By Jordan Baker, Founder of Fair Public Relations and former UK national journalist
A professional services firm should choose a PR agency based on whether that agency can understand its expertise, identify credible stories, explain how those stories would interest journalists and show who will actually deliver the work.
Media logos, impressive presentations and promises to “raise your profile” are not enough.
For a consultancy, accountancy practice, HR adviser, law firm or other expertise-led business, the product being promoted is often partly judgement. The firm may not have a new physical product to photograph or a consumer launch every month. Its strongest stories may come from the knowledge of its people, patterns it sees among clients, data it can legitimately share, changes in its industry or genuine business developments.
That means professional services PR requires a slightly different supplier-selection process.
The central question is not simply:
“Which PR agency looks most impressive?”
It is:
“Which agency can turn what we genuinely know into useful editorial material, while understanding our professional boundaries and commercial goals?”
Why is professional services PR different?
A product company can sometimes put a new object in front of a journalist and let the product itself provide much of the story.
A professional services firm is often selling something less tangible.
Expertise.
Trust.
Experience.
Problem-solving ability.
Specialist knowledge.
A track record.
A relationship.
That creates both an opportunity and a problem.
The opportunity is that journalists constantly need credible people who can explain complicated subjects.
The problem is that every consultancy believes it has expertise.
Saying:
“We are trusted experts in business transformation.”
is not a media strategy.
An agency needs to uncover what that expertise actually looks like.
What has the firm seen?
What can its advisers explain?
Which assumptions can they challenge?
What data exists?
Which developments can they interpret?
What kinds of clients or problems give them first-hand insight?
And which of those things can safely and accurately be discussed publicly?
What can PR realistically achieve for a professional services firm?
Professional services PR can support several different objectives.
A firm may want to strengthen the public profile of a managing partner.
It may want potential clients to see credible independent evidence when researching the company.
It might want one specialist division to become better known.
It may be entering a new market.
It could want stronger recruitment visibility.
It may want its experts to be associated publicly with particular subjects.
Or it may simply want more people in its target market to know it exists.
These are different objectives.
The PR strategy should change accordingly.
What PR cannot responsibly guarantee is that a certain number of articles will automatically turn into a certain number of clients.
A relevant media feature can support awareness, credibility, branded search, sales conversations and online authority. Whether those effects ultimately create revenue depends on many other things, including the quality of the firm's offer, its website, sales process, pricing and market demand.
That distinction matters when choosing an agency.
A good provider should be comfortable explaining what PR can influence and what it cannot control.
Start by deciding what the firm actually wants to achieve
Before asking agencies for proposals, define the problem.
Consider three hypothetical firms.
Example 1: An accountancy partnership
The firm has a strong SME client base but its partners rarely appear publicly.
Its objective is to become better known among business owners.
Potential PR strategy:
accountant commentary around relevant business developments;
practical explanations of finance and tax-related subjects within appropriate professional boundaries;
anonymised patterns seen among clients where the data is lawful and defensible;
partner profiles where genuine expertise supports them.
Example 2: A management consultancy
The consultancy already has large corporate clients but wants to enter a new sector.
Its objective is not general fame.
It needs credibility among a specific group of decision-makers.
Potential strategy:
trade and business media;
research or market observations;
senior consultant interviews;
commentary on sector developments;
relevant case material where permissions allow.
Example 3: A specialist HR adviser
The company wants both clients and stronger recruitment visibility.
Its experts can discuss:
workplace behaviour
employment trends
recruitment
management
employee expectations
organisational change
The agency may therefore need to balance trade, business and broader national media opportunities.
In each example, “more coverage” is too vague an objective.
Whose reputation are you trying to build?
Professional services PR can be firm-led or person-led.
Often it is both.
A consultancy may have a recognised managing partner but several technical specialists who are better sources on particular subjects.
That can be valuable.
Journalists usually need the right source, not automatically the most senior source.
Imagine an employment consultancy.
