Client Dev & Marketing

PRESS RELEASE ATTRIBUTION CLAUSE – How to benefit from your client’s publicizing hires!

Frank Risalvato

frankrisalvato I have noticed an interesting trend lately that somehow got unnoticed by myself previously. That is, companies sending out exaggerated and hyped up press releases boasting of their recent executive level acquisition to their organization, without any mentioning whatsoever of the search firm that was largely responsible for the event to occur.

As human nature would have it, management tends to take all of the credit for itself during these hiring events. Some of the wording and phrasing I’ve seen lately include such examples as:

“…After an extensive nation-wide search, we are proud to announce the appointment of [someone’s name] to the position of …”

Or

“… We searched high and low to find just the right candidate to head this new department …”

Trouble with some of these sensationalistic press releases and quotes are two-fold:

First

They are usually stuffed with more than just a little marshmallow “fluff”. There is often no “nationwide search” conducted whatsoever (there was not in the ones I’ve been following) and in many instances the companies never paid a proper retainer to correctly execute a professional search.

Secondly

If a company is going to go ahead and spend money for Press Releases and news bulletins, why should the search firm be sidestepped in sharing the limelight?

While understandably, some company CEO’s want to take full credit for their hiring prowess, the search firm ought to be able to at least try to take some credit.

And while 3 out of every 5 companies may turn you down on this idea, some will be willing to go along with it.

Sample Contract Clauses

NOTE: Please keep in mind I make these suggestions as a practical matter and not as a practicing attorney. If you choose to amend your existing agreement your in-house or external legal expert should be consulted. Now that that’s out of the way, here are some suggestions:

Promotional & Publicity

In the event IRES is successful in placing professionals with client, client provides IRES with permission to use client’s company name or logo for promotional purposes.

Should the client promote the hire through public press releases of any kind, client shall insert the wording “using the services of Inter-Regional Executive Search” or “IRES, Inc.” as the procuring source within its press releases, news bulletins, or media announcements.

There you go. Now you have built-in permission to use the company’s logos on your website (should you so choose) or mention them in promotional copy. They must also mention your firm as the relied-upon search consultancy that led to the hire in any publicity or press releases. This translates of course, to some free publicity for yourself.

I have had to sign contracts like this myself when using professional services. Realtors for one are common users of such. Landscape designers, architects are examples of others.

By adding a simple clause to your agreement you can leverage more out of many of your relationships.

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BIOGRAPHY

Within two years after leaving the corporate world for the search industry Frank Risalvato was earning $21,000 single fees – rivaling his previous annual salary on a semi-monthly basis. He founded www.iresinc.com, the search firm he continues to operate today. Today his fees average $37,500 and he works on multiple positions in the $150k range monthly. His recruiter training site now features his newest book “A Manager’s Guide To Maximizing Search Firm Success”. Click the preceding link or the book cover below for the amazon.com order page and buy a handful to share with your clients. 704-243-2110.