Business Etiquette | Marketing | PR | Training
Ask Crystal
Question: How long is your media training for management?
Signed, Office Administrator
Answer: About 90 minutes if they behave and most do.
Question: I am a receptionist at a busy organization and we have marketing/PR people that deal with the media but sometimes they are not around and I get hammered with questions. I hear about workshops for media training but they are always for the higher ups. Is your media training only for the ‘professionals’?
Signed--Would-be Professional
Answer: As far as I am concerned you are a professional by posing that question. You’ve pointed out what is traditionally the weakest link on the media front: The first point of contact. Management likes to think that everyone at the company knows who should talk to reporters. Wrong, tell that to a smart reporter. I’ve seen organizations get zinged over and over again by assuming only certain people should be trained in media relations. It is incredibly easy to be quoted even when you’re not trying. We offer two Media Relations 101 workshops. One for secretaries, receptionists and general administrative staff and the other for management. Companies that have been burned before are open to having their front-line staff trained. Hopefully, yours will get proactive and avoid that costly mistake.
Question: Isn’t etiquette about which fork to use and sticking your little pinky out when holding a tea cup? That’s so not happening. So what’s the connection to business development?
A fork is a fork, where's the Biz?
Answer: Emily Post, the most well-known etiquette expert, once got so frustrated by letters from people asking about which fork to use that in a fit of anger she told her secretary to reply, “It doesn’t matter, as long as you use a fork!”
Etiquette isn’t about rules, it is about forging relationships and relationships lead to businesses. We all prefer to do business with people we like. When you intelligently engage in the principles of etiquette (consideration, respect and honesty), you will have a distinct advantage in getting and keeping clients.