However, most of the people they meet know a good potential customer, or will meet someone who is in the future. This means that networking contacts should be treated primarily as potential sources of referrals — not immediate sales.

Thanks

Last year I dropped a client purely because I was just sick of the attitude. Nothing was ever good enough, he was always “over” everything, every phone call was met with a sigh and, the words “please” and “thank you” were foreign to his vocabulary, and after a few phone calls that began with a parental, “ANDY, How many times have I told you…” I knew that was it. That and coming back to me with smaller and smaller budgets when I knew the value of the pr I was delivering was at least 4x what he was currently paying. I knew what he was like before I took him on as a client, but found the artists he managed to be so colorful, fun and pr perfect, that I dove in.

After two years, it wasn’t enough and I diplomatically said I thought it’d be best if I no longer represent his company. (I later found out that there were many others with the same complaint.) It was a sickening decision, as I needed the cashflow, but at the same time, a great relief, as it freed up time to seek and work with less prickly, better paying clients.

While I’m a good all-round publicist–give me a project, I’ll see where it fits–I have indeed focussed, and am now an expert in my particular niche, which is gay and lesbian media, worldwide. It does indeed make life easier, as there are few experts in this area (and if they are they are marketing/statistics companies) and I’m not competing with major PR firms who’ve already got mainstream media locked up.

And thanks for the bit about fees. Yes, stand by your fees. Scary to do, at times, but rather have fewer clients paying a proper fee, than having to spread myself so thin to cover more clients. In my book, the work takes the same effort. It’s very difficult to scale back to the constraints of a tiny budget and to have to let a great PR opportunity go because the client’s budget wont’ cover the work. (I usually go for it, regardless, just to score.)

Enough. Just wanted to say, thanks for the post. Now I say NO and the minute I do my energy doubles, knowing I’m free to go for the perfect client.

Andy Reynolds
Popular Publicity
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andyreynoldsnyc