We all know that PR folk are not the only ones who send bad pitches! As we are aware, our HR colleagues pitch all day, every day. When they recruit, what are they doing: they're pitching. When they announce inevitably negative changes to benefits packages, that's really a pitch. You get the idea.
Late last year, a zealous HR pro (her title is a misnomer: Manager of Talent Development) sent an email to a former employee at my agency, RLM. Never mind that he’d been gone for months and is no longer listed on our site — we forgave her idiocy. But she also phoned, sounding anxious to speak with this individual.
So I decided to write back to her and let her know that her pursueee is no longer here, and we wished him well, yada yada, but that she had to leave us alone. The email (thanks to technology) was sent from his box to hers. Imagine my amazement when this was the response received:
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
Subject: RE: Networking
Sent: 10/13/2006 6:42 PM
The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
LASTNAME, Mary on 10/13/2009 6:42 PM
You do not have permission to send to this recipient. For assistance, contact your system administrator.
*******
So let's all have a laugh at Mary's expense. And gees...it’s a good thing Mary doesn’t work in PR. Can you imagine: You pitch aggressively by email and the coveted reporter finally responds…only to find he’s been--what's that you say?--blocked!!
We are so sophisticated so that would never happen. But I bet it occurs all the time in PR; we just don't know it. Have you spoken to your I.T. department lately?
Twitter @laermer
Dear sirs, your blog post did not reach its intended recipients. You do not have permission to send this blog post. For assistance, contact your system administrator.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I have been in this position before. It's bad when you have a server go down while running a startup. It's terrible when it takes your e-mail right with it.
ReplyDeleteI've sent out researched and well-written pitches to carefully selected recipients, only to find out the day after that our e-mail had been out of service for the past 48 hours. Unfortunately for me, Google handled the sending of the e-mail, so I could still make myself look like a jerk.
I think ignorance is bliss in this scenario. If you've been in PR for any amount of time, it's almost definitely happened.
I have this happen a lot, someone will pitch me or ask to be on the show and then in order to return the email you have to go through some complicated process. They contacted me! I have no intention of spending time, making sure they get my email this way.
ReplyDeleteAlso a pet peeve is people who send you an email and then do not respond to yours, when you finally talk to them they say, oh, I never access/read that email. Really? Then why use it?
As someone looking for my first job in PR, thanks for the tip. And possible paranoia!
ReplyDeleteVery nice :)
ReplyDeleteI love your blog.
This reminds me of people who try so hard to get certain things done, but they forget the basics. Don't be a moron! Focus only on what you can focus on, even it means making sure your email works.
ReplyDeletegood Post
What has happened to the BPB? I enjoy reading it and have not seen a new post in quite some time. This must mean you are busy (good) or something is wrong (bad). Which is it?
ReplyDeleteAnon - We're busy (good). Richard was out of the country for awhile and I just helped my employer celebrate 25 years of business.
ReplyDeleteBut don't worry. The bad pitches have not taken a break and as a result, we have plenty of material we are now finally working on again. Stay tuned!