Focus on Outcomes – a PR Perspective

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By Phoebe Netto

Recently, we asked Phoebe Netto, founder of Pure Public Relations, a PR firm started 12 years ago that focuses on outcomes, not output, to tell us her views on return on outcomes in PR. Here is her perspective:

I have discovered an unspoken - and unfortunate - rule during my time in agency land: the longer it takes, the better. The thinking goes that the more people, hours, and meetings, the better. More time equals more money, which can only be a good thing. Right?

The sad fact is that most PR agencies are financially incentivised to take the longest possible route. This would result in meetings about meetings, WIPs about WIPs, and more hours ‘researching’ than spent doing the hard work of getting stories published.

The client would be charged for the time, even if that time was wasted on an un-newsworthy media release sent to time-poor journalists who would never even consider running a story from it.

A lot of agencies use timesheets because it's easy. It takes the pressure away from results, and towards the mentality of: ‘but look, we tried’. The problem is, this mindset doesn’t help the client’s bottom line and it certainly doesn't build their credibility, reputation and awareness.

Instead of paying an agency for their time, clients should be paying agencies for their experience, expertise, ability to execute strategic advice, and knowing what direction to take the work. They should also be paying them to determine the best way to spend their time, which involves knowing when to say no.

Saying no to timesheets

In my own PR agency, we don’t do timesheets. Our clients don't get timesheets, and I don't request them from my team. Instead, we focus on KPIs and outcomes. If I take 10 minutes to get a great result, that doesn’t downplay my ability or experience.

In fact, speed simply reveals the years of experience spent getting really good, and really efficient, at whatever task is at hand. And equally, if I have to spend three times what we scoped out for a client in the initial costing, then that's my concern. The client shouldn’t be charged for a lack of speed.

With a timesheet model, saying no simply means reducing my billable hours and reducing my income potential. With an outcomes-based model, saying no is part of the service.

Plus, timesheets ignore the reality of the way human brains naturally work. There’s a lot of creative thinking that naturally takes place outside of work hours, but how could an agency possibly timesheet an idea that came about on a run or in the shower or while watching TV?

Humans are flexible and adaptable, but timesheets would have you believe that any and all ideas must be rigidly executed in the office during the workday. In a creative industry, that’s simply not how our minds work.

Switching from timesheets to outcomes

For those looking to make the shift away from timesheets, first of all, take a step back and look at the ultimate outcomes you’re trying to achieve for your clients.

Allow yourself to think about the time that's involved, but don't make that the client’s issue - that's yours to think about.

Consider the level of experience and strategic advice that's required to complete your work and put a value on that. You might factor your time into the calculations but present it to the client based on outcomes and the results you'll be bringing to the table.

Set the right KPIs for your team so that client success is their success. If it takes your team a mere 15 minutes to get a brilliant result, that’s not because it was a fluke or because they’re lazy. That brilliant result is actually a result of many years of hard work and experience to know how best to spend that 15 minute.

Ultimately, measuring every single second of your day in seven or 15-minute increments simply doesn’t make sense, especially if those hours don’t match up with results. It’s high time we started focusing on results instead.

About the author:

Phoebe Netto is the founder of Pure Public Relations, a PR firm started 12 years ago that focuses on outcomes, not output – it’s pure and simple. Pure Public Relations offers media relations, issues management and communication services, and has a reputation for securing excellent media coverage and an impressive track record for issues management. purepublicrelations.com.au