TL;DR: What to Consider When Choosing a Spokesperson

Your CEO isn't always your best choice.
Four red flags we look for to root out executives that are not a good fit: they lack depth, have a history of ghosting, overthink everything, or constantly question PR.
Ask yourself: does your candidate fit your primary PR goals, come up with thought-provoking ideas to speak on, and commit the time to media and content efforts?
After you’ve worked with one spokesperson for a while, think about broadening your efforts to create a “bench” that can speak to a range of topics and audiences.

As your brand kickstarts PR efforts, one of your first steps will be to determine the right executive spokesperson for your strategy.

Your ideal corporate spokesperson is an executive for external communications efforts that help build awareness and authority for your brand. This can be everything from media interviews to speaking engagements and owned content creation.

Your instinct might be to say: “Well, our CEO, of course.”

Wait. Your CEO might be a great candidate. She might not. Not every CEO is a media-savvy wizard like Warren Buffett or Sara Blakely.

So what goes into picking the right spokesperson for a company? That’s what we’re here to help determine.

Rule Out What You’re NOT Looking for in a Media Spokesperson

To figure out who on your executive team could be a great spokesperson, it’s often easier to first root out what a great spokesperson is not.

Here’s what we try to avoid:

A Lack of Depth – Getting pertinent information and stories from them is like pulling teeth and leaves you with more frustration than answers.
Ghosters – Often executives with extremely busy schedules and can’t commit, so media interviews constantly get rescheduled and never actually happens. Or, you give them content to review and they never give you any feedback.
Overthinkers – To clarify, deep thinking is not the same as overthinking here. Overthinking executives often can’t stick to a point-of-view because the risks always outweigh the rewards. If you give this person a byline to review, it will never be finalized because they are always making mountains of small edits.
Nonbelievers – They either don’t believe in or constantly downplay (or both) the power of PR to the point that working with them for interviews or other communications work becomes difficult.

And of course, everyone has their moments. An executive could struggle to answer a set of questions you’ve asked, but it doesn’t mean they consistently lack depth of thought. You also might be able to hone some of these things over time. We’ve worked with executives who started out skeptical about PR or overanalyzed every detail, but we educated them over time and eventually they became a stronger media spokesperson.

Sometimes, a few weeks of working together on other projects will help determine if these are true red flags that will make your work harder down the line.

Make Sure the Spokesperson Fits Your Goals

Now that you know what your potential corporate spokesperson is not, it’s time to ask yourself a few questions to determine if they are ultimately the right fit for your strategy.

What are your top goals for PR? Does your candidate fit those goals?

Your goal might be to be known for a certain topic, like Nvidia and AI innovation or Patagonia and environmental sustainability. Does your candidate possess the expertise to speak about that topic at length and in depth? Reporters will want to dig into the nitty-gritty in an interview. You want your executive to fully answer their questions.

“Becoming known for a certain topic doesn’t happen overnight,” said Carver Marely Arias. “It’s built over time through consistent thought leadership and having a bold point of view on a multitude of topics that doesn’t match what everyone else is saying all the time.”

Does your candidate express credible, thought-provoking ideas AND are they good at explaining them?

This is a two-part question and it’s important that the answers to both are yes.

The first part: Reporters aren’t in the business of covering what’s already been said. They want stories that most in the boardroom don’t want to say out loud (within reason) and the industry issues that need to be addressed. Is your executive capable of delivering that? For some, you’ll already know this within one or two conversations.

Now the second part: Can your executive explain their ideas well?

Whether or not your media spokesperson can explain their ideas well partly depends on how the audience needs them to be explained. Your audience might need a spokesperson to meet them on their expert level. Or they might be general audiences that need complex topics explained in more layman’s terms. Your PR team can help determine what is required in each instance and prep, but your spokesperson should be flexible enough to adapt to the situation.

Of course, you can train your media spokesperson and prepare them with thorough media briefs or prep calls to disappear some bad habits. Overly long talking points, TMI that hurts the company or overall PR efforts, or awkward body language like avoiding eye contact can be trained away.

But if this person constantly rambles on and doesn’t make much sense, delivers conflicting messages over time, or consistently gets flustered by unexpected questions…they might not be a great fit.

