Written by Michelle Doss – Marketing Director at Modern Systems

Public relations strategy is a term often reserved for discussions about a significant announcement or in response to a brand crisis. “What’s our PR strategy?” Executives will lean in eagerly to hear what their communications pros advise as the best course of action to get attention or clean up a mess.

In actual fact, PR pros know that strategy is—and should be—embedded in everything we do. However, it might not always be called strategy when we do it. Good PR people think on their feet, and they always ask why. Great PR people go a step further. They question everything. They explain the why behind every single decision they make.

But what is strategy exactly? The concept of strategy can sometimes seem elusive, but at its core, it’s really all about choice. It’s not a complex matrix of ideas or a series of fancy PowerPoint slides. It’s about making tough choices and having the discipline to stick with those choices. It’s as much about what you won’t do as it is about what you will do.

In the late 90s I was offered an opportunity to open a new office in a new market for a large, global PR agency. After working with my new boss for about a week, she told me, “I really like how every time you talk to the client you tell them what you will do, and then you explain very clearly why you will do it that way.” At first, I thought this was an odd observation. Doesn’t everyone do that? However I soon found out that no, not only does everyone not do it that way, but it sometimes can feel like people go out of their way to not tell you why they have chosen to do something a certain way.

Fast forward a bit…later in my career I learned about an agency approach called the Strategy Selection Outline (SSO) process. Its premise was simple and it has always resonated with me: tell people what methods you rejected, in addition to the method you recommend pursuing.

As I understand it, in the SSO process, teams spend considerable time explaining three approaches to a campaign, why it rejected two of them and why it would pursue only one. This idea really clicked for me.

Today I teach my team to do what my former boss liked so much about me—telling clients what we are doing and why—while also sharing with them why we chose not to execute on two or three other approaches. This builds trust with our clients, and often it leads to more opportunities to do work for them.

So the next time you are asked to develop a strategy on a new project or task, take a few steps back and remember not only to explain the rationale behind why you selected that strategy, but also talk a little about other paths you could have taken, but that you rejected and why. Your clients and colleagues will thank you, and you will have even more confidence that your strategy is the right one.