Choosing the right PR consultancy for you and your product can be a daunting task. We offer some pointers to help you find the perfect PR partner

After deciding that you need to employ a PR agency, the most important next step is to be sure that you know what you are looking for both from a campaign and from the agency. Whilst healthcare agencies specialise and function in very different ways to each other if you are able to prioritise your exact requirements before approaching any agency with an offer to pitch, you are more likely to find that match made in heaven that leads to a successful and creative communications programme. The following considerations may help you decide what you will need:

Strategic ability vs tactical implementation
Agencies vary in their strategic expertise. Some agencies can provide excellent strategic counsel that genuinely adds to your own thinking. Through a fundamental understanding of your needs, they are able to develop an in-depth strategy to drive the tactical programme. For a comprehensive pre-launch/launch programme, accomplished strategists are a must.

Other agencies can provide good, solid practitioners who are expert at getting you the column-inch coverage you are seeking for your established product. An agency whose strengths lie in implementation should be able to deliver and deliver big. Both types of agency (and those which fall in between) have their place, it is up to you to decide which fits your needs.

Proven track records vs uncharted territory
It may be important for you to work with an agency which has already gained a high level of experience of the type and scale of challenges facing you. It can be reassuring to know they have already demonstrated success under similar circumstances and where limited time and minimising risk are key drivers, track record becomes essential. A good example would be the launch programme, spanning medical and consumer audiences, of a `major' brand.

Alternatively, there are advantages to an agency with limited experience and no pre-conceptions; an entirely fresh view can bring real benefit, particularly in a crowded and undynamic market. Of course, experience minimises the risk but these could be out-weighed by the need for a truly novel or different approach.

Big vs small
The sizes of agencies specialising in healthcare PR range from very small (one or two people) through to huge global organisations. Some are independent and others belong to large networks - there are pros and cons of each. Some are healthcare specialist agencies and others are broader agencies with specialist healthcare divisions. The scope and breadth of your needs will define the size of agency you require. For example, if you're looking for occasional support on a fairly mature product, a smaller agency with fewer overheads may be preferable.

On the whole, larger agencies can offer the greatest capacity. If you know that at certain times you will need greater support, a larger agency can better cope with the peaks and troughs of a variable programme. However, the smaller agencies tend to offer a more personalised service and are adept at bringing in freelance support during busy periods. Independent agencies have the capacity to be more flexible and cost-effective, whilst networked or group agencies can afford synergies across other marketing disciplines, such as advertising and even other markets.

International experience
Clearly, to those in an international product management job, knowing whether the agency has international experience can be crucial whereas a UK-only product manager may not care. If you are managing a project with true international outputs, it may be wise to base your decision on the strength of the agency staff within the central/core country, or discuss your preferred choice with your international colleagues.

Issues experience
It may seem straightforward to launch a new breast cancer product but you could find yourself embroiled unwillingly in an NHS screening issue. If such issues are likely, it is important to choose an agency that can advise you quickly and effectively from a sound experience base or accept that you may need to bring in a specialist agency to help you through specific issues.

Agencies with experience of policy-driven communications may also be a good bet here as they have the know-how necessary to create issues-based campaigns, driven or supported by independent third parties.

Government, healthcare or financial service
Will success for your product rely on specific legislators or decision makers being aware of your key messages and facts pre-launch? Asking yourself this type of question will enable you to decide whether you need legislative speciality within your chosen agency. It may also be important to analyse the agency's experience of dealing with policy drivers, as well as other decision-makers who may be vital to the long-term success of your business.

There are other questions you need to clear in your own mind but if you start with the considerations above you will build a rough picture of the type of agency you need. You should now have a picture of the type of help you are looking for. The box, Agency requirements, on the previous page, should help you in this process.

Once your wish-list is established, it is time to research which of the agencies best fit your needs.

