We are asked on a regular basis to help generate sales on behalf of our clients through PR. It seems that our role as brand builders has changed and the time has now come to see ourselves as sales people.  If clients or business colleagues are now expecting PR to generate direct revenues, should PR consultants be selling their services based on the specific agreement to generate sales with the traditional brand guardian role coming second?

PR is now seen as an integral part of the marketing mix for many businesses. However, the methods of measurement tied into PR are often based on statistics that have very little to do with what the business is trying to achieve, such as amount of coverage, the tone and message. How effective a barometer are these and do they help the bottom line of the business? For example, will the amount of coverage achieved actually help increase sales or acquire new customers?

Should your PR be able to demonstrate a clear ROI on the budgets spent against true business objectives in the same way that other business departments have to? And should your agency’s success be measured on the same basis? Let us know your thoughts……

In the majority of organisations there is a distinct disconnect between the Sales and Marketing functions. Sales do not understand how Marketing is helping them, and Marketing feels pulled away from their brand building role to support Sales. Isn’t it about time that the Sales and Marketing functions begin to work closer together to reach their joint business objectives?

Unlike many blogs that exist on the Internet, this is not a soapbox for us to stand up and tell the world how great we are. Instead, we want to create a forum to discuss the issues and challenges that affect communication and marketing professionals.

We want to explore and understand the challenges you face reaching your business objectives and goals, both internally with your colleagues and business partners, as well as externally with your agencies. We want to learn from you, hear what works, what drives you nuts, and what areas need to be improved on?

We will be updating the topics for discussion every two weeks and look forward to reading your thoughts on the issues posted. In addition, if there are any specific topics that you would like to raise please feel free to get in touch, and I am sure we will be able to use them as content for discussion in the future.

We hope you will actively participate on this blog and we look forward to reading your thoughts.