Say that everything goes perfectly. You're got a hot news story. A TV station in the biggest media market of your backyard calls and wants to do an interview with your client or boss.
Newspaper reporters are calling.
A radio host wants to devote a show to the story.
Here's where it can all go wrong.
Your client or boss isn't hanging around the office reading back issues of People Magazine to catch up on Lady Gaga's latest outfits. Chances are, the person you need right now -- the only one the TV reporter wants to interview, the only one who can give quotes to reporters or go on the radio show -- is the hardest person in the organization to schedule.
They're probably booked for months in advance. I know people who can look at their calendar and tell you who they're having lunch with next March.
All that hard work of researching a story, refining it into a one-sentence pitch and attracting the interest of the media can go to waste if you don't close the deal.
And that means clearing the decks when the media needs your client or boss.
Are they in meetings? Almost certainly.
Are they on a plane or at a hotel 500 miles away? Possibly.
It doesn't matter. When the media wants somebody on deadline, tomorrow or next week may as well be next year to them. They'll drop the story or quote somebody else.
You've got to train bosses, clients and front-line staff to be extremely flexible when the media comes knocking.
I've seen phone message notes floating around in the middle of a pile a week after the reporter called. The only reason to call back, at that point, is to apologize.
It's critical that whoever does scheduling, answers the phones and takes the first look at e-mail gets trained and understands media calls and interviews have a much higher priority than regular items on the schedule.
Failing to do that is like baiting your hook and putting into the water, then walking away from your fishing pole.