The Power of “No”: Why Strategic Communicators Must Know When PR Isn’t the Answer

By Dustin Siggins

Imagine a prospect comes to you, referred by a client who sings your praises. These guys have a national profile and want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a campaign that will be easy for you to execute and quite profitable for your team.

Only a crazy person would say no, right?

Well, that’s what I did last year, and it’s because PR wasn’t the solution to the prospect’s problem. The sponsored event wasn’t going to reach the target audience, the surrounding optics were a bad fit for the organization’s brand, and the target audience was too dispersed for a limited PR campaign to make an impact.

So we turned them down. And while the profit loss was painful, it was the right call. Saying “no” is a critical part of every PR practitioner’s growth as a strategist, whether in-house or at an agency.

Of course, it’s also risky. That’s why it pays dividends only if you do it right.

Reducing Overwork

Let’s be real: half of PR professionals feel so burned out that they’re considering quitting their job. A big part of that is undoubtedly because too many managers say “yes” to everything that drops in their lap.

But just as drowning in water is bad for the body, so is drowning in work and stress bad for the mind. Less hustle, a clearer headspace, and stronger campaigns mean that everyone will be sharper and better.

“As an industry, we don’t always communicate clearly to our prospects about what PR is and what PR does,” Milk & Honey PR Senior Client Director Conor Douglass told me. “And that leads to misaligned service scopes that may satisfy the bottom line, but a) burn out the employee base, and b) result in cancelled contracts. The best results for everyone come from honest, upfront conversations with prospects so that they can realize the potential of PR to achieve their goals.”

Improved PR Outcomes

Less noise means more signal, and fewer campaigns tend to mean better results. You can’t build meaningful relationships with media and come up with creative solutions to client problems if you’re:

• Consistently lobbying weak pitches that lack newsworthiness.

• Getting burned out because of stress, scrambling, and failure.

• Always behind.

“Throughout my career—whether as an internal communicator in healthcare or now running my own business—I’ve learned when to say ‘yes, if’ instead of a flat ‘no,’” ghostwriter Seth Carlson told me. “In healthcare, leaders often asked me to ‘fix’ employee engagement through tactics like events and email blasts, not realizing communication alone couldn’t own that initiative. We certainly needed to be part of the solution, but only when HR leads were using their resources to give us the strategic guidance, outcomes, and other critical information that we needed.”

Carlson said the same approach creates success with clients. “My expertise is in the middle of the sales funnel – getting leads onto email lists for nurturing. I tell clients who want comprehensive solutions that I can help them if we address a specific bottleneck first.”

With less than a quarter of PR professionals feeling “very valued” in the workplace, better targeting will lead to bigger impact, garnering the respect PR pros are chasing from the C-Suite.

Better Resource Allocations Across Departments

If you’re eating up money with lackluster campaigns that won’t deliver the results you or your boss is looking for, you’re holding back the rest of the business. That money could be spent on a high-converting ad campaign, hiring a new staffer in another department, or fixing a product issue.

The Deloitte CMO survey shows that earned media efforts overseen by marketers receive a narrow 11.2% of digital marketing budgets. Budgets are tight, and PR isn’t getting a bigger piece of the pie. Wasting money on media outreach that lacks newsworthy content is just bad business.

Reallocating funds to where they can be best used  will produce far better results than even the flashiest campaigns – and help PR and the overall comms function have a more respected seat at the strategy table.

Increased Trust With Superiors/Clients

Saying “no” the right way and at the right time shows that you’re not just an order-taker and taskworker – you’re a genuine strategist. Once you prove that by saying “No,” followed by sound recommendations, executives and clients will start listening when you speak.

That prospect I mentioned at the top of this piece? They walked away without spending a single dime. But three months later, they returned – and brought their budget back with them. By being honest with them in that first meeting, we established a trust relationship, and now they’re comfortable partnering with us on a national campaign.

“When you’re in the room for the big decisions, you have to show you’re not there to rubber-stamp bad ideas even when they’re lucrative for your firm,” said Jacqueline Policastro, an executive consultant who was previously Executive Vice President of Marketing & Communications for the American Hotel & Lodging Association. “A well-placed ‘no’ can do more for your credibility than a dozen campaigns because smart leaders remember – and trust – advisors who told them the truth.”

Leading up to “yes”

Saying “no” can open the door to a lot more “yes” tomorrow. You’ll start hearing yes to the promotion, yes to leadership trusting your judgment, and yes to better results. It may feel uncomfortable in the moment, but when done right, it earns you trust, buys you time, and can set you up for better wins down the line.

It starts by speaking C-Suite, because they sure don’t speak public relations. Ditch “brand awareness” for data and reports that focus on revenue, profit, and efficiency.

Bring evidence of why a campaign may not work or be the best way to spend money. This opens the door to spending money on well-researched and high-impact efforts. It’s how PR pros go from orders-takers to trusted advisors.

+++

Dustin Siggins is the founder of Proven Media Solutions. A former Capitol Hill journalist, Dustin got into PR to help people’s great ideas get into the press. After six years as a freelancer, Dustin led communications for a trade association and started his company in 2018. Since then, he’s built a team that specializes in the nuts and bolts of earned media, supporting marketing, public relations, and public affairs teams and consultants who need help securing press for their clients and principals. With over 4,000 pieces of media coverage under his belt, at outlets ranging from HuffPost and National Review to USA TODAY and PR Week, Dustin has developed a method to the PR madness. He is a Strategic Columnist.

Written by: Editor