8 Things You Need to Do to Help Prep Your Clients for Interviews
Your client is an expert and you've landed the interview ... now it's time to help them shine in order to boost their chances of inclusion in the article!
Happy Friday, Top Tier Consulting Substack subscribers! We are just plowing through October at full-speed ahead!
Last week, we talked about How to Help Your Clients Rock Email Interviews and got some great feedback on that piece (it’s been our most popular newsletter to date and people are raving about how helpful it’s been!) … so we wanted to continue with the theme of interviews this week.
Specifically, we’re diving into how to prepare your sources for their interviews. And there’s a few reasons why you want to make sure they are prepped:
They need to put their best foot forward, because an interview ≠ inclusion. Just because a journalist has tapped your client as an expert and set up an interview, it doesn’t automatically mean their responses will ever see the light of day. Why? For starters, some writers over-source for their articles (often because they are afraid they’ll get stood up by one source, so they set up extra interviews just in case — or maybe they are in crunch mode on a crazy-short deadline and need to make sure they get what they need) … when they all pan out, this means that they may have to cut a source when it comes time to write. Also, if their answers aren’t relevant or insightful or don’t add anything to the conversation, they’ll end up on the cutting room floor. And if 2 of our sources say roughly the same thing, but another source says it better (uses better analogies, explains it better, has thought-provoking or funny sound bites), that other source will win the quote.
You don’t want them wasting our time — or theirs. More than once, a publicist has over promised on a source’s expertise … yet once we hop on the phone for the interview or see the returned responses from an email-based interview, it’s clear they aren’t the right expert for this particular angle/outlet/assignment. Either it’s not quite in their wheelhouse, or they haven’t kept up on the latest studies/data (especially if it’s medical in nature), or they have an agenda (like promoting their new book) that just doesn’t align with our needs. And when this happens, it’s a complete waste of our time (and again, theirs). Not only have we wasted the time during the interview, but now we’re left scrambling to find a replacement and having to awkwardly explain to you why they won’t be getting coverage.
We crave efficiency. Every extra minute spent holding your client’s hand through an interview is another minute we don’t have to actually write the article. We are on tight deadlines and we know your clients are super busy too … so the common goal should be an efficient use of everyone’s time. That means they need to show up prepared and ready to deliver. We’re not saying we’re trying to rush the conversation … but there’s a massive difference between an interview running long because we were so enthralled by their amazing answers vs an interview running long because we had to keep redirecting them or trying to pull information from them.
And, as their publicist, it’s your job to help your clients shine! The more you educate them about the process, prep them on the specifics of each interview, and set them up for success, the greater your chances of landing that coverage AND having us excited to work with you again!
So let’s dive into the 8 ways to prep your sources for their interviews:
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