Don’t Strikeout – 8 Tips to Make the Perfect Pitch

I’ve worked in the ‘real-world’ for four weeks now and my skin has already grown thicker. A large part of B2B communications consists of pitching to the media via e-mails, twitter messages, and this method called calling. The phone may remain a foreign concept for many young people but it serves as a pivotal tool to build relationships with journalists. So, from a young PR working perspective, here are 8 tips for successful phone pitching.

Humor me - I love the M's and his name is Washburn

1. Do your research about the client. Know the ins and outs of your client, so if the journalist asks you further questions, you can elaborate and provide adequate background. Also understand your client’s and competitor’s impact on the industry, and how this shapes the landscape of your industry on a whole.
2. Research the journalist and publication. Secondly, conduct research about the journalists and their publication. Get a feel for what kind of pieces they write. What interests them? Who do they choose to write about? Have they covered stories about your client’s competitors? Know all the answers to these questions before ringing them up. I almost called a journalist to pitch a story then realized they had covered the same story from a different perspective a month beforehand. I would have felt ignorant and quite embarrassed if I hadn’t looked into his previously written articles.
3. Form an angle based on research. Once you grasp the journalist’s personality, you have the ability to contextualize what they may write about based on your client’s story.  That’s the most important element to a news-worthy item: a story. Luckily, it’s the journalist’s job not yours to come up with a story, but you can add an angle to the facts that caters to their specific interests.
4. Make a script: Don’t become a robot by reading a script word for word. I find it helpful to jot down some important points from my research to  guide me along the conversation.
5. Provide sources. In the book “Made to Stick” the authors mention a successful newspaper in a small town. The key to its thriving circulation: names, names, names. A story only exists because of sources, so make it easier on the journalists by proving valuable sources with interesting information. And no, a PR person probably isn’t the best source.
6. Build a relationship. It’s not rocket science – it’s a relationship and no relationship is formulaic. Don’t just view the journalists as a means to an end but consider the conversation a first step to a long and hopefully fruitful relationship. Even if they don’t publish a story, establishing a meaningful relationship can lead to other networks and you can build from there.
7. Take a breath. This is something I often forgot to do. Once I took a breath, and a miraculous thing happened: I allowed room for the journalist to speak, which led to an actual conversation rather than me just ‘pitching’ at them.
8. Follow up. Following up with relevant information can act as the deciding factor to whether they will publish the piece or not. By discovering from the phone conversation what part of the story they are interested in, you can offer details and or sources that will help them write the story.

Usually a post consists of 10 tips but with only four weeks of work under my belt, I’m at a loss for two more tips. Do you have any helpful suggestions? Any thing that has worked for you from a PR perspective? Journalists, how can we help you out? Any feedback is much appreciated – I’m still learning!

Special thanks to Matt (@Mstansberry) and Katie Stansberry (@KatieJ201), who in February 2010 briefed our PR class about how to pitch stories to journalists.

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