Checklist for choosing the right agency
Does the agency have real healthcare expertise?	Yes/No
Does the agency have previous experience in your disease area?	Yes/No
Do the agency staff fully understand your business?	Yes/No
Does the agency have previous experience of similar briefs? e.g., product launches, data releases, established products, direct-to-consumer campaigns.	Yes/No
Do you have faith in the entire account team?	Yes/No
Do you like and respect the proposed team?	Yes/No
Have your key opinion leaders/third-party organisations worked with the agency before? If so, what is their opinion of the agency?	Yes/No
Does the agency have a good working relationship with the key medical and consumer media journalists?	Yes/No
If the project requires it, does the agency have dedicated international capabilities?	Yes/No
Does the agency have an impressive and current pharmaceutical client list?	Yes/No
Does the agency have an impressive track record of achievements? (Against which parameters and how do you know?)	Yes/No
Is the agency equipped to handle peaks and troughs in workload?	Yes/No
Will your business be an important account to the agency - will you receive sufficient prioritisation and also input/counsel from senior agency staff?	Yes/No
Does the agency have sufficient quality-control measures?	Yes/No
Is the agency able to demonstrate its ability to and methodologies for evaluating PR outputs?	Yes/No
Is the agency set up to effectively monitor the ongoing changes in the environment?	Yes/No
Does the agency have sufficient knowledge of current key communications issues such as direct-to-consumer marketing?	Yes/No
Are the agency's pricing structure and billing systems compatible with your requirements?	Yes/No
Does the agency employ ex-pharmaceutical company personnel? If so, how good is their reputation with the industry?	Yes/No

Checklist for choosing the right agency
 
Do I need to change my agency?
There are many reasons for putting a contract out to pitch. You might be inheriting a product that has just passed through its development phase, an agency will be required and a pitch process is a wise choice. You might have inherited a product from a colleague - in this case, while the over-riding impulse might be to make your own mark and invite your favourite agencies to pitch for the business, consider retaining the incumbent agency - it is a more logical (and less costly!) decision.

One of the reasons for this is that senior agency staff may have worked on the account for a number of years and will, therefore, have an excellent historic perspective on all the various issues which can be invaluable and will help you get up to speed quicker.

For example, opinion leaders and/or third-party groups may try to imply that your predecessor's level of financial commitment was greater than the actual contribution. Your incumbent agency would of course be able to put you straight about this! If you do decide to change your agency, there are many ways used to manage the process. However you do this, it is vital that the severing of the links with the current agency is done professionally.

The following points of action are commonly regarded as best practice:

• Check the client-agency contract and be aware of implications and obligations - you may find that termination of the contract will incur certain costs
• Give your current agency sufficient notice - this gives them a chance to re-allocate staff members so that they can continue to run their business efficiently
• Make sure that you provide constructive feedback to your current agency - the best agencies always learn from experiences like this.

Finally, you may decide to invite your current agency to re-pitch. Indeed, there have been many instances where the current agency has won the re-pitching process and this is not as illogical as it may seem. They should, after all, have a clear idea of your aims for the project and will have built up solid professional links with leading opinion leaders and other key customers.

Do not be offended if the outgoing agency decides not to pitch - the pitch process can be very costly to an agency and any decision to re-pitch will be based upon a number of factors including staff resource, likelihood of pitch success and the current marketplace. They may also feel that they have already given you their best thinking on your account and that there is simply no point in going through the motions.

Creating a short-list
If you decide to go to a pitch situation a short-list needs to be drawn up. Detailed information about the leading healthcare communication agencies can be found in trade directories such as Communiqué. There are also other publications which provide simple listings including Pharmafile and Contact, although as the information provided is limited, you may find it difficult to differentiate between agencies until you know more.

Whatever source you use, company website addresses are nearly always stated and much information can be found here. In addition, word-of-mouth from colleagues about their dealings with certain agencies can help you in drawing up a short-list. However, bear in mind that if your colleague has had a good client-agency relationship with an agency it does not necessarily mean that the agency will be right for you. The requirements for their campaign may be very different to yours.

Finally, the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA), of which both agencies and pharmaceutical companies are members, will be able to recommend its member agencies to you. This organisation is a key trade association for PR agencies which specialise in healthcare and with its focus on training and evaluation, membership is usually a sign of quality.

