8 top tips to better interviews beginning with P

How do I get great coverage from a media interview? Just follow these 8 top tips to better interviews, all beginning with P

Prepare and plan

If you are going into an interview cold, you will never get over what you want to communicate.

If you have been given a brief for what the interviewer is hoping to cover, it’s time to prepare some major points and plan how they can be injected into the answers you give.

If you prepare and plan, you’ll have great answers that the journalist can use but that also get over what you want to say. Don’t go in unarmed and wondering. Go in with a plan.

Punctual

It just comes down to manners. Mind you, it actually boils down to more that just being on time.

Nobody likes to be kept waiting on a conference call or left staring at themselves in an empty Zoom meeting. If you have a slot and you missed it, you’ve almost certainly missed your opportunity to get coverage for your messaging.

Journalists are incredibly busy, they can’t be blown out or kept waiting for no good reason.

Polite

Manners really do make the man, or woman. Be confident and respectful. Trying to impress by being brash and attempting to show superior intellect by talking down to someone will get you zero coverage.

Professional

You do not have to give away trade secrets to win over the friendship of a journalist, no matter how tempting that is.

Be informed and entertaining but resist the temptation to say anything you will later regret.

Points

Have opinions, have a message and then combine the two to answer industry issues and you will have the golden ticket to coverage – points.

It’s amazing how many times people go into interviews with no points to make. Do your research, be informed and visionary and you will be able to make your points with confidence.

Persuade

It’s your job to not just make points but also be persuasive. Without being argumentative you must press a point and help the journalist to understand it and how you came to that conclusion.

Having a comment about what some people think and why that could be wrong and an alternative argument you are making could actually be right. Then give the evidence to reinforce the point. You can’t persuade without the data or the evidence.

Personal

If you can do all the above and still come over as a personable executive, you will have done very well.

Journalists love personal insights and observations, things that you have seen that underline the points you are making. Experiences that have shaped what you are saying, what you are doing in business and why you have certain insights are absolute gold dust. They are the magic ingredient to getting positive coverage.