Why blind dates really work - in PR as much as real life

Swiping left is, as we all know (if only by meme, not personal experience) from dating app Tinder; if?you're not interested, you just swipe left; if you see potential for whatever it is you’ve gone online for, you swipe right and try to see if you’re a match.

So of course, the people you never contact don’t know you were never interested. Is that a bit harsh? Well, we can't all be perfect fits for each other. In fact, in the dating world, it's likely few people actually are.

There’s more than one parallel here for when a company goes out to market to choose a new PR agency. It absolutely involves some potentially time-wasting encounters—but can of course also involve finding the right match and a lot of contentment.

I am the first to acknowledge that we're not the right match for every B2B hi-tech software and services firm out there. ?In fact, I want to save as both a lot of unnecessary heartache, cost, time, etc., as the wrong expectations in Love and Comms and Press and Analyst Outreach will bring equally unhappy situations.

The reality is, it’s hard choosing a PR agency. We have a very specific way of doing PR, so we're not for everybody, as we're all senior PRs and senior journalists, with many tens of years of experience between us; editors know that they're getting from us what they're getting from us, and we've been successfully doing it this way for nearly 30 years.

But there are many fish in the sea. To push my analogy along a bit, PR agencies may be great at winning business by looking amazing and sounding like your dream partner; but it’s the day-to-day reality and delivering on the promise that’s the hard part.

‘Must be over six foot as I love to wear my heels’

To be honest, I try to avoid the Tinder part of seeking business as much as I can. I’m delighted to say that our most successful and consistent way of winning new business is word of mouth… you might call it the blind date way?

?Just as in Life, this is where someone who knows and rates you, recommends you. And if someone says you two would be the perfect fit, well, surely, we’re halfway there. But if I were to do a dating profile, this is what our past ‘dates’ say about us:

• They really know what they're doing
• They are very safe pair of hands, they will drive your PR, they'll do the heavy lifting—but if something doesn't feel right to them, they're competent enough to tell you and steer you towards something that will work
• You won't have to explain your tech stack, so you’ll be up and running in a flash
• They'll tell your story in a way that your buyers will set up and listen to
• They're a bit bossy. But in a nice way!
• You'll never rue the day you met them. In fact, you'll wonder how you ever did without them.

These are all genuine quotes from clients that were recommended Sarum to their friends and contacts, and would have to be in our dating profile if we ever needed to make one.

And if you still swipe left here and think this isn’t what you want, for Heaven’s sake don’t feel bad about it. Life (and business) is far too short to have the wrong partner. It's bliss, though when you find the right one.

In my next two posts on this theme, I will share the questions you should ask your PR agency before swiping right—and then how to elegantly exit if it just isn't working.

Hint: that may or may not be a variation of, ‘It’s not you it’s me,’ kind of vibe.

But why ruin the surprise of this tale of business romance?

Carina