You’re a public relations professional and you’ve secured some coverage for your client. They are going to meet a journalist but they don’t appear willing to practice for the interview. Here’s a strategy that might help.

Clapperton Media Training is proud to announce that founder, chief executive and tea maker Guy Clapperton has been named among the inaugural Independent Impact 50, which aims to showcase the influence, commitment and contribution of the UK’s independent PR sector.

“It’s great to be able to share in this long-overdue celebration of an independent practitioner community that been ignored for too long,” says Guy. “It is so refreshing to see independent practitioners being truly celebrated and showcased for the value what they do, not who they work for”

As Guy says in the video, this was a particular pleasure because he and his colleagues are trainers rather than pure-play PR practitioners which makes this sort of recognition very special.

The winners aren’t ranked, just listed. PRovokeMedia has the full story here.

You’re in an interview and you’re the sales director. The journalist starts asking about marketing. Or sales. Or HR.

There are ways of coping. Blurting out answers because you think you ought to say SOMETHING isn’t the best.

Check this video for Guy’s thoughts.

“No Comment” is something people often say when they don’t want journalists to write anything.

It doesn’t work. When lead trainer Guy was a very young journalist the chair of a major technology company told him he didn’t want to comment on something and he didn’t want to see that coming out as “NAME declined to comment” either.

At the tender age of 24 or so, Guy allowed himself to be pushed into this and didn’t put it in. Which was wrong as stating that the chair had declined to comment would have been a perfectly accurate statement of what took place in the conversation.

The chair in question was presumably savvy enough to realise that “no comment” never sounds completely neutral. Here’s a short video with another example – seriously, try never to say it. It really doesn’t work.