If you are finding it difficult to obtain the necessary information for your short-list, you may want to randomly select a handful of agencies to contact. A simple telephone call to the managing director or indeed the director of healthcare will usually help you establish a number of facts such as:

• The individual's experience in your disease area
• The agency's experience in your disease area
• Potential conflicting accounts
• Experience in handling probable issues
• Staff capabilities and backgrounds
• Strategic planning ability
• Tactical delivery
• Past and existing clients.

It is likely that some agencies can be dismissed immediately, either due to insufficient experience for your campaign or perhaps because you didn't click with the person you contacted. This last point is particularly important because you need to trust, respect and, hopefully, like the member of your PR team. Whatever the reason for putting agencies on your short-list, when finished it should only contain the most suitable sounding agencies for your project.

Credentials
To be absolutely sure of your short-list, it may be useful to ask some or all of the agencies you are considering to undertake a preliminary credentials presentation. At such a presentation, the agency has the chance to demonstrate their past experience more formally. You may find it useful to ask them to do this at their offices, to give you the opportunity to see how they operate on a daily basis.

This presentation should normally take about an hour and is usually pre-prepared, so do take the opportunity to ask individual or specific questions relating to your important areas. The more information you exchange at this stage, the better the chances of identifying whether you and the agency are a suitable match.

The pitch presentation
You should now be in a position to contact/re-contact your final short-listed agencies to see if they would like to pitch for your business. Your initial request should receive a reply within a couple of days of posting. Don't be offended if an agency turns down your offer because, as well as potential conflicts, there may be a number of resource-based, financial, or even political reasons why an agency cannot pitch for your business, many of which are complex and completely out of your hands.

Rejection at this stage should, therefore, not prevent you from approaching the same agency again should you require a re-pitch at a later date or should you change your product responsibilities. Some of the agencies that turn down the work may be far more suited to, and indeed feel more comfortable dealing with, a campaign for another product in your portfolio.

It is usual to ask 2-4 agencies to pitch, any more and agencies may be put off by the reduced chance of success and it is a time-consuming process for you! It is vital to provide a comprehensive brief which gives the agency as much information as possible about the account. The best agencies will be flexible enough to fit your needs but it is very difficult for the agency to develop a communications programme that closely matches your requirements if they don't know them!

Agencies will almost always come back to you with a number of additional questions. It is up to you to decide which ones you can answer but remember that in the interests of fairness, any additional information should also be made available to all participating agencies, irrespective of which agency you prefer at this point.

As agencies have a tendency to work to capacity and preparation for pitch situations normally involves extra work for the pitch team, the current workloads of each account handler will be very significant. This, together with whether or not they have the necessary experience in that therapy area, will almost always define which agency members of staff will be asked to contribute to the pitch presentation. Pitching is a serious business for any agency - their continued success depends upon successfully adding to and/or replenishing their portfolio.

Because of this reason, pitch preparation represents a significant investment and is usually an arduous and time-consuming business. The agency's internal process is usually very resource-intensive and the preparation process will normally include:

• Reviewing the brief
• Analysing current/potential environments
• Undertaking research via opinion leaders/third parties
• Compiling a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
• Holding a strategic and tactical brainstorm
• Developing necessary creative concepts.

There is also investment by the agencies in terms of actual costs of pitching. In the 2003 HCA Benchmarking Survey, the average investment made by a PR agency for a 'small' (circa £50k) and 'large' (circa £200k) was found to be approximately £8k and £23k respectively. Therefore, it is in your interest as the client to ensure you derive maximum benefit from the pitch process so it is essential to allow sufficient time for the process.

The make-up of the client-facing pitch presentation team will differ between agencies. Some of the agencies will send down only their most senior people, others will send a mix of specialist staff, possibly including freelance consultants. If possible, it is prudent to request that the pitch team comprises the actual personnel that will be working on the business should the pitch be successful.

This is especially relevant for those agencies which tend to initially send down their 'big guns' who then have little involvement in the account once the business is secured. On the client side, your pitch judges should ideally include representatives from all stakeholders who will be dealing with the agency. However, too many decision-makers may not be able to agree on one particular agency, and so you may need to prioritise your team.

