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Is it PR’s job to drive sales?
By Justin Goldsborough | July 27th, 2010
This question came up in a new business presentation last week. We were discussing whether PR should be responsible for creating awareness and buzz, actually driving sales or both.
There was a restaurant operator and a director of marketing in the room. The operator said PR — and marketing btw, because he viewed them as one in the same — without a doubt, must drive sales. Otherwise, what good are their efforts to his restaurants?
I totally understand that point of view. The operator is charged with driving sales at his locations. He’s charged with selling product and driving traffic. Those are his objectives.
The director of marketing said his team’s job is to generate buzz. We talked about the Old Spice campaign. He said that of you walk down the deodorant aisle at the store, see Old Spice and think of the Old Spice Guy videos, then Old Spice’s PR and Marketing teams did their job.
I totally understand his point of view. PR and Marketing are first and foremost generally tasked with raising awareness and creating product and brand visibility via impressions. But they aren’t the Sales department or the frontline, customer-facing employees. Isn’t driving sales their job?
So what’s the answer. I think it depends on:
- Overall business and communications goals
- Specific campaign goals
- How the company views PR and Marketing — separate or IMC
That said, I’m still not sure exactly what the right answer is. What do you think?
July 28th, 2010 at 6:09 am
This is a really interesting question, Justin. I find myself asking that same question every day in my new job. Last week I started working for a Fortune 500 restaurant company as their first ever social media manager. They have never delved into social media or online PR before. It’s kind of anyone’s guess as to where this position will go right now, but I keep asking myself: “How will I know when I’m successful?” Will it be by the buzz I generate and the communities I build, or will it be determined in sales - because that’s the restaurant industry’s bottom line.
I guess I’ll just have to let you know which benchmark I achieve first. Then I’ll act like I had it planned that way all along.
July 28th, 2010 at 6:17 am
What a great opportunity for you, Lindsay. Best of luck in the new job. I’d say the most important thing would be to set benchmarks for yourself based on company and communications goals so you can show your progress and make sure you get credit for the buzz and communities.
The “drive sales” question is a tough one and not sure there is a universal answer. But if PR wants to have an impact on brand perception and show we deserve more budget, we are are going to have to show some tie to sales. When the majority of execs make budget decisions, it’s all about the bottom line.
JG
July 28th, 2010 at 6:26 am
I think to try and delegate “who’s job it is” at this stage of the game is a bit outdated.
The truth is, it’s everyone in the organization’s job to drive sales.
If someone has a bad experience with the customer service department, you’re sure to hear about it online. Which means the PR department (or whoever is running their social media) is going to have to save face on the internet. If they give a “we appreciate your concern…” type answer it’s more likely to piss someone off than be helpful… which then gives the marketers a headache because they want to use online to push more products… causing a vicious circle of finger pointing, until eventually the company says “Why did we want to do this online thing anyways?”
What businesses need to realize is that Online marketing is not a top down operation. Social media especially is a lateral market, which means people share and buy only from those they trust. In this case it’s up to the PR department to make sure they’re speaking on the customer’s level and building trust. Ask questions, be entertaining, break out of the “hey look at what we’re doing for you” mentality.
Nobody likes feeling like they’re being talked down to.
Want some really good examples of this? Check out what Coca Cola and Dr Pepper do… Huge corporations… speaking at their customer’s level.
July 28th, 2010 at 6:32 am
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July 29th, 2010 at 4:35 am
Justin, thanks for sharing this post the other day on Twitter.
Yes, it’s PR’s job to ‘drive’ sales. But to smooth that road a bit (I can just hear PR folks now “I am NOT sales or marketing, I AM strategy and messaging!”) I like to position it this way…
Everything the PR does should be focused on positioning the organization in a manner which people feel connected, understood, listen to, etc. Those actions will help to, dare I say, “grease the skids” for sales.
For example, if I am a local chemical company and I have people protesting our company, etc. as the PR pro, it’s my job to get with the protestors, find out what’s going on, work with them to come to some mutual agreement. Sure, they will most likely never buy, but they will also stop driving other people to question why they are doing business with said company.
It’s what Thomas Harris refers to as a “pass” strategy in his book “value-Added PR.”
We can see the same thing in a social world. If people are speaking negatively about products/services, PR folks should work with them to find out what the issues are. This could potentially lead to sales from either the complainers or the people who were being held back by them (WOM is another aspect PR folks need to understand).
Now, for the flat out, “yes, PR drive sales” answer. If a company is integrated, usually a campaign will include all tactical aspects of marcom/PR to create buzz that generates sales. That is goal #1…otherwise, why waste the budget? Unless, of course, there is SO much budget available that PR folks can focus on long-term strategies like branding.
