Guide to hire a public relations and communications consulting company.

The selection of a public relations company is a process requiring a number of steps to be taken previously. During this process several aspects should be considered. Following you will be able to find a number of suggestions endorsed by the Spanish Association of Public Relations and Communications Consulting Companies (ADECEC) which we hope to be of help to you when it comes to finding the Public Relations agency that best suits your needs:

1.- Establishing the need: Describe the public relations and communication needs of your company, raise the questions of convenience or inconvenience of external strategic advising and specify whether the need is specific or long term. Find a company that either provides advice, executes, or does both functions at once and define your expectations. Keep in mind that there are generalists and specialized agencies, big, medium and small ones. It is also important to consider whether all the actions will be executed by one consulting company or whether you would rather divide the tasks between several. For example, one would execute the marketing communications (marcom) and another the corporate communications (corpcom). It is also important to consider the geographical presence of the agency.

2.- Paving the way: In order to achieve a most detailed proposal it is important to provide the agencies invited to the contest with a clear list of objectives (whether they are annual or of a specific project). It is also important to provide documentation: a presentation dossier, previous public relations actions, Internet presence, summary of press clippings, etc. At this point you should also elect the agency selection committee whose members could include the Public Relations Director, the Communication Director, the Marketing Director, the Product Managers, the General Manager, etc.

3.- The initial list of the pre-selected (long list): In order to call a contest you should invite agencies of which you have received previous references (from other people in charge of marketing, journalists, etc.). If you only have few sources you can consult the agencies directory at www.adecec.com. As to how many agencies you should call to participate in the contest we recommend you to choose about 6-8 for the first stage, of which only 3 will get selected for the second phase.

4.- Call for competition: The common way to initiate the first contact is over the telephone or by mail. You inform the agencies of the call for competition and you invite them to participate. The agencies interested should respond in writing and should enclose the documents required (for example the credentials or the capabilities profile document). It is also recommended that you develop a questionnaire in which the agencies respond to some of the specific points, for example as to whether there are conflicts of interest with other clients or whether the agency’s executives have a good use of English in order to be able to coordinate themselves easily with the company’s European head office. Don’t hesitate to facilitate the names of the competing companies to the applicants.

5.- The finalists (short list): Once the participation confirmations have been received move on to the preliminary selection of three agencies. Thank the agencies not selected for their participation. Subsequently, facilitate the competition rules to the three pre-selected agencies and hold a meeting in which the agency should present its capabilities. On the same meeting you should present the briefing to the agency. The more specific this is (business culture, information about the objective public, products typology, etc.) the more detailed the proposal will be. It is also recommended that you facilitate an approximate budget in order to provide the finalist agencies with a basis to work on.

6.- Proposal presentation: The oral presentation and the strategic proposal are vital when it comes down to making a decision. Both of them have to reflect the agency’s knowledge of the sector and the products of the company, the objectives, strategies, actions, evaluation of results, budget and the team which will develop the program. Ask the agencies how many hours per month they would work on it (at executive, supervisor and management level). The presentation of the three applying agencies should take place on the same day. This way you avoid possible filtrations of information and the intellectual property of the ideas and documents presented is better preserved. We would like to point out that you should use caution with those agencies who promise results which are not very realistic.

7.- Candidates assessment: The information presented by the candidates must be evaluated based on criteria previously established by the selection committee, as for example objectives, capacity and experience of the team, strategy, creativity, effectiveness and management style, integration of the team, positive chemistry concerning human aspects, estimated results, evaluation procedures, and value of the presentations. Keep your objectivity and don’t forget what will be best for the future of the company.

8.- And the winner is...: Before communicating the result to all the agencies close the contract agreements with the selected agency (payment, deposits, type of expenses, maximum expenses authorized, etc.). The company or institution will sign a standard contract with the selected agency in both of their benefit, a contract which will regulate the basic aspects of the relationship. These basic aspects include, among other topics: confidentiality, intellectual property and the form of cancellation. It is important to properly inform the agencies not selected about the reasons for which they did not win. This task is usually carried out over the phone although it is then followed by a formal communication in which you thank them for their effort and you return their strategic proposal. The documents are property of the agencies.