This past Wednesday, I tuned into measurement-guru Katie Paine’s “Measure What Matters” webinar hosted by Business Wire.

Katie shared a lot of good information on the changing world of public relations measurement, but the part of the webinar that resonated with me most was the importance of defining how public relations can impact a situation.

Paine suggested that every PR professional should ask “so what” three times when approaching a new project. Only by determining what a client or a boss really wants to achieve can a PR practitioner develop a way to measure success.

For many clients the news release is the communications equivalent to Pavlov’s bell. A communications need arises and the phone in the PR office starts ringing: “I NEED a news release.” Katie reminded us that we need to stop and ask “why?”

The end goal of most clients is increased sales, yet most public relations offices cannot directly impact sales. As Paine put it “we can get them to the showroom door, but that’s it.” So, remember to stop and ask “so what?” Once it is clear how the PR office can help achieve an organizations goals, then it is important to list the audiences involved and define the perfect relationship with each audience.

According to Paine, “so what” is the least used phrase in the English language. I know that I could benefit from asking it a little more often. Metrics are still a mystery to many of us, but one thing is clear: if we don’t know what our clients want to achieve, then how will it be possible to know when or if we achieve it?