Personal PR Strategies for Creating Power and Influence

New York City, August 15, 1990 – It’s a small world. Seated for lunch by the gurgling pool at New York’s famous Four Seasons Restaurant, Robert L. Dilenschneider takes the phone from a solicitous headwaiter and places a quick call to his office. The global gossip mill has just reported an attempt on the life of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. As personal PR representative to a consortium of Kuwaiti organizations which calls itself “Citizens for A Free Kuwait,” it’s vital that Dilenschneider learn if a successful coup has been mounted. The story remains unconfirmed and lunch progresses.

Dilenschneider, who joined public relations giant Hill and Knowlton, one of the largest and most prestigious PR firms in the world, in 1967 and became its president and CEO in 1986, oversees more than 2,000 people worldwide who serve the interests of business and government in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Dilenschneider personally has counseled seven of Fortune magazine’s “ten toughest bosses,” managed such public relations crises as the Kansas City Hyatt Hotel disaster, the U.S. Steel/Marathon merger, and Three Mile Island, and has been known to take 4 a.m. phone calls from corporate chieftains besieged by a rumor ravenous media.

A man who specializes in handling the tough curves that life pitches, Dilenschneider can also size up the spin on a fastball in seconds, and spot a spitball from 300 yards. In this cover story based on an exclusive PSP interview conducted by Gerhard Gschwandtner, Dilenschneider talks frankly about how sales managers can develop personal persuasion strategies during the first 100 days on the job to attain the power and influence they need to reach their goals.

Burned by the press…

An incident in Robert Dilenschneider’s childhood may have set the stage for his current professional success. According to a story in his book, Power and Influence, Mastering the Art of Persuasion Prentice Hall Press, Hardcover, 1990, $19.95), Robert, aged ten, accompanied his father to work one day when a threatened strike by press operators and typesetters would have shut down the Columbus Citizen. As his father marathon negotiated to keep the presses rolling, a linotype operator punched out Robert’s name on his machine and, with a gloved hand, gave it to the little boy who was fascinated by the technique. Little Robert, who failed to recognize the cynicism behind the man’s warm smile, reached out and took the hot type. As it scorched his fingers, he struggled to hold back a scream. He claims that today, when he hears from business leaders who have been “burned” by the press, he laughs to himself and knows exactly what they mean.

Salespeople who have been burned by customers, purchasing agents and the competition know better than to expose themselves to circumstances where it might happen again. Or do they? Sometimes, in the course of landing a big account, it’s not always clear just when you’ve been had. Dilenschneider’s experiences on the firing line have given him a unique perspective on how to size up a gift horse, handle a huckster or label a libel.

“If you think someone, a competitor in another company perhaps, or a manager seeking to climb some ladder within your own, is out to get you, control your exposure. If that means being careful about what you say and do in meetings, taking extra care with customers in the field, listening closely to news within the company and your territory and sorting that news out to see what’s behind the headlines, do it. You’ll be respected by your superiors for keeping up on what’s happening and your customers will appreciate the extra attention you pay to them, especially if your competition is making outrageous claims that you know he can’t fulfill.

“Let’s say a peer has claimed your idea as his own. You don’t like it and it has happened more than once. Write a note telling the peer that you’re glad your idea was so workable and offer your assistance with any implementation help down the road. Be sure to send copies of the note to both your own boss and the pirate’s.”

There are so many permutations of ways to be had that it’s almost futile to try to address them all. In Dilenschneider’s world, once burned, forever cautious. The best advice may be to wise up. If you’ve been burned more than once in the same way or by the same person, either put some distance between you, or figure out exactly what’s happened in the past, predict that it will happen again and be ready with a strategy for dealing with it the next time.

Managers who have just signed on to a new position or with a new company have a special task facing them. It’s called the first 100 days and it takes some real skill to set a straight course for success.

“You really should do three things. The first thing you must decide on is a very personal agenda and focus all of those energies and all of those talents on that agenda and make sure that nothing gets in the way of focusing those energies on those objectives. That’s number one.

“You might have a whole series of objectives. For instance, one could be motivating the sales force. Another could be creating a relationship with the production line so that there is good feedback between the sales force and the production line. Another could be dealing with distributors or calling on key customers who would by virtue of their endorsement send a signal to the manager’s entire customer base. One objective a new manager should not focus on is the sales target. That’s too broad for the first 100 days. He knows what the sales target is and it’s not going to change. He’s got to focus on how to reach the sales target. Instead of jumping into tactical issues and jumping on the fire truck and extinguishing fires, he should map out a comprehensive overall strategy. That is absolutely critical.

