How to Evaluate Your PR Partner — Red Flags, Green Flags, Beige Flags
Hiring a PR partner — whether it’s a solo consultant or a full-blown agency — should feel like adding a strategic extension of your team. A PR partner is not someone just thinking about press releases or securing you media hits, but your strategic ally about how your brand shows up in the world.
Too often, founders and marketers make this decision based on the wrong set of criteria. They get dazzled by reporter name-drops, or stuck on whether someone has expertise in their exact space (spoiler: that’s not the thing that matters).
If I were hiring a PR agency or partner tomorrow, here’s exactly how my brain would process the situation: red flags, green flags, and those beige flags that don’t scream “run,” but definitely give me pause.
🚩 Red Flags (Proceed with Extreme Caution)
They lead with media relationships.
If someone’s biggest flex is “I know someone at TechCrunch,” run. Don’t get me wrong, relationships help, but they’re not a strategy. Editors switch jobs, reporters go in-house, and contacts lose relevance overnight.
What matters is: can they craft a great story, find the right reporter for it, and get said reporter to care — even if they’ve never talked before? That’s the real flex
Every example is a recycled case study.
If they keep referencing the same case study from three years ago (or longer, heaven forbid) and can’t have a real-time conversation about your company’s stage, strategy, or challenges at this very moment…it’s a no for me.
The best PR people have a finger on the pulse of the larger industry, and be able to guide you as a result. You shouldn’t expect to get a full blown plan based off of an introductory call, but the conversation should be compelling and engaging from the get go.
They promise coverage.
If someone guarantees media hits before understanding your business, product, or positioning, walk away. Good PR takes time, access, and angles. It’s a partnership, not a vending machine.
Yes, you should absolutely expect to get media coverage in return for hiring someone, but the tier and depth of that coverage will vary significantly based on each unique business. Because “we want to be in WIRED” is not a strategy — and it might not even be what your business needs.
They won’t show you their writing.
PR is a writing-first job, and you’d be shocked how many PR people are bad writers (I don’t make the rules, I just follow em).
If they can’t show you samples — of bylines, press releases, blog posts, technical content — you’re flying blind. And if the writing isn’t good you will be in an endless loop of edits and revisions with little to no coverage to show for it. Remember, you’re hiring them to speak on your behalf. You should know they can do that well.
✅ Green Flags (Put a Ring on It)
They understand your buyer.
Okay yes, if you’re a B2B company, you should seek out a PR partner with B2B experience, but they don’t need to fit squarely within your space. For example, if you’re a cybersecurity company but your PR partner has more experience with AI, you’ll be just fine.
What you really need is someone who understands your buyer, how they evaluate tools, what problems keep them up at night, and how your company fits into that picture. That’s what makes a story resonate — especially in B2B. Without that context it will be nearly impossible to secure relevant, timely stories.
They can talk to both your CEO and your most technical engineer.
Range matters. You want someone who can extract deep technical insights from your most technical engineers and go toe-to-toe with your CEO or board members on messaging and strategy.
They don’t need to be a senior engineer, but they should have enough context to ask the right questions and extract a story from a very technical discussion. In the same vein, they need to have the executive presence to connect with your c-suite and influence them as needed. Otherwise, you’ll end up as the go-between and burnt out from managing the relationships for them.
They push back.
Founders don’t need another yes-man, especially with external partners. You want someone who’s going to tell you, kindly but clearly, when something isn’t news, when a story isn’t ready, or when your messaging needs work.
I learned this very early on in my career, when clients started following me for my strategic council, not just the work I was able to produce. It’s easy to say yes. It’s harder (and more valuable) to say “not yet, but here’s what we’d need to get it there.”
They’re thinking beyond the day-to-day.
Yes, the daily execution matters as does updates with consistency. But they should also be proactive, spot new stories to tell, flag trends, and connect dots across marketing. They should be reading your investor updates and product messaging and thinking, “That could be a killer story.”
Instead of just checking boxes, they’re thinking about your business holistically and digging in to understand what is truly going to move the needle. That is what makes a PR partner incredibly valuable.
🤷♀️ Beige Flags (Pump the Breaks)
They “specialize” in your category.
On the one hand, this could mean they deeply understand your space — but it could also mean they’ve run the same stale playbook 12 times. When you see this, ask questions like “how do you approach storytelling for different buyers?” or “How do you keep your angles fresh when the space gets crowded?”
They’re super buttoned-up.
Don’t get me wrong, professionalism is good. But if every conversation feels like a rehearsed pitch, you may never get to real collaboration. Look for someone who can loosen up, think with you, and act like an embedded team member — not just a vendor.
It’s also worth mentioning that this can also swing in the other direction. They could be a really fun person to talk to every week, but their results aren’t showing up in the same way.
They say yes to everything.
This is a beige flag that quickly becomes a red one. If someone agrees with every idea you have, they’re probably not thinking critically, or they’re trying too hard to stay on your good side.
Push them a little during your early discussions and see how they react. You want someone who can hold their own and respect your vision.
If It Feels Off, It Is
I encourage you to trust your gut when hiring a PR partner. Think critically, but know that if you’re just not feeling like there’s much “there” there, you’re probably right. PR is a chemistry-driven business. You’re trusting someone to tell your story, speak to your execs, and go to bat for your brand. If it feels off now, it’ll feel worse three months in.
The best partnerships click early. There’s momentum. Curiosity. A sense that they get what you’re building and want to be part of it. If you’re not getting that, don’t ignore the red flag waving in your brain. You deserve a partner who challenges you, sharpens your story, and knows how to get sh*t done.
Go find them.