People often ask me if a successful company spokesperson is born to the role or created through media training and hard earned experience. What are the skills, temperament and personal qualities that allow them to succeed?
Malcolm Tucker, the no-nonsense government spin doctor in the TV series ‘The Thick of It’, provided a typically colourful answer to the question: “I can only cook with what I’ve been given, you know, it’s like ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’, you give me Hugh Abbot I’ll give you bangers and mash… But if you give me Gerry from the Home Office, well, then I can raise it to a ****** risotto and scallops.”
Without wishing to avoid the question (the best practitioners do this in their stride), the most successful media spokespeople have many innate qualities including an easy charm, sensitivity, a talkative personality and a good memory. But if you include some gentle hints from a PR coach and add the benefit of learning from past experiences their performance can rise to even greater levels of accomplishment.
Successful spokespeople seem to effortlessly move through their agenda seamlessly weaving their key points into their verbal presentation. They understand where the line lies between interesting analysis and company confidential, never crossing into danger zones but always close to the mark.
Their ability to remember an encyclopedia of information and present the salient details in everyday language never fails to impress: “Gold dropped to $395 an ounce in September 1988 while the population basked in an Indian summer and the FTSE struggled to break the 2000 level,” would be a typical response.
Their life is seen as a personal journey rather than a route march through the acronyms and jargon of the corporate jungle, bringing colour into their descriptions with no hint of over blown self-importance. They vividly recall conversations with clients and contacts to provide colour but rarely reveal the source, unless it is permissible to do so.
Somehow they have time to regularly read the journalist’s publication and have interesting comments to make including suggestions for the next conference on the publisher’s calendar. They often are in dialogue with their best media contacts, without the need of a reminder from their PR, to keep them abreast of a recent interesting development.
For individual briefings one or two colourful quotes are prepared in advance. They can rearrange “deckchairs on the Titanic” or expose a “Tsunami of criticism” before reprimanding regulators for behaving “like a retreating army” from poorly prepared legislation.
They avoid ‘off-the-record’ comments as they know that journalists can’t agree on what it means.
Difficult questions are seemingly addressed with candour before bridging techniques are skilfully used to move to their next response. Importantly, answers never stretch the attention span and always get the journalist’s pen moving.
Despite a diary groaning with appointments they always find time in the day to return a journalist’s call providing some different analogy from what previous interviewees have offered.
The lure of the TV camera ensures they drop everything to travel to the studio and are understanding with guest bookers about the short notice.
The requirements may sound daunting but in reality relatively easy to achieve for the right person who recognises that being a successful company spokesperson is a great way to attract the spotlight when it comes to bonus time and promotion.
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