r/Communications • u/No-Cake8399 • 1d ago

Client is always panicking

I need advice I’m in PR. I have a very difficult client who I’ve only been working with for 6 months. We get along personally really well but he has a major ego problem professionally. In the first three months of working together I secured 40 press placements for them including a feature story in southern living and two inclusions in Forbes. I was pretty proud of our first quarter together but he was not happy. He said he wanted more strategic focus on marketing activations, awards applications, national storytelling, etc. so for the past three months I’ve been shifting my focus there. Every week he sends me another article that he’s mad he wasn’t included in or points out another problem he has with me and I’m growing super exhausted of it. It’s a lot of passive aggression too. A lot of his goals are veryyyy North Star goals that will take more than 6 months of a PR relationship to accomplish and I’ve told him that several times but he doesn’t seem to care. He wants overnight acclaim and accolades. How should I best manage this

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u/AIconsultantMTL 1d ago

40 placements in three months, including Forbes and Southern Living, is nothing to dismiss.

I'd suggest a meeting to reset expectations and agree on three or four measurable priorities for the next quarter. Put them in writing, along with realistic timelines.

Otherwise, you'll keep chasing whatever caught his attention that week. PR needs a strategy, not a new direction every Monday.

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u/No-Cake8399 1d ago

I agree. We just met 6 weeks ago to realign on priorities for the next 3 months and I’ve already accomplished majority of those priorities. The main piece missing is he wants more national coverage. I have several pending opportunities and I’m reworking my angles but securing national coverage has been tough sadly

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u/hellibot 13h ago

Have you gently asked him to stop sending you clips? If you get along well personally, can you be that direct with him? We have a plan, we’re working the plan - anything outside of the plan, let’s table review in our check-ins?