The CEO understands the business.
The head of employment law understands legislative interpretation.
The recruitment director understands hiring behaviour.
The people lead understands management culture.
Trying to make the CEO comment on everything could weaken the campaign.
An agency should help decide:
who is credible
who is available
who communicates well
which topics belong to whom
whether the company is becoming too dependent on one spokesperson
What are the main routes to professional services coverage?
There are three broad routes.
Proactive expert commentary
The agency identifies a useful subject and approaches journalists before being asked.
For example, a recruitment specialist might offer insight into why a particular hiring practice is changing.
Responsive commentary
Something happens in the news and the agency quickly offers an appropriate expert.
This can be powerful, but requires availability.
A brilliant spokesperson who takes four days to approve three sentences will struggle with fast-moving stories.
Genuine company or sector news
A meaningful expansion, acquisition, research project, senior appointment, market development or other legitimate announcement may itself have editorial potential.
The important word is genuine.
Professional services firms do not need to manufacture a company announcement every month simply to justify the retainer.
Ask what journalists the agency actually understands
A professional services proposal should not simply contain:
“We have relationships with thousands of journalists.”
Relationships can help.
They are not a substitute for relevance.
A journalist covering employment regulation is different from one covering workplace culture.
A legal trade journalist is different from a national consumer writer.
A journalist covering accounting technology may need something completely different from a small-business reporter.
Ask the agency to explain which kinds of publications and journalist beats it sees as relevant.
Then ask why.
The answer should make sense even if you remove every publication logo from the slide deck.
Ask the agency to show you how it thinks about stories
This is one of the most useful buying tests.
Weak proposal
“We will raise the profile of Smith Advisory through strategic media relations, thought leadership and targeted outreach to tier-one press.”
That sounds professional.
It tells you almost nothing.
Stronger proposal
Imagine Smith Advisory specialises in helping manufacturers manage a new reporting requirement.
A more useful agency proposal might say:
Angle 1: What manufacturers are misunderstanding about the change.
Spokesperson: Compliance director with 12 years' sector experience.
Evidence needed: examples of common misconceptions, official source material, anonymised client trends if usable.
Likely media: manufacturing trade titles, relevant business publications and selected national business desks if the wider economic implications justify it.
Editorial difficulty: the topic may be technical, so explanations will need to focus on practical consequences rather than simply repeating legislation.
Now you can assess the thinking.
Evaluate the delivery team, not just the person selling the account
One of the biggest agency-selection mistakes is choosing the pitch and only later discovering who does the work.
Ask:
Who identifies the angles?
Who interviews our experts?
Who drafts comments?
Who researches journalists?
Who actually sends the pitches?
Who answers media queries?
Who reviews strategy if the campaign is not working?
How much access do we have to senior people?
At Fair, founder and senior editorial involvement is important because the entire proposition is based around journalist-led judgement.
Other agencies may have different structures.
That is fine.
The important thing is knowing before you sign.
What proof should a professional services firm request?
Look for verifiable evidence.
Actual articles.
Actual client names where appropriate.
Case studies with enough context to understand what was done.
Relevant sectors.
A clear distinction between press-release syndication and independent journalism.
And realistic explanations of what the result actually meant.
Fair's own Spectrum Search work is relevant here because it involved sustained B2B recruitment and technology expertise being developed into media commentary.
The point is not that another professional services company will achieve the same results.
It is that the case demonstrates the type of expertise-led work being discussed.
Similarly, the existence of an article is more useful evidence than a page full of publisher logos with no explanation of what the agency actually secured.
Be cautious with impressive numbers that lack context
Consider:
“We secured 100 pieces of coverage.”
Useful questions:
Were they 100 independently commissioned articles?
Did syndication create duplicates?
Were some press-release pickups?
Were they relevant to the client's buyers?
Were they paid?
Was the client the main subject or one expert among several?
Did the agency clearly distinguish those formats?
A quantity can be impressive.
