How to Build Relationships Before You Pitch

This infographic shows the roles and responsibilities which should be represented on your crisis response team to help prepare your for the eventuality of a crisis. You can’t predict the next crisis to impact your company, but effective preparation and the right cross-functional team can help mitigate its effects on your company’s reputation and bottom line. Issue management is more than a PR function, and each team member plays an integral role in weathering a crisis effectively. Be sure you have these six roles represented—and collaborating—on your crisis communications team. The six roles are described below: Public Relations - Your company’s PR team should be constantly monitoring for potential issues and developing response templates for a variety of scenarios. When a situation arises, PR is responsible for crafting statements, media outreach, fielding inbound calls, overseeing press releases, and prepping others in the organization for interviews—all to ensure uniform messaging. Marketing - Marketing plays a key role in message development during a crisis. Customer communications are often their priority, while PR colleagues tailor speaking points to the media and monitor the public’s attitudes and reactions. Legal - Your legal team provides critical input on minimizing risk and plays an active role in reviewing messages and providing analysis and advice. Your general counsel understands important legal nuances that other departments may overlook. Product Management - The Senior Product Manager is responsible for any technical or safety issue that arises with a product. They provide insight into the cause, its impact on customers, and a resolution plan to ensure the issue is clearly and accurately articulated to customers and the media. Information Security - In the event of an information security issue—such as a customer data breach—your company’s Chief Security Officer provides visibility and insight into the nature of a cyberattack, other instances of unauthorized access and security threats. Investor Relations - Investor relations is responsible for discerning and communicating the financial effects of a situation to shareholders and other investors. They are tasked with balancing investor’s concerns and the company’s reputation during a crisis by being honest about the impact the crisis has on the company’s finances, even if it causes apprehension in shareholders. Source: link text