Archive for April, 2007

It’s amazing, really.  Meet expectations and you’re fine.  Exceed them … you’re in great shape.  Fall short of them … Well, we all know what happens then.

But at the same time, whenever an agency representative brings up the issue of "managing expectations," a client’s inclination is to think, "Oh, baby!  Here we go!  This is where the agency tells me I can’t expect much."

That is NOT the kind of expectation you want to meet!

I had a recent conversation with a client, to whom I said, following his instructions to us, "We will try our very best."  It was a sincere comment to him.  We intended to give the initiative our best efforts to achieve success. 

He responded by saying, "That’s what people say when they are trying to prepare you for disappointment."

So how do we manage expectations without sounding like we are offering a protective disclaimer on behalf of our firm?  And just as important a question … Have we brought this upon ourselves?

The truth is those two questions are connected.  We’ve all been around agencies staffed by people who spend just as much time and energy trying to make mediocre results look good as they spend actually trying to secure results.  And so how can we be trusted when we introduce the "managing expectations" conversation, if we lack credibility going in?

The only solution I see for this is to be brutally honest, not only with our clients, but with ourselves, about how we are performing on every single campaign.  If we do a great job, then sure, let’s make the results look as positive as possible to our clients.  But if we don’t get the job done, then we have to be up-front with those same clients and say, "We didn’t accomplish what you asked us to accomplish."

If we as an industry can hold to that standard, I think you’ll agree that the topic of managing expectations will be a much more useful, not to mention more meaningful, conversation with our clients.

What do you think?  Let me know: glenn@ruderfinn.co.il

After a career in public relations that began in New York with one of the world’s largest firms, continued with a New York technology agency, and included a move to the client side, where I served as the head of PR for a dot-com (beenz.com) and for a large telecom equipment manufacturer (Ciena Corp.), I decided to leave it all behind and move to Israel. Who would have ever thought it would be in Israel that my career would truly blossom. But it makes sense, because Israel has incredible things to offer the world.

As the managing director of Ruder Finn Israel, I come across companies and organizations large and small, all of whom have one thing in common: They know they have something cool, but they need help telling their world about it. For some, they want every living person to know about them; for others, they want to communicate with a very specific audience.

And that’s where we come in – communicating promise.

But there’s another side to the story. Public Relations has gotten a bad rap through the years, sometimes deserved and sometimes not. But I see it as my task to build Ruder Finn Israel in a way so every single employee, client, partner and supplier, not to mention the public at-large, will say, "That Ruder Finn Israel … not only are they good at what they do, they are also good people who really want to do what is right."

This blog will discuss all aspects of the Israeli public relations industry, how my experiences in the U.S. have shaped my view of the industry today and stories that illustrate how I believe this industry needs to run to gain the respect of the public. After all, how can we communicate on behalf of our clients if those to whom we are speaking can’t trust us?

I encourage you to check in here often, as I expect to post regularly, based on the day-to-day goings-on at Ruder Finn Israel.