What not to do when pitching an expert interview

Now what?

As the PR pro, there are a variety of things you can do to prep your executive, polish your pitches and position yourself for success at all stages of the process. Here are a few tips for making sure your leader is really ready to become an expert source.

Before you pitch

First thing’s first: media train your executive. Whether you choose to do this in-house or look for outside training doesn’t matter. But don’t send your executive into seemingly friendly interviews making sure they understand the basics of how to give a good answer, how to present themselves professionally and when to stop talking.

Once they’re ready for primetime, sit down with them and brainstorm a list of ideas they can speak on. With this list, the more specific the better. If you reach out to a journalist and say you have an expert who can talk about “the widget industry,” that’s too broad for them to generate a good story idea, even if they’re already reporting on the widget industry. Instead, look for ideas like: “speak on widget industry challenges related to the thingamajig shortage — and possible solutions.”