And in this economy, PR folks better get comfy with the notion of driving sales. Every day clients ask about sales (via digital marketing, PR, social media, etc.)… if you can’t help them, they’ll move on to someone who can.
It’s not the sales department’s job to drive awareness or buzz, that’s marketing/PR’s job…their job is to close the sale (i.e. ink the deal) by working with the customer/client. (And often they work with marketing/PR for information, etc. they need during that process. It really depends on how long the sales cycle is needed and if there is a nurturing phase).
Beth Harte
Serengeti Communications
@bethharte
July 29th, 2010 at 5:14 am
It’s a great question and lot of good comments here. One guiding principle I’ve adopted is this: “PR should be as closely correlated to sales as possible. Impressions are interesting, clicks are better, sales are best.”
July 29th, 2010 at 6:56 am
@Tommyismyname You are right on about the lateral market. That said, isn’t it PR’s job as the online conversation facilitator and moderator to lead development of an internal governance team that can actually respond to issues raised through social media so PR doesn’t have to just say “sorry for the inconvenience?”
Big part of this that most companies skip is internal education.
JG
July 29th, 2010 at 7:01 am
@Beth So much great insight in your comment. Thanks very much for making us think :).
So what I take from your hypothetical and Harris’ “pass” definition is that PR’s value add sometimes has to be measured through supposed correlation and qualitative examples?
For instance, Old Spice does social media component of campaign. Sales rise by 107%. Old Spice determines that is somewhat due to Old Spice Guy videos based on timing and anecdotal feedback. Right?
One other very valid point I’ve heard some mention is that PR’s job is to meet the objectives it sets to achieve communications and business goals. Like that philosophy, which brings us back to the sales point — every company has a goal of driving sales. So PR has to be trying to achieve it. Don’t we?
JG
July 31st, 2010 at 5:21 am
@Frank I think you’re on to something there. Sort of an awareness, engagement, action cycle. Perhaps that’s a simple, high-level way to explain it to clients. Have you used that method before, applied it to a scorecard?
JG
August 3rd, 2010 at 8:14 pm
G’day Justin, I have a problem with the framework that results in this question. Clearly for example, PR in Not-for-Profits and Government will rarely be about sales, to give a glib answer.
In all organisations, PR assists to deliver the strategic and business plan outcomes of the organisation. But then, that’s what everyone does and what every action should help achieve.
Trying to define what PR (or marketing or HR or whatever) does outside of that context only limits the potential contribution those with communications skills can make. If a salesperson tells me that buzz will lead to sales and asks for help, then I will use my talents to create buzz. But if we don’t have a specific salesperson within the organisation because of structure/size or whatever, I have to have a close eye on how I contribute to direct sales, if that’s part of the business plan.
It is very likely that big retailers will have direct PR links in one department to sales and in another to investors. It is less likely that a professional services organisation will have any direct link between PR and sales, or to partner communications.
The knowledge, experience, skill sets and abilities that everyone brings to the organisation should be used in the best way possible to achieve strategic and business plan goals. Other approaches just result in success barriers.
In other words, there are no “one size fits all” answers in any field of work.
Cheers, geoff
August 11th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Justin - I agree that the end result of all communications activity needs to be profit-related. I don’t agree that all our activity has to “drive sales.” To position it in that frame, we’d need to discard ethical practice, reputation management, issues management, internal communications, government affairs, investor relations, etc.
In marketing mix modeling, we can examine multiple inputs to the sales process — customer experience being typically the most influential of future sales — and quantify the likely impact on revenues and expenses of each. But claiming (as a blanket statement) that PR MUST drive sales overstates our potential impact.
It depends on the industry, the influence of mainstream and social media on the sales process and customer experience. The Outputs-Outtakes-Outcomes method might yield some insights — we certainly need to move beyond mere outputs (news releases out, conversations participated in, impressions, inbound calls versus stories placed, etc.) to communication related objectives (which many of us call outtakes) - share of discussion/voice compared to competitors, message congruency between outreach tactics and resulting stories, conversations, etc., qualified prospects from Web and other channels, etc. We don’t close sales - that’s not our job. We help create awareness, build understanding and support sales tactics. We don’t (in this context) drive sales and shouldn’t be expected to. We should be expected to help create an environment conducive to sales activities, whether regulatory, community-oriented, internally supported or investor-related.
Sean
@Commammo
p.s., thanks to @jgombita for flagging this conversation!