How not to sell in a case study

I killed my car last week, and it needs a whole new engine. It died rather dramatically in the outside lane of the M6, meaning I had to get the AA to tow me 80 miles home. And since the AA's computer systems didn't recognise I have a membership, I had to rejoin at the roadside and pay £400 for the nine-hour journey.

Needless to say, I haven't started the week in the best of moods.

I cheered up considerably when a PR emailed me with a story idea, which I thought had potential. She said the client has case studies of three UK companies using her client's service, which is pretty unusual and quite timely. I thought with some wider context, it could be a good story, so I pitched it to an editor, who also liked the idea.

I then go back to the PR and ask for details of her client and the customers. I get a cheery mail back with her client's email address and phone numbers followed by the words: "Oh, and the customers are BP, Nationwide and Norwich Union."

It turns out there is no case study, no press release, no nothing. Just those three company names.

Now, of course, I can ring up the BP Press Office and say "I understand you're using this service, can I talk to someone about it, please?"  But bitter experience tells me the press office will want me to email over a synopsis of the article, they'll take a week to track down an interviewee who will have 10 minutes spare at 9am next Friday, and who wants to see the questions in advance because he's never spoken to the press before.

In the meantime, the Nationwide press office decides that Project X is part of a much bigger project, Project XXX - and they would rather keep the whole thing hush-hush until they're ready to announce THAT, thanks very much. Over at Norwich Union, nobody is doing much of anything because they're too busy fielding phone calls about the decision to kill off the Norwich Union brand in favour of Aviva, or something.

The story may or may not stand up - at this point, though, it's not looking good.

As a PR, if you're selling in a story that relies on customer stories there are some helpful things you can do BEFORE calling a journalist:

1. Let the corporate comms team at the customer site know about the story. Assure them they will be informed when interviews are conducted, and what those interviews are about. Ensure the timing of the story fits with them as well as with your client.
2. Confirm a specific named person who will be the press contact at the customer site. Have a back-up in case the first person is ill. And if necessary, give them both a bit of media training or a least a pre-interview briefing on what questions they're likely to face.
3. When the journalist calls to arrange interviews, provide as direct a route as you can to the customer, to save time if nothing else. Nine times out of ten, if I get sent to the corporate comms team to request a case study interview, the interview doesn't happen.