How many times have you had “media training” to help you interview with the press? How many times were you disappointed with the training? If you’re like most people, you were probably ok with the training but felt a tiny bit let down. Part of the problem is that most media trainers focus on how not to have a bad interview and/or drag on with the “no duh” tips like stay on message, have something to say, make it interesting and relevant, and so on. In other words, don’t talk about a million irrelevant things, ramble on about uninteresting stuff, and jump all over the place.
Press interviews can be fun or they can be painful. I’ve gone on weeklong press tours alone with people like VC John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, counseling him for interviews with heavyweight media such as Business Week, Financial Times, and New York Times. I’ve also seen top CEOs (Mark Templeton of Citrix, BV Jagadeesh of NetScaler, Gordon Eubanks of Oblix) up close as they interviewed with mainstream business press and trade press. Over the last 13-14 years, I’ve probably participated in thousands of press interview with about a hundred executives, marketing leaders, and other subject matter experts. Much less frequently, I’ve been the interviewee for networking trade press on market events as well as product news.
Let me give you some helpful tips on how to come away from a press interview with a big smile. These suggestions are for the more common print media interviews. Interviews with broadcast media are very different so let us save that for another time.
Forget the Subject, What is the Format?
Assess whether the interview is a profile, feature story, or quote. That is, is the interview being conducted to talk only about you (and your company)? Is it being done to include you in a larger industry or market trend or event coverage? Is it seeking your commentary or quote for someone else’s article? This part needs to be very clear. If your PR person is not providing it, ask that they provide it (best avenue) or get it directly from the journalist (not ideal but better than not knowing). Your PR team pitched the interview in most cases so they’ll proactively let you know. You need to know the subject as well as the FORMAT of the piece you’re interviewing for …
The Profile Piece
A profile story means you need to focus on humanizing the story and emphasizing drama. For example, a profile on John (yours truly) will mean that I need to set a goal for what image I want to convey then stage a story to support it – including background, climax, and progression to what I do today. Write the headline in your mind. Rags to riches. Redemption. Joys of fulfilling a childhood dream. Lessons from a father. Whatever.
Background is all about how things gradually came to you. Climax is that defining moment or turning point. Progression is how you got here and where you intend to go. This type of story demands that you build a warm relationship with your interviewer. Rapport must be developed fast. I don’t recommend such interviews with complete strangers for this reason.
The Feature Story
In contrast to the profile, the feature story is not a good place for drama. The feature story typically comes about as a result of a swelling level of interest around a significant trend, major news, or other such market events that have major implications for the future. The press is looking for well balanced coverage of all angles as it pertains to the subject at hand. You must assume that your voice will be one of many. Some people recommend that you have a contrarian viewpoint so that you are not potentially drowned out or cut from the final story. I advise against this approach unless your counter viewpoints come naturally.
A better approach is to go into the interview armed with some facts that others may not have or deliver. Feature articles place a premium on information or data. Most features are fat on opinions but malnourished on facts. Your goal is to go into the interview armed with some raw data. This immediately pushes you to the top of the pile of sources and enlarges your role in the overall piece.
The” Be Quoted” Opportunity
Most press interviews that arise as a result of someone else’s news or profile is an opportunity for a quote or two and nothing more. These are great opportunities to add your color or commentary while at the same time seeking out your own feature or profile with the same journalist. Your competitor just announced their new product and made some bold claims. The reporter calls you and asks for your take on the claims. A bad interview is when you trash your competition and call them liars. This is never a good thing. A communication strategist would actually find ways to move their profile or solo piece into a feature or roundup – and, in the process, water down the competitor’s coverage piece.
Say, your competitor announced a new digital pointing device and claims it will take over the world. Your job is to turn the coverage into a broader one which addresses how pointing devices have evolved over time. The new story now covers pen devices, joysticks, mouses, light pens, artificial intelligence headgear, and so on.
Keep It Simple, Say A Lot
If you interview for an hour, roughly fifteen minutes worth will make it into print. You must be prepared for this reality. Most of the complicated ideas and thoughts should be left out. Avoid industry jargon and keep language simple. And, say a lot. This does not mean that you talk a lot. Saying a lot means using lots of analogies, anecdotes, and facts.
Talk Slow
This is self explanatory but it’ still a good reminder. Slow down. Most people talk way too fast. Additionally, most people do not realize that they talk in monotone after about 10-15 minutes. Believe me, try recording yourself and play it back a couple times.
Never Get Defensive
With rare exceptions, journalists are not trying to make you look bad. If anything they say irks you, it is usually not intentional. Nothing gets an interview off track more than overreaction.
Answer the Question
This is the biggest area where people make constant mistakes. While initial questions are usually open ended, good journalists who come prepared will always ask a lot of follow-on questions in reaction to your statements. These questions should almost always be answered with a “yes” or “no” followed by elaboration. If you cannot answer, you should say so and not attempt a lengthy, winding answer that only confuses the journalist. Always offer to look into it, get the answers, and follow up.
Decline Interviews If You Must
Don’t be afraid to decline an interview if you don’t have much to say. Bad PR people and agencies will pressure executives into doing any interview that is set up. Some of these people can find a way to convince you that interviewing with Dog Journal is critical to driving revenues for a nuclear plant client. They are placing their agenda or scorecard ahead of the company’s best interest. You pay me to get press. I get you an interview. You decline it. We don’t get press. Then you get upset that we don’t deliver results. We got you the interview but you caused us to miss out on the result. This is how bad PR people think. It happens a lot more frequently than anybody wants to admit. It never occurs to them that a bad opportunity is not an opportunity.
It’s also the reason why I think setting stupid goals like “landing # of press articles” or “getting # of interviews arranged” is ludicrous and fosters bad behavior by bad PR agencies. It’s like compensating sales people by the number of phone calls they make versus the amount of purchase orders received. It makes no sense and yet, a great majority of startups insist on setting PR goals this way. Great PR people and agencies will sense it when there is not a lot to say and sacrifice the small half court shot for the certain big slam dunk down the road. These people are worth their weight in gold.
Set goals based on concrete, specific plans. Your goal may be to get 3 feature stories on a semi-annual basis in publications A-Z. Your goal may be to arrange and execute a media roundtable concerning topic X or Y. Your goal may be to place 10 customer quotes in industry coverage pieces. Whatever you do, avoid general goals like “increase article placements” because it’ll lead to unintended consequences. Get specific with goals.
- John
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