Context makes it meaningful.
How should professional firms think about confidentiality?
Professional services companies often possess fascinating data.
They may know:
how client enquiries are changing
what businesses are struggling with
what salary expectations are doing
what contractual problems are recurring
what customers are buying
which services are growing
how management behaviour is changing
That can be valuable editorial material.
But Fair's normal approach is to work primarily with aggregated patterns, figures and trends, rather than unnecessarily exposing identifiable customers.
Anonymisation also needs thought.
Removing somebody's name does not always make information truly anonymous if other details allow them to be identified.
The firm's own compliance, legal and professional responsibilities remain important.
A PR agency should not encourage a client to disclose confidential material simply because the story would be stronger.
What about regulated professionals?
A lawyer, accountant, financial specialist, clinician or other regulated professional may have additional obligations.
The agency should understand that there are boundaries.
But it should not pretend to become the regulator.
For example, a solicitor should normally comment within relevant legal experience and jurisdiction.
A financial expert should not be pushed into giving regulated personal advice simply because the journalist wants a punchier quote.
A healthcare professional should not make claims beyond their clinical competence.
The professional remains responsible for accuracy.
The PR agency's job is to understand those constraints and build useful journalism within them.
How should you compare pricing and scope?
Do not compare monthly fees without comparing what is included.
At Fair, there are two different ongoing services.
Expert Commentary PR is the narrower service for eligible experts whose professional knowledge is itself the media asset.
Current pricing is:
UK: £397 per month
US: US$497 per month
Canada: CAD$747 per month
Standard PR is broader and can include wider founder positioning, company news, products, services and multiple campaign routes.
Current pricing is:
UK: £797 per month
US: US$997 per month
Canada: CAD$1,497 per month
Both currently begin with a three-month initial commitment, followed by one full billing cycle's notice, subject to the current terms at the point of purchase.
Those are Fair's prices.
They are not universal industry benchmarks.
What should your experts contribute?
An agency can remove a huge amount of work.
It cannot remove the need for expertise.
The firm may need to provide:
professional biographies
accurate credentials
opinions
examples
technical explanation
supporting data
client permissions
factual approvals
interview availability
This is particularly important for professional services PR.
If the agency has to invent the expert's views because the expert never responds, the campaign has a fundamental problem.
How much time should professionals realistically spend?
There is no universal monthly figure.
Some commentary takes minutes to approve.
A complicated legal, medical or technical response may require much more care.
What matters more is responsiveness.
An expert who can give a quick initial response and then provide detailed input later may be much easier to work with than someone who disappears for three days every time an opportunity arises.
For Fair's specialist Expert Commentary PR service, we often think of client involvement as relatively light compared with doing PR yourself.
But “done for you” does not mean “no input required”.
How should a professional services firm measure progress?
Separate four things.
Activity
What has actually been created and pitched?
Journalist response
Are journalists replying?
Asking questions?
Requesting interviews?
Wanting data?
Published editorial results
What actually appeared?
Where?
How relevant was it?
Downstream business evidence
Did relevant enquiries appear?
Did branded search change?
Are prospects mentioning media coverage?
Can referral traffic be identified?
Those are different layers.
Journalist interest is encouraging.
It is not publication.
A published article is a result.
It is not automatically proof of revenue.
Agency-selection scorecard
| Criterion | What to ask | A satisfactory answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial relevance | What stories would you pitch first? | Specific ideas connected to our real expertise |
| Sector understanding | What do you think journalists in our field care about? | Reader-focused issues, not jargon |
| Delivery team | Who does the day-to-day work? | Named roles and clear responsibilities |
| Proof | Can we see relevant work? | Verifiable links and context |
| Scope | What exactly is included? | Clear activities and exclusions |
| Client input | What do you need from us? | Realistic participation requirements |
| Pricing | What does the fee cover? | Transparent scope and expenses |
| Reporting | What will we see each month? | Activity, interest, results and next steps |
| Contract | What is the initial commitment and exit process? | Clear written terms |
| Honesty | What happens if the angles aren't working? | Willingness to adapt or say so |
Comparing two hypothetical proposals
Agency A
“We will position your partners as industry-leading thought leaders and secure high-profile national exposure through our extensive media network.”
