Essentials of Corporate Communications and Public Relations

Scott Sobel agrees that the correct choice of a spokesperson for each communication situation is critical. Sobel is (former position deleted - current President Media & Communications Strategies in Washington, DC), a crisis communication and media relations firm. He has counseled Fortune 50 companies, banks testifying before Congress, and celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell. Choosing the right spokesperson, says Sobel, is important for a variety of reasons. “In the end, it is going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure,” he says, “if you choose the right person for politics and the wrong person for communication, they possibly will not do well, they’ll get the wrong message across, they’ll alienate people or fail to persuade people, they’ll look bad and they’ll be unhappy with you for choosing them.”

When selecting a source, says Sobel, you should consider various aspects of that source’s background – both professional and personal – including presentation style, familiarity with subjects they would be speaking about, and their history of performance as a source. “for instance, if you have somebody you want to speak for an organization relative to a crisis situation, you want to know not only are they qualified to know all of the details or at least bring together the various sources relative to the crisis but you want to know whether they are even-tempered, whether they’ve had a good or bad history speaking under these kinds of conditions before, whether they’ve been media trained or counseled, and whether they have any personal issues with what has happened.”

All spokespeople are not created equal, Sobel points out – and not all are appropriate for all situations. “Sometimes the right spokesperson for one kind of corporation situation and somebody who has done well is absolutely the wrong kind of spokesperson for something else.”

An important consideration in your selection should be whether the individual you are considering has been counseled, media trained or message trained. “The assumption is that if there’s a very high-level person running your organization, they must certainly be well spoken and able to convince people,” says Sobel. “However, that is not always the case. They may have some very, very strong talents and capabilities, but dealing with the media, for instance, may not be one of them for a variety of reasons.”

Who to use. While there are organizations that turn to “corporate communications spokespeople” to convey messages to the media, Sobel agrees that is not always the best strategy. “Under the most sensitive ‘bet the farm’ situations, especially if you’re dealing with consumer regulatory issues,” says Sobel, “audiences want to hear from a top person what the state of affairs happens to be. Generally – generally – that’s a wise tactic to consider.”

And even if the issue isn’t sensitive, conveying a message through a technical or issue-specific expert is generally preferable to using corporate communications staff as the communications conduit. For most general media interactions or presentations – internal or external – you should select a spokesperson who:

• Is closest to the issue in terms of having information and knowledge that will lend credibility to their statements
• Is able to communicate clearly, professionally, and appropriately with the specific audience

The skills needed to be effective in these different situations will vary. “Some people have the ability to talk to hundred, if not thousands of people in a meeting,” says Sobel, “some have the ability to go on camera or talk to a reporter, and some have the ability to speak well to a small group but may not be able to relate well to a large group, or visa versa.”

A good communication professional, with a “thick skin,” he says, “can be honest about those individual capabilities and help in choosing who the best spokesperson should be during what circumstance.”

Assert Your Role!

Finally, don’t back down on your quest to match the right spokesperson with the right venue. Communications professionals, says Sobel, “need to take themselves out of the politics of the moment and try to be objective in their choices.” An example of not being objective, he says, would be a “knee-jerk reaction to picking the head of a department or CEO or a C-level person to be a spokesperson because, politically, you think that is the correct thing to do, as opposed to using all the other valid criteria to make the correct choice.”

Good communication operatives, says Sobel, are just like good attorneys, “who are, to a degree, fearless and will speak what they know to be right or at least what they believe to be right regardless of whether that news will be taken well or not. You have to have thick skin to be a good communications person.”

(On Crisis) A good way to prepare for these kinds of situations, says Scott Sobel, is to “come up with the worst-case scenario, understand what the end-game might be and then work backwards from that through a logical model to see who the right person might be and then work backwards from that through a logical model to see who the right person might be to speak – understanding where all the danger may be at the very end under a worst-case scenario.”

Selecting the right spokesperson in a crisis is critical (when considering legal implications). Contrary to what you may think, in most cases the CEO is not the right spokesperson. “When choosing the correct spokesperson” says Sobel, “you have to understand the legal ramifications of that person’s comments.” In the most sensitive situations, he suggests, it’s a good idea to consult with a legal advisor. “Do you want a CEO to allude to some specific financial or personnel or operational matter that could have liability implications down the road and have them talk about it in general, when, during a court action, there would be an assumption that if they could speak about something in general, they knew things specifically?” Cases in point: Enron or WorldCom.

Sometimes, says Sobel, a spokesperson may be selected simply because of “deniability.” “If there’s so expectation that they know everything and a reporter asks a tough question, they can say, ‘I’ll have to find out about than and I’ll get back to you.’ Whereas,” he points out, “a CEO or some other expert in the company doesn’t have that pad of time and luxury because a reporter – or any audience – would expect that that person would know that information.”

Whoever you select for your spokesperson, make sure that they have been properly media trained and coached to respond to the media or other public audiences. Again, operate on your time. While you need to be responsive, you shouldn’t feel pressured into a response that you are not prepared for.