Preparing a score-sheet which lists all of your agreed evaluation criteria is a good way to ensure that all relevant comments are noted. Judges can complete the forms during and/or after the pitch, and will help keep the focus on the priority areas.

Agencies are usually given a 1-2 hour slot (including time for questions) to present their communications plans. You should look to arrange for the pitches to run consecutively so that no single agency has the advantage of extra preparation time. Every member of the judging team must block out time in their diary and should treat the presentations as a priority. This creates a favourable first impression.

However long you choose to allow for the pitches, always give each agency the same amount of time to present their proposals. You are perfectly within your rights to stop an agency if the presentation runs over time especially as it gives times to ask questions.

Ask as many questions as you want at the pitch as it may be the only chance you have - it is very rare for an agency to agree to return for a second time. It is unrealistic to expect a single agency to perform best on all of your criteria so you will have to decide whether you prefer the agency with the best all-round capabilities, or whether you choose the one that excelled in your most important criterion.

Once they have secured your business, your chosen agency can rework the weaker parts of their proposal so that their entire communications programme fits your needs exactly. It is often a good idea to work with them at this stage, because this saves valuable time and helps ensure you get optimal results.

Whatever the selection process, do let the agencies know when they can expect to hear from you, and, if able, try to stick to that date. Where delays are unavoidable, do inform the agencies as soon as it becomes apparent that a delay will occur. You may want to use the following checklist to provide a comprehensive pitch brief:

Steps to take when collating information and data for the brief	Source/team member responsible	Completion date	Done
Collate which product details, e.g. data sheet,SPC, PI are available
Gather supporting clinical papers
Select market research summaries
Collate any market data
List opinion-leader support for the product
List expectations for the product
Outline the product's priority status within the company's overall portfolio
List what communications activities have been undertaken to date
Name any incumbent communications agency's
List the other agencies that have been invited to pitch
Outline what period you are looking at for communications plans activities over this period
If possible outline your marketing plan
List what you are looking for in an agency
List which criteria you will be using to judge your chosen consultancies
Set a deadline for the pitch presentation
Define the decision making process
Set the intended final decision date

Feedback
It is considered good practice to announce your decision to all of the agencies at the same time, or as closely as practicalities allow. It can be extremely de-motivating for an agency to hear via a competitor that they have not won a pitch. It is also worth considering that this can create unnecessary negativity when you may want to appoint that very agency for a different brief in the future.

Feedback to the chosen agency is usually done over the telephone, as is feedback to the unsuccessful agencies, although this is usually followed up with a tailored letter. Try to include as much constructive feedback as possible in your letters; there is nothing an agency hates more than receiving a standard rejection letter with no feedback as to why they were unsuccessful.

Do not underestimate the value of this feedback. The best agencies always take note of pitch comments and learn from the experience. Without it they are not able to identify their weaker elements and improve or refine them for their next pitch - be it for your company or not.

Now the work begins...
Once you have employed your agency it is not just a simple matter of sitting back and letting them take over. Running any sort of campaign needs to be handled in partnership between the agency and the company. Regular meetings need to be set up together with time frames for reports and updates to be submitted. Share new data with your agency so that they have the best information to help them do the best job. In the end, your relationship with your agency is pivotal - and a real partnership will deliver the best for your brand.

The Authors
Angie Wiles and Sarah Matthew are joint managing directors of Virgo Health PR and can be contacted at: angie.wiles@virgohealthpr.com

Kindly reproduced with permission from PMLive.com.

03-Feb-2004	PMLive Article - HCA Chair Reveals Strategy
26-Jan-2004	HCA News Release - New HCA Chair
11-Nov-2003	PMLive Article - Categorically Speaking
03-Oct-2003	PMLive Article - Practical Guide: PR Consultancies: Part 3
03-Oct-2003	PMLive Article - Practical Guide: PR Consultancies: Part 2
24-Sep-2003	HCA News Release - Benchmarking Survey
01-Jul-2003	PMLive Article - Evaluating PR
09-Jun-2003	HCA News Release - Evaluation Toolkit
05-Nov-2002	PMLive Article - Get Up To Speed

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