Sealing Up the Holes in Your Hull

Think of Kamen’s blunder as a cautionary tale. In other words, try to think like a reporter before you pitch. Reporters are notoriously cynical, and to be honest, if you had their job, you would be, too. So you need to be one step (or ten) ahead of them. Play “devil’s advocate.” What are the first questions you’re going to get? What are the questions that will make you uncomfortable, or that you don’t have an answer for yet? As Kamen found out, you need to find the holes before the reporters find them for you.

More often than not, there are great answers to the questions, but only you will know them. And hemming and hawing is not going to help your case. A journalist working off nothing more than a quick pitch doesn’t have real knowledge, any time, or enough interest to figure out the answers for you. What you think is the greatest happening since sliced toast is going to come down to no one ever finding out about it if you play your cards wrong.

Work through every angle and write the answers down so you have them close at hand. Next, get together the background information on you, your company, or your big idea. Like sealing up the holes in the hull of your story, you need to have the basics together so there’s a foundation to whatever a journalist jots down. And whatever you do, don’t pitch a story without any substance (see sidebar, “The Pitch That Cried Wolf”).

This doesn’t mean that you have to invest thousands in an overdesigned press kit. Journalists aren’t wowed by four-color graphics, CD-ROMs, or even, in most cases, glossy photos. Reporters want two things: simplicity and accuracy. Stick with the basics. These include a neat folder with several of your best press releases; a backgrounder that describes the history and mission of your business on one page; a fact sheet that describes when the business was founded, how many people are involved, and who your partners are; and your contact information clearly spelled out in a nice, neat Times New Roman font.

If you already have a clip or two that aren’t from a competing newspaper or magazine and that explain your story and message well, include them with the material. Put in a dash of biographical material about individuals on your management team who are crucial to the telling of the story. And voil ! You’ve baked a fairly decent press kit.

No matter how new and futuristic your gadget or business is, someone else is doing something pretty similar. Make sure you know who all of your competitors are before you pitch. For your own good (not merely for reporters), a competitive matrix demonstrates where you stand in the hazy crowd. That matrix is easy to build. All you need is a Web browser and a few hours of hard research, and soon you’ll be able to discern what makes you different from the rest. Among other things, it prepares you for some of those zinger questions. For instance, you might find that three other businesses perform exactly the same service you do, eliminating your up-to-now biggest selling point! Or you could find strengths you didn’t know you had. You could discover (wow!) that what you thought of as an unimportant add-on service is what makes you really special.

Now you know your story—where it falls flat and where it shines, what those competitors are doing, and what the answers are to the questions coming up on the horizon. You’re ready to pick up the phone and get some ink!