Can your potential candidate commit the time?

Here’s an all-too-real question we’ve heard from executive clients who lack time: “Can you just make it up for me?” 🚩🚩🚩🚩

All executives are busy, but if it’s important to them, they will make the time.

“We can absolutely help an executive develop and supplement their thought leadership,” said Carver Mariela Azcuy. “But that only works when we build trust and a strong working relationship over time. We’re the expert communicators and the client is the industry expert; that is a really powerful combination to be able to move quickly when opportunity strikes. But if the executive never infuses their expertise into the work, it has the potential to be shallow. And target audiences can spot that from a mile away.”

A good PR partner will do the bulk of the work, like ghostwriting, but an executive needs to at least pull their share of the load, especially when it comes to media requests for interviews. They should, at least, attend important meetings, share the necessary information for you to work your magic, and show up for media spokesperson training.

Pro Tip: Part of this is just what makes a good client. We wrote a newsletter on this topic if you’re curious for more.

By the way, there’s a difference between an executive who wants to make the time, and one who will actually do it. It’s your job to do your best to figure out which category your candidate falls into. Unfortunately, sometimes you’ll have to get started to know for certain.

The Last Line of Defense

So your candidate has passed all these checks so far. These next questions might not be total dealbreakers, but good to note because they will heavily impact how you work together:

Do they already believe in PR? It’s ok if the executive needs to be educated on what PR is and why it works. We’ve worked with great clients that understand what we do 100% and others that need us to explain every step of the way. What you need to determine is if they will hinder your work together. For example, one CEO told us he didn’t “want to be a narcissist.” We ultimately determined he was a good fit for an occasional interview, but not an always-on content strategy.
Are they willing to step out of their comfort zone? PR and content-related asks can be intimidating, especially when audiences and reporters want to cover topics that go against the grain. You want to work with someone who can trust their PR partner and isn’t totally stuck in the risk of every little thing.
Do they already have a digital following somewhere? If they do, see if it includes any of the audiences you want to influence. This is a check in the “pro” vs. the “con” column because it helps show that your spokesperson already has established credibility with the people you want to reach.

You may have reached the end of this list and realized… your CEO is definitely not a good fit for the regular corporate spokesperson. Don’t panic. Sometimes the CEO isn’t, and may never be, the right person for PR efforts. You just need to determine who is.

Widening Your Spokesperson Bench

Starting with one spokesperson for a company, especially if you’re getting your PR program off the ground or are trying to shake things up, will be your best bet and also help you iron out what does and doesn’t work. But over time, you’ll probably want a wider “bench” of spokespeople to speak to a range of topics and audiences like your CFO, CMO, or even a handful of smart, non-C level executives.

“If an executive doesn’t have the most media-friendly title, you can always spruce it up a little bit,” said Carver Nicole Curro. “A sales associate can become an ‘[insert industry] expert,’ something that signals expertise while still being authentic to their role.”

As your bench grows, it's important to establish distinct points-of-view for each at the beginning. While some overlap is natural, it’s more effective to start with focused positioning and build from there, rather than taking a “spray-and-pray” approach to get everyone’s names out there.

Pro Tip: You can build a bench by topic area but also by media tier. For example, one spokesperson might focus on top-tier outlets like The New York Times or Bloomberg on larger business strategy, while another handles interviews with trade and vertical publications about product launches or new partnerships.

The truth is, not every executive is meant to be a corporate spokesperson. That’s okay. Your goal isn’t to find one perfect voice, it’s to build a chorus of the right ones. Our framework will help you nail down that team of voices ready to tell your brand’s story from every angle.

Choosing the Right Executive Spokesperson

TL;DR: What to Consider When Choosing a Spokesperson

Your CEO isn't always your best choice.

Four red flags we look for to root out executives that are not a good fit: they lack depth, have a history of ghosting, overthink everything, or constantly question PR.

Ask yourself: does your candidate fit your primary PR goals, come up with thought-provoking ideas to speak on, and commit the time to media and content efforts?

After you’ve worked with one spokesperson for a while, think about broadening your efforts to create a “bench” that can speak to a range of topics and audiences.