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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Mary McCauley
August - September 2011

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Stop talking! How to give good interview

If you have been through some kind of media or spokesperson training in the past, your trainer may have put the emphasis on staying on message. This brings us to the first of four steps: Forget everything you learned about staying on message. I’ll explain later.

The second step is to make certain you know something about the journalist and the media outlet. Does this person cover this topic often? What is the media outlet’s editorial style and focus? Are the outlet and the journalist known for being balanced in reporting? Few journalists are confrontational as a style because it does not serve them well when gathering information. However, keep in mind that not all individuals you see, hear or read are professional journalists; many are entertainers. And, in today’s multimedia world, anyone can be a blogger. But the business journalists and local general news reporters are professionals who want to get it right.

The third step is to gather your facts. If the topic involves statistics, financial data, survey data or the like, make certain you have ready access to that information. A short fact sheet to give to the journalist will be appreciated as it enables the journalist to refer to it when writing the article. It also is your safety net, as you will not have to rely on your memory. You are organized and ready for the interview. But are you truly ready?

Rather than waiting until the interview begins, take a fourth step to prepare by practicing how you would answer the most obvious questions on the topic. Focus on pausing a few seconds to gather your thoughts after the question is asked, answer the question directly and concisely without embellishment and then stop talking.

The Pause, Answer, Stop Talking (P-A-S) method allows you and the journalist to engage in a productive dialogue. It is about providing the right information based on the question. It is not about showing the journalist how smart you are about the topic under discussion. This also gives the journalist a chance to absorb the information and stay on track with the topic.

Answer the questions

The hardest part of this scenario is to stop talking when you have answered the question. It is easy to derail the topic when you embellish your answer to include information that has not been requested, or you try to shove a message into the dialogue where it does not belong. That does not mean your answers should be so short as to withhold key information.

For example, if you are asked: “What were your revenues in 2010?” You might respond: “Our revenues were $19 million.”

Now, if you want to weave in a message, your response might be: “Our revenues were $19 million, which exceeded our goal by $2 million.” Here you answered the question and wove in an appropriate message. The journalist probably will go to a follow-up question about profitability or how 2011 is looking.

Here’s another example of a much tougher question. “I heard you are planning layoffs. How many people will lose their jobs and when?”

Possible response: “We don’t know at this time how many jobs will be affected.” Follow-up: “When will you know?”

Response: “The assessment of our work flow will be completed September 30.” Follow-up: “What will happen to those who lose their jobs?”

Response: “We will place as many individuals as possible in new roles or we will provide appropriate severance packages.” Follow-up: “What kind of packages will you offer?”

Response: “We will provide outplacement services and compensation based on years of service.”

The point being if you know the answer and it isn’t legally proprietary, answer the question asked.

Let’s take this same scenario but derail the interview. Question: “I heard you are planning layoffs. How many people will lose their jobs and when?”

Wrong response: “We at Acme have not had any layoffs in our 75-year history so we are endeavoring to save as many jobs as possible and hope we don’t have to lay off anyone.” Follow-up: “If you are endeavoring to save jobs, what kinds of jobs are being looked at?”

Wrong response: “I can’t say which positions are being evaluated as we haven’t made any decisions yet and I wouldn’t want to upset anyone unnecessarily.”

As you’ve likely concluded by now, this interview is headed down a track that the interviewee doesn’t want to go. Credibility is evaporating as the CEO becomes increasingly defensive while the journalist asks tougher and tougher questions, attempting to get a definite answer about what jobs are going away. The interviewee is on the defensive by not answering the question directly and truthfully. When the interviewee tried to dance around the issue and drive home a message about the longevity of the company and its past track record with employees, the interview began to slide into a confrontational track.

Avoid frustration

Don’t be like the last politician you saw quoted or heard interviewed. Likely that person repeated one or two messages regardless of the question being asked. That’s frustrating for the interviewer and the reader or listener.

By applying the P-A-S method, you will achieve a better outcome. A journalism professor at my alma mater, the University of Missouri, said, “Reporting is a garbage in, garbage out business,” meaning that we were only as good as our sources. That is really at the heart of most journalists’ goals – to have reliable, candid sources.

You are more likely to be treated fairly if you are candid and respectful in your interchange with a journalist. Even the bad news will be more palatable if you stick to the facts and don’t try to hide something that you know will be public anyway.

Mary Ann McCauley,
Catalyst Communications:
952.292.8130
mam@catalystcomm.net
www.catalystcomm.net