“The second thing that I think he should do is find ways to give power to those who are going to make him look good or do the job for him – in other words, the sales force. The best way to do that, I think, is to work with them and ask them for their ideas. A lot of managers today are unwilling to get down in the trenches with the sales force. But I have found that if a manager is willing to do that, to make an occasional call, make an occasional contact, ask the salesman for his ideas, he empowers them and creates a much better image within the team. That’s the second really critical area.

“The third area is managing upwards. The new sales manager is going to need the support of his management at every step of the way. Nobody is perfect and everybody is going to have some problems from time to time. So the key is to find ways to constructively manage upward. The way to do that, I think, is by learning what management expects in terms of the way company culture should run. Most managements want the company to run on the basis of teamwork. So if you demonstrate to the top management that you’re building a team, that will encourage them to give you the kind of support you need to get the job done.”

Dilenschneider’s methods for establishing power and influence in the first 100 days speak volumes about this man who regularly hobnobs with heads of state, chiefs of corporations and wealthy power brokers from all walks of life. As a youngster he was used to seeing important and influential newspaper editors make regular visits to his house where they would discuss major political, social and economic issues before deciding on their papers’ positions. Years later, during the Kennedy admin-istration’s push to land a manned mission on the moon, Dilenschneider was working on his master’s thesis on crisis communication and focusing on NASA. Postgrad Bob sat with the press during the Gemini VI mission when suddenly the astronauts were having trouble in space and NASA cut off all flow of information to the press. A near revolt ensued as Time magazine’s reporter took off his polished loafer and beat it on a desk yelling for access and threatening to break down the door of NASA’s public information office. Reporters cheered and finally NASA resumed communication after the astronauts, who were feared lost in space, regained control of their vehicle.

In ensuing years, Dilenschneider spent many hours observing the press. He came to view the media as from a prism. To him they came to be, in turn, a business, an institution, a group of crusaders, and an annoyance. In the final analysis, he has come away from his forays with the press armed with one quality that any salesperson would do well to emulate – detachment.

It’s important to be passionate about your product or service, to love it and to understand its value. Then, at crucial selling times, you have to be able to stand back and be detached. A position of passion and detachment, although they may seem mutually exclusive, together create the strength and determination vital for success in sales.Dilenschneider’s strategy: watch the action, set your goals, plan your countermoves, yet never let the action control what you do and say.

“You have to manage upward but you have to jump very carefully because you can be set up for failure, not just by the people above you but by the people who are competing with you. I think you have to manage upward in a very precise and focused way, saying to the person above you, `This is precisely how I’m supporting you. This is exactly the focus I’m bringing to the product that we’re involved in.’ Give the person above you the opportunity to declare victory, so that the person above the sales manager has the chance to say, `This worked’ – in effect, to take the glory. Now if he takes the glory he will pass it down to you and to those people below you. But give him the opportunity to declare victory. Give him the opportunity to reward winners. Give him or her the opportunity to observe, but not to be a part of the punishment of losers.

“This newly appointed executive should give people above him or her more opportunities to declare winners and, at the same time, create more opportunities for his salespeople down line to win.

“The sales manager should also be aware – this will sound a bit unbelievable I’m sure, but it’s accurate – of the personal needs and wants of the person above him. Is he a baseball fan? Is he a lover of opera? Is he a member of the PTA? And how can you and the sales force work to support him and get on his good side so that you become an indispensable resource for him? The key is to become an indispensable resource for the person above you. To try to go any other way to block him or her would be a tremendous mistake.

“Now some people confuse management with reform. They want to reform people around them and they may try to educate them. Reform can be achieved but only over time and very slowly. Everybody has his own way of doing things. I’ve had many people who have come in and said they’re going to change the way I’m doing things. That immediately sets me off and makes me say, `No you’re not. That’s not going to happen.’ So I think somebody who does that is making a big mistake.”

Once a new manager has solidified the in-house base, he or she must begin canvassing customers and see what the competition has in store. The objective – develop one cohesive team from top to bottom and on all sides.