£4,000 per month.
No named delivery team.
No proposed story.
No explanation of client input.
No reporting methodology.
Agency B
“Your strongest immediate opportunity appears to be your partners' first-hand experience of how the new procurement rules are affecting mid-sized manufacturers. We would initially develop three commentary territories, verify the firm's supporting evidence, identify relevant manufacturing, business and procurement journalists and test those angles. We would expect one subject specialist to be available for factual input. We cannot guarantee publication and would review journalist response after the first phase.”
£X per month.
Even without knowing the prices, Agency B has given you something you can evaluate.
That does not automatically mean it is the better agency.
But it has demonstrated thought.
When might an agency not be right at all?
Sometimes the best PR recommendation is:
not yet.
A firm may first need:
clearer positioning
a credible spokesperson
better evidence
a usable website
permission to discuss client work
internal agreement about what it is actually willing to say publicly
A larger specialist agency may also be better where the organisation needs complex public affairs, crisis management, investor relations, lobbying or coordinated multinational communications.
Fair should not pretend to be the right provider for work outside our actual specialism.
The bottom line
Professional services firms should choose a PR agency that understands how to turn genuine expertise into journalism without turning the experts into adverts.
Ask for story thinking.
Ask who delivers.
Ask for proof.
Ask what you need to contribute.
Ask how results will be reported.
And ask what happens when something is not working.
A credible PR agency should be able to answer those questions without hiding behind famous publication logos.
Frequently asked questions
Should a small consultancy use a general PR agency or a specialist B2B agency?
The label matters less than whether the agency understands your business, audience and likely editorial opportunities. A highly specialist agency can be valuable in a technical sector, particularly where journalists, regulation or terminology require deep subject knowledge. But a broader journalist-led agency may still be a strong fit where it can demonstrate relevant expertise-led work, understands the publications that matter and has a clear strategy. Ask the provider to show you how it would approach your actual business rather than choosing solely on whether “B2B” appears in the agency name.
Can a professional services firm get coverage without announcing company news?
Yes. Professional services firms can often contribute through expert commentary, useful sector observations, properly handled client trends, original data, research and informed interpretation of current developments. A consultancy does not need to invent a new office opening every month. The underlying expertise must be genuine, relevant and sufficiently specific to help a journalist. Publication remains an editorial decision.
How much time should our partners or experts spend on PR?
There is no sensible universal number of hours. The main requirement is sufficient availability to provide genuine input and approve factual material within relevant deadlines. Some responses may take a few minutes. Others require detailed technical review. A managed PR service should reduce the research, writing and pitching burden substantially, but the agency cannot create the professional knowledge itself. The best arrangement is one where the experts can respond promptly without having to become full-time PR staff.
What should we ask a PR agency before signing a contract?
Ask what stories it would initially explore, which audiences and journalists matter, who will deliver the account, what proof it can show, what is included, what is excluded, what input it needs from your team, how it reports activity and results, what the initial commitment is and how cancellation works. Also ask what happens if early angles generate little journalist interest. An agency should be prepared to adapt rather than using “PR takes time” as an excuse for indefinite activity without accountability.
Looking for PR that understands your expertise?
If your consultancy or professional services firm has genuine knowledge to share, Fair Public Relations can help assess whether it has a credible media opportunity.
Our journalist-led approach focuses on useful expert insight, relevant stories and targeted outreach rather than promised placements.
Explore Professional Services PR, compare our PR services, or contact us.
About the author
Jordan Baker is the founder of Fair Public Relations and a former UK national journalist with more than a decade of PR and journalism experience.
View Jordan Baker’s media expert profile
