By Gini Dietrich

My team and I were in a meeting with the founder of a new startup a few weeks ago.

A very smart man, he asked us to spend a little time educating him about public relations, marketing, social media, and how they all interact because he knows his business very well, but nothing about what we do.

As is very typical of us, we were completely transparent with him. At one point I joked we were going to talk us out of working with them because I even gave him names of competitors who I respect.

Toward the end of the meeting he asked us to describe how he knows if the communications firm is the right fit for them. A data scientist, he wanted something solid on which to place his decision.

Unfortunately, I told him, 99.9 percent of working with a communications firm is gut, chemistry, and trust. But I could tell he was very uncomfortable with that answer and I’ve been thinking about it since.

I, of course, have never hired a communications firm because I’ve worked inside one my entire career so I had to put my business owner hat and think about how we hire professional services firms for work we can’t do. (more…)