“I think that your organization, your company, if it’s doing its job, will associate itself with certain qualities that are important to the consuming public. For instance, perhaps a cereal company associates itself with nutrition, an aerospace company associates itself with technology or a motorcycle company with recreation. So I think you have to recognize that if those are the kinds of associations your company has, you ought to be involved in events, activities, with clubs, with other people, that can enhance association. That way you really get a one plus one equals three kind of synergy. For instance, if you go out on your own and you’re working for Harley Davidson, and you get involved in off-track or dirt bike racing, the company may not know about it. Eventually the company will find out about it, and through your associations and through your involvement, you will add an enormous amount to the company, you’ll look good to the company plus you’ll help the company achieve its objectives.

“I would advise strongly against anybody in a company saying, `Well, these things don’t have anything to do with the company but I’m going to do them anyhow.’ That’s really a waste of your time. The Japanese are very good at this. In Japanese companies throughout the world, and particularly in Japan, the entire work force dedicates itself to the principles that drive the company. That creates an enormous personal army of supporters who really help drive the company forward. And they drive the company forward through many ways: through associations they make, through opportunities that are developed through these associations, through the very force and demonstration of their personalities to the rest of the work force. They also make a statement in the marketplace by doing that.”

It’s not been unknown for peers and managers downline to set up a new manager for target practice. To advance their own agendas and to gain power during those vulnerable first 100 days, such people may try to manipulate a newly appointed manager. Therefore, newly appointed managers should decide what ideas to advance and which ones to drop.

“It’s very much like running a political campaign. I think if you have ten ideas you must decide on the two or three that are the easiest and advance those first and be successful with them. That will demonstrate to those around you that you may have ideas and these ideas can be followed through on and be successful. That will give you the opportunity to get to the third idea which is harder and more difficult and that will help you gain support as you attack the third idea. Set priorities with your idea agenda. Take the idea that is the easiest to execute with the most visibility and best results first. Then go to the next one.

“Now if you take the hardest one first, you might stretch your entire career working on the hardest idea. As worthwhile as that might be, you’re really not bringing together all the force necessary to help you with that hard idea.

“When management picks a tough problem and they say that the ball is in your court and tell you to get to work on it, the best thing to do is build a team around that problem and not try to tackle it by yourself. Have the team tackle the problem and then constantly report up to the management and demonstrate that it’s not just you alone, but a team of people making this progress. So if they’ve slotted you with failure with this idea, then the entire team fails, which management can’t afford. If they’re slotting you for success, demonstrate that you can build a team in order to have better thinking and better support for the solution to the idea.”

To set yourself up for success in the first 100 days, Dilenschneider suggests communication as the number one key.

“I think the most important first tool you can use is one to one communication with the people who are going to help you get the job done – the motivation of that group. I would sit down with them individually, providing it’s a small enough group. And I would learn from them what their desires are, what their wants are, what their needs are. And I would say to them, `I can help you get what you want. But to do that, here’s what you have to do to support the organization and me as we go forward.’ That’s the first step. The second step, I think, is to determine what is going to be important to that group. Is it going to be important to that group that they all get out and speak? Then you should give a speech by demonstration. Is it important to that group that they all publish articles? Then you should publish an article by demonstration. That will further motivate the group. The third thing is to look to the various resources of the company that you may not have tapped, whether it’s the research people or the PR people or the advertising people or the quality people, whoever it happens to be, and involve them in the process of making your area of the company successful.

“I think if you look for opportunities to help your customers, help your people, help other people in the company, they are going to say when the time comes, `I’m going to help you.’ The favor bank doesn’t work unless you deposit favors into it. You can’t withdraw just by being there. And you certainly can’t withdraw because you’re a celebrity or because you have power. If you do that, people will dislike you. You have to put things into the favor bank all the time as well as withdrawing them. It’s got to be a two way street. A lot of people rise to high positions just to withdraw from the favor bank and they don’t put back in. That’s a big mistake. In the end it gets them. I always try to keep my favor bank balance about 30 percent giving rather than taking. Because I will always want to draw from that bank from time to time and I never try to ask a person too many times or to ask too close on the heels of the last one. But I’m always there if somebody needs a favor from my bank.

“You have to be a giver and always be looking for opportunities to help other people achieve their goals. I think it works with your customers, with your sales force, with your management, with people around you, with people in your company. It works with everybody.”

