Nearly three-quarters of sales and marketing professionals think public relations and word-of-mouth generate more sales leads than advertising, according to a study conducted by Launch Pad for PR firm SHIFT Communications. The study was designed to assess sales-and-marketing perceptions of the value of public relations. Only 37% of respondents felt that lead generation is an essential PR function and even fewer—16%—said that it’s a primary goal. That, according to SHIFT, is a problem. Firm principal Todd Defren suggests that marketing executives frequently hire PR firms and, at the same time, are accountable for feeding leads to the sales force. Thus, Defren says, PR firms need to make the connection betwen PR and leads.  “Until this gap can be closed, ‘Public Relations’ will continue to be relegated to a tactical line item in the Marketing budget, rather than as a strategic source of lead generation,” he says.

PR firms need to reinforce the value of a company’s reputation—which PR efforts influence—including the repurposing of PR output as marketing collateral (the study, for example, reveals that sales people think reprinted articles are as valuable as brochures). Another finding: 42% of sales people don’t believe Marketing is doing a good job providing them with PR results that would aid in their sales efforts.

While the information in the study is useful, the assumption that sales is the only bottom-line value added by PR is flawed. While sales and marketing professionals certainly should be able to leverage their organizations’ reputations as a sales aid, there’s little point in linking a solid PR effort aimed at, say, activists or government regulators to lead generation. Setting lead generation as some kind of bar for assessing PR’s value diminishes the importance of all the PR efforts the sales staff can’t leverage.

Thanks to Mike Manuel (who got it from Tom Murphy) for pointing me to the study.