Poor experience with RacePoint PR Firm
I had a very disturbing call with a representative from RacePoint public relations firm today. It seems that all they want to talk about is money — meaning how much I will pay them — before they even told me what they could do for me. Here’s the email I sent them today.
I am extremely insulted by a recent call I got from one of your representatives. The only issue he wanted to discuss was money. I had sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) with our desired needs, and what came back to me was that it would cost $15K minimum. Not who would be on the account. Not questions about the RFP. Not what you could do for TalkShoe, but only money.
Frankly, I’d be happy to pay you $20,000/month+ if your firm can produce results. I just resent the very first call only being about money, and not about your capabilities.
The RFP I sent you was very broad, so that you could give me an overall sense of your capabilties. When I asked what could be taken out of the RFP to get the price more in the $10,000 range, the answer was sorry, there’s nothing we can do. That makes no sense. Clearly if you spend less hours (for example by eliminating PR with national press), it would cost less than going after national press, right?
I feel like I am being treated like an idiot. I know the PR process and have been a VP of Marketing for 15 years. I am also a professor at a major US university and in fact teach marketing, PR, advertising, etc. I know that retainer pricing is ultimately about price/hour, and PR firms estimate the approximate number of hours it would take to service a given customer. What ever happened to “earning the customer’s business”? Surely a better approach would have been to tell me all the great things you can do for TalkShoe and then talk price. Or asking me to clarify the RFP, or something.
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I cringe every time I hear something like this – not only does it hurt the reputation of this firm individually, it hurts the industry as a whole. While I have run across firms that are solely focused on profits, the vast majority of PR practitioners operate their businesses with passion, insight, commitment and a focus on achieving results for their clients. I hope you are able to find a firm that will focus on meeting–and exceeding–your business goals…
Hi Mark -
As an agency owner I do understand the need to set a minimum bar: at some point you take a 10K account and it represents an “opportunity cost.” There are only so many hours in the day, and with that 10K account in-hand you’ve essentially lost an opportunity to handle a 15-20K account with the same team.
HOWEVER, there’s something to be said for courtesy and helpfulness, for the plain sake of being courteous and respectful. Whether your budget is $5k, $15k or $50k per month, my bet is that you’ll never call Racepoint in the future.
(Of course, if it’s not too late, we’d be happy to chat with you at SHIFT. Even if we can’t help you out we’re always good about helping find alternatives.)
Best of luck.