Hmmm, 30 percent more in the favor bank may net you 60 percent more in reciprocity down the road. It’s an attractive equation and one that works as long as you are vigilant. Or, as Alan Alda once said, “Be fair with others, but then keep after them until they are fair with you.” If the favor bank is one way to build capital, what about dealing with the competition and what they may be saying about your product or company?

“If someone says something derogatory about your product, and you find out about it, deal with it once and that’s it. Put it behind you. After that ignore it. It’s like what Cardinal Newman said in mid 19th century London: `How many times can I deny that I’m a liar? The number of times you deny it, you reinforce it.’ It is creative deletion. In my book I wrote about the Dukakis/Bush campaign where Bush never called Dukakis anything but the governor of Massachusetts. He never mentioned Dukakis by name. That was brilliant. It’s the same idea. For instance, here we may refer to our competition, but never by name. There’s no need to mention the current competitors. You simply reinforce the situation.”

Sometimes managers just starting with a company feel the need to show their power and influence before they’ve even solidified a base of operation. In Dilenschneider’s rule book this ranks as a no no.

“I remember one of the first promotions I got. I was asked to move to Chicago from New York. The people whom I met in Chicago voted on whether or not I should have an office with a window. When I found out they were voting, I decided I would take an office back in the mailroom. I sat back in the mailroom for six months amid packing crates and boxes and Xerox machines. I held meetings back in the mailroom. I didn’t take the big office. I didn’t take all the big trappings, but I had people come back and see me. And eventually I demonstrated to them that I was prepared to do whatever it took and I didn’t need a big, fancy office. I ended up with a nice office with lots of windows. In the beginning I think it’s very important not to go for those things.

“Don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t flaunt trappings of power. But at the same time, it’s a very careful line to walk because you’ve got to demonstrate to your people that you symbolize what power and influence are all about. I go regularly to The Four Seasons restaurant in New York and I always try to sit at a table where it’s obvious we’re in the restaurant. So when people come in, whether they’re from my staff or customers or even competitors, they see we’re there and we demonstrate our presence as a form of power and influence.”

Managing information is paramount to making a successful management transition. Paradoxically, in an era in which the mass of information available is less important than the ability to retrieve what’s specifically relevant to the task at hand, new managers have a dual dilemma: how to manage general world news and how to retrieve and control specific news relevant to goal oriented, task driven success. Dilenschneider has a system for both.

” I have two retired people, one in the UK and one in Boston, whom I pay a small amount of money to furnish me every two weeks with a report called The World Behind The Headlines. These two people comb through all the periodicals and journals that are important to me and my clients and then furnish me with five or six page briefs – documents that are in-depth intelligence that I couldn’t get from weeks of reading. That’s a very helpful intelligence source for me.

“In other words, I think if you rely on just The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, you miss the world. There is a paradox in this country right now. We are overloaded with information on the one hand and on the other hand we cannot find what we’re looking for. On one hand the lack of specific information tends to lead managers to save time and gamble with their opportunities and go on instincts and guts and they may make stupid decisions. I address that in two ways. Number one, I have very specific priorities. I marshall my information needs against those priorities. For instance, if I am working on Campbell’s Soup, I want information about Campbell’s Soup and its competitors and its lines of business and nothing more. I don’t take any other information. So that’s the first thing. Marshalling my information sources against my priorities. To do that requires an ability to focus on what is relevant and what’s not – and it requires real discipline. The second thing is, I want a general global view. I don’t want to take a lot of time, but maybe five percent of my time, in understanding what’s happening in the world. Based on that, my mind can work in a way that it says, `This is happening here, this is happening there. I should drop down and learn more about this. But everything in between there, which is a vast sea of data, I don’t want.’

“Sales managers and salespeople who watch general news shows every morning or the nightly business report may spend four to eight hours a week, or ten hours a week, in increasing their world view information bank and spend only one or two hours increasing the data bank that is relevant to their field. It’s an 80/20 relationship skewed in the wrong direction because there’s a vast sea of data out there that is of enormous interest but which has nothing to do with achieving your success.”

Two relevant issues to the sea of data looming on the horizon every day are: how to find it quickly and how to sift out the important from the nonessential. It’s a question of focus and that, in itself, is a craft that Robert Dilenschneider has honed to a fine art.

