, concise, and substantive responses.”

Now that’s the service model to follow.

Can the same thing be said of Press Releases? Yes, but their fate is worse because PRels cannot be sold the day after. Old news is just that. So given that PRels have less value the day after, why should companies, even old stalwarts like MS that typically send out from 3 to 5 missives every day, bother to put out a PRel?

Many reasons, all of them obvious. One less apparent reason for sending out PRels may be one of the best, if not the least considered.

Press releases serve as a running commentary on your company, marking milestones, shedding light on the past, creating a historical portrait into a collective whole that gives coherence to the present. We can look back and marvel at what transpired over the past year (or years). There certainly is value in an archive of press releases, so keep putting them out.

I am kicking myself for not being more insistent – I am never insistent with clients: I make my case and if Mr. Client doesn’t accept my case (what do I know, after all, after doing this for 20 years?) then I let the case drop. But in this case I wish I had had more nerve. The client was invited to speak at a conference. His first.  A big deal for a small company.  Always issue a PRel if your exec is invited to speak publicly. If you want to consider yourself expert, then you must show the world you are an expert. And one needs to keep proving to the world that you are indeed an expert. Repetition is good.

Here are my new rules on this topic:

1)      PRels are not sacred cows. Treat them like Kleenex. Use many, then toss aside.

2)      Find ways to leave the Company out of the picture; make it secondary.

3)      Say something that is Not about Yourself

4)      Take a survey and publish its findings

5)      Boldly announce a position. To have a position you got to take a position.

For example:  Websense did a brilliant PRel this month when it issued one with the headline:  “Five Security Predictions for 2011.”  The media world responded, showering it with attention. Bravo.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this company, making wagons since 1917, have their CEO Robert Pasin, grandson of the founder, be featured in “The Boss” column of the Sunday New York Times (7/25/10)*.

Old school does not mean resistant to change. Chicago-based Radio Flyer saw competitors roll in with plastic-molded alternatives. They didn’t take it sitting down. Well, they did. They sat in people’s living rooms and listened “very closely” to customers: “…sometimes what they say they want and what they really want are different,” said Pasin. They rolled out a loser before rolling out a competitive winner: a plastic version with ATV wheels and two folding seats. I’ve seen these. They’re nice, but call me old fashion for liking the Real McCoy steel wagons that make such a noisy clanging racket when pulled down concrete sidewalks in the city of Detroit where I was happy enough to survive. * “The Wagons Keep Rolling” http://twitterurl.net//duu5

You are hurting for sales, who isn’t?  Having a direct sales setup severely limits your ability to go national and beyond. Smiling & dialing can only go so far. What you need, if you are an IT software or services vendor, is feet on the street. You need to cultivate a reseller channel. You need an army of arms & legs that will do the lion’s share of selling, training and deploying of your IT solution. The big boys have thousands of channel partners spread worldwide. They get the picture. They know they can’t go it alone. Yes, you give up profit margin but you make it up in volume in return.

Why more vendors don’t go this route beats me.

PR needs to be an active player in any channel partner program. PR must reach out to the many pub outlets that cater to this association-rich world of service providers, VARs, MSPs, and MSSPs.  But most vendors fail to do the minimum with respect to PR and partners. They forget to publicly announce their multi-tiered partner programs, or cite margins and support options. Partners will jump through rings of fire to get publicity for themselves. Partners give vendors credibility. I believe in exploiting partners, and treat them like reference customers. The better they do, the better your company will fare.

Without fail, the BP oil spill will lay waste to the oyster beds and fish industry permanently along the Gulf shore. There is no solution for it. They should take the green they robbed from the environs and replace it with green capital. They should subsidize shell fish farmers and related businesses for 10 years worth of lost income and pay it in one lump sum; an early retirement package for those whose livelihoods depend on healthy coastal waters. This is phase one. Phase two to five should repeat the same compensation package for the other major industries that will be wiped out by this looming enviro catastrophe.

Of course BP will never do a proactive act of kindness and goodwill, preferring instead to drag out multiple class-action suits that will cost them more millions in the end. Unfortunately ‘the end’ will not be seen for another 20 years before court proceedings are settled, then BP will appeal, buying them another 10 years. By then, all those who suffered from this mess will be most likely dead, at which time their children will begin showing signs of liver and kidney damage from pollutants that have seeped into the food and water supply. What a frick’n mess.