Here’s a interesting article from Wednesdays guest Richard Laermer CEO of RLMpr and author of Punk Marketing (Collins), co-written with Mark Simmons.

There’s a breed of PR people that can get the meeting, do the interview and chat up journalists all day long. They have an anemic press book; the buzz meter isn’t reporting the faintest blip. This shortfall in coverage reflects a disinterest in following up. Getting the meeting is exciting, sure, but closing the deal and getting the coverage is the big payoff. To get there, you have to be aggressive with the follow up.

One of the secrets of fantastic PR is knowing that if you want to read what you’ve pitched, you’ve got to work it until it goes to the presses. If you’ve got the best three-point average in the NBA or you’ve just run down a dozen people in suburbia, don’t worry—the press will want the story, no pitch needed. If you’re the one asking for the coverage though, you have to follow up to keep the journalist as excited in your big idea as you are to get the story filed.

What can kill your story after an interview? Hundreds of factors. One is that a journalist might like your story, but there’s too much research that needs to be done and not enough time to do it. Make sure that at the conclusion of any interview, you get a list of deliverables, things you need to send to the reporter so their job can be done. By doing the legwork, you’ve increased the likelihood of the story running ten-fold.

Another story sinker is that another pitch crosses the transom, and that PR person is just a better sales person. This job is a battle of the personalities. You need to stay in front of the person you’ve interviewed with so they don’t forget you, so that you’re top of mind. Never give them enough time to be distracted. It they are, the first three paragraphs they’ve drafted will land in the “to do” pile and die a painful, miserable death.

Recently, I gave a “class” where the topic was how to pitch. In my opinion a pitch has to be passionate and if you don’t truly care about what you’re doing find a way. Get a better angle, go for broke and have some fun with it; don’t just say this is my client and that’s what they do. So in the discussion in front of seasoned pros, a woman stood up and said “Yeah but I am a sales person at heart. I can fake anything.” My response: “Sure. You can’t fake passion.” I stand by it.

But passion isn’t all that kills your chances here. More times than not, a story dies because journalists expect you (or your PR agency) to keep on them. If you don’t, they figure it just wasn’t as important as they thought it was. Getting through the interview is just one step of PR, not the end goal. After your conversation, you need to shift gears to get to that highly circulated finish line so continue to forward the journalist relevant material, ask them questions and for Pete’s sake…stay in touch.

That’s not all.

On the Badpitchblog (badpitch.blogspot.com) that I run with Kevin (Strategic PR) Dugan a lot of eager participants took issue with this. One said when he was a former CNN person who emphatically felt: “I was almost always sold on a pitch based on what my reaction was initially, not by going back to it days later after being reminded about it from a PR pro.”

Another dude told me I was really pretty darn wrong: “If you keep calling them you’re just going to end up frustrating them.”

My favorite one in this hardy batch: “I’ve dealt with journalists who have gotten pissed off when I follow up my initial pitch and journalists who have been offended when I did not follow up at all.” (One lady whom I respect said in the forum: “Last week a high level journalist actually did tell me that I don’t call him enough to follow up …. It was a highlight moment for my ego.”)

And, finally, the one I need to comment on: “If a reporter decides that you’re going to be difficult, you might—MIGHT—get that story published, but good luck ever getting them to return your calls after that.”

People, what is difficult? At our firm we are subscribers to PHONE KARMA. Everyone is calling or mailing people all the time—and not once. It’s hypocritical for one to say “we are difficult” when aggressive folks are just that: true to form and unwilling to stop for anyone’s silly opinion of them.

With that I ask: What’s your sentiment, faithful reader? Let’s do this debate right.