“Once I’ve set the priority and I have a large amount of data coming in, I’ve trained my executive assistant to prioritize the data. This has enhanced her job. And once she has prioritized the data then I read the headlines. I put a lot of emphasis on the headline and on the sub-heads. And once I’ve read those then I know what I want and I go deeper into the data. It’s a sifting process but it can really be done in a matter of minutes. You’re always motivating your group. If you’re a good manager, I think, you’re looking for bits and scraps of information that you can send in.

“In a crisis, I normally do four things. First, I go to my research department, give them some key words and ask them to go to other sources for all the information they can possibly get. Second, I get a security analyst’s report on the industry or on the topic that is being covered. Normally the analysts cover things in depth. Third, I go to individuals at various newspapers or magazines who are known experts in the area and I talk to them. And fourth, I always talk to a banker who is close to the situation through a variety of loans or financial transactions. And those are the four ways I get inside data very quickly. The whole process takes maybe 30 minutes.

“For instance, I’ve been in thousands of cities and towns around the world and I have a rolodex file of everybody I’ve met of significance in those towns. You get business cards. The Japanese do the same thing. If I’m going to a city or a town, I say to my secretary, `I’m going to Minneapolis.’ She gives me a list of 50 people in Minneapolis. I look for the amount of time that I have available that might be free, and I try to find ways either to call or meet those people to renew those relationships – to make a deposit in the favor bank and get information.”

If Dilenschneider is a master at synthesizing the cacophony of world information into the steady hum of a well oiled engine, he is also the commander-in-chief of the grapevine. In fact, his book gives almost a step-by-step approach for being able to orchestrate a successful word of mouth campaign.

“First I find out what the grapevine really is. For instance, there are a number of people who love to feed the grapevine. I want to find out who those people are. The second thing I do is identify one or two of those people and swear them to absolute loyalty. I say, `If I tell you something and it’s communicated any way other than the way I tell you, you and I have a problem.’ So all of a sudden I have a person using the grapevine to communicate exactly what I want communicated. The third thing I do is sometimes I will say to somebody, `A lot of people need to know this but I can’t tell them.’ And people automatically take that and get it out there. And the fourth thing I do is ask people, `What are you hearing from the grapevine?’ I’m constantly asking people what they hear. So I learn a great deal from the grapevine. The grapevine works incredibly quickly.

“For a newly appointed sales manager the grapevine is very important because the word will get out on you as fast as you do things. The steps you take, congratulating a secretary, helping the mailboy, making a sales call, are the things the grapevine begins to talk about. In those first 100 days, the grapevine plays a critical role.”

Any manager who has paid his or her dues and risen through the ranks has a favorite sale – one that stands out in memory usually for its learning lesson. Dilenschneider is no exception.

“I was making a presentation for our services to a Mr. Richard Jacob. He ran a company called Dayco and he was one of Fortune magazine’s ten toughest bosses. Richard Jacob weighed about 350 pounds, was totally bald and one of the meanest men I’ve ever met. Before walking in to make the sale, my associate, a woman named Barbara Molotsky, asked, `What happens if he swears at us and throws us out?’ I answered, `We’ll simply upset his desk and attack him.’ We went into the office and, although he turned out to be a terrific guy, in the first few minutes it was clear you could see his temper rising. So I simply said to him, `You have two choices. You can get mad and we’ll leave and then you’ll be stuck with your problem and no solution. Or you can listen to us and work with us and we’ll stay and help you solve your problem. Then, your long-term income, the future of your company and the future of your family is going to be assured. You have a choice to make right now. You make it.’

“In my opinion he was not deserving of the title of one of the ten toughest bosses. He really worked with us to help implement a major program that turned his company around. I’ll never forget that sale.

“One other memorable sale comes to mind. We were presenting to the Philadelphia Electric Company and they didn’t like our presentation and one executive stood up and suddenly fired an ashtray down the length of the table. We ducked (he had a very bad aim actually) and that ashtray shattered the window. I walked over and drew the curtain and said, `It’s very cold out today and I don’t want you to get a chill before we’re through with the presentation.’ That’s exactly what happened.”

Dilenschneider is a man who knows the value of solicitude and the weight of understatement. Without ever stating the obvious, he told the prospect to chill out and then went on to close the sale.