Useful Questions to Ask PR Agencies - The First Meeting

User notes: This is a list of questions to ask PR companies during the early stages of contact with them.

It offers a range of options from which you can pick and choose when you are meeting a PR agency for the first time. As with any supplier relationship, it’s usually an advantage to gain as much insight into the way they work in the early stages of contact &ndash identifying useful questions for PR agencies can help move the selection process along much more smoothly.

Focus on: Agency Knowledge and Experience

What do you know about my business?
Do you know who I compete with? Would you describe any of your current clients as in any way competitive with my business?
What sort of experience do you have in my market/industry & with my kind of products/services? Please provide specific company names.
Is that experience with current clients? Does it relate to people on the PR team I would be working with?
Are the people you put forward for new business meetings the same people who would work on that client of appointed?
Do you have any particular areas of specialisation?

Focus on: Agency Services

Tell me about the services you offer? What areas of PR do you excel at?
What’s genuinely different about your agency and your approach to PR?
Can you give some examples of when you have really exceeded client expectations?
How do you report on the time you are providing and how do you measure your success rates?

Focus on: Costs and Contracts

How do you split the time you provide to clients between senior and junior people?
Explain how you charge for your services? Do you work off retainers or do you carry out projects? (priced purely on time per month or against a specific set of objectives)
How do you charge for expenses?
What is your minimum contract term?