Due diligence for PR practitioners
In late February, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations ran a seminar called Due Diligence for PR Practitioners. It is a subject that doesn’t always get the spotlight in our industry, but it should, argues Richard Stone, managing director of technical PR agency Stone Junction.
In a world of pitch seasons, beauty parades, ambitious owner founders and AI fuelled growth claims, due diligence is not about cynicism, it’s about professionalism.
There are four fundamental points that you should consider when you are completing due diligence over a new client; financial viability, ethical match, history of commercial success and chemistry.
Financial viability is the most obvious but often the least interrogated. Can the organisation genuinely afford your services, not just this month, but over the lifespan of the relationship?
There are plenty of businesses out there who look at PR and marketing consultants as a ‘last throw of the dice’. When Bill Gates said, “If I were down to my last dollar, I would spend it on PR” he didn’t necessarily do the industry a solid. Surprisingly, most consultants would rather you were spending money as part of a pre-planned and well-considered strategy, not a last-ditch attempt at success.
If I were down to my last dollar, I would spend it on PR.
A practical checklist of steps
It’s not difficult to apply a strong due diligence process. The following checklist takes around an hour and costs about twenty pounds a month in software subscriptions — not including social listening software, which you probably already have as a PR consultancy.
The first step is verifying identity. You need to be clear who you are contracting with and who stands behind the business. But remember that if the business is from another country, different cultural standards apply. There are many countries where two surnames are standard for instance, or where differing dates of birth on a document could be very normal, especially for someone from Generation X or before.
A proper credit check, using a platform like CreditSafe, Experian, Red Flag, Creditservice or ComplyGate, provides an evidence-based view of financial health and payment behaviour. This is probably the single most important step you can take.
Reviewing filings at Companies House offers further insight, particularly when examining turnover, balance sheet strength and patterns in reporting. It is also prudent to check for County Court Judgments against directors or key individuals, as these can signal patterns of financial difficulty.
Reputational checks are just as important though. A thorough social media search, something most agencies do anyway for narrative development, can reveal tone, leadership style and potential flashpoints.
Social database tools like Honch can show up social indicators of funding announcements, leadership changes, growth, expansion activity or shifts in strategy. These signals are not inherently positive or negative, but they do provide context.
And where uncertainty remains, asking for credit references is not confrontational. Most clients will normally just see it as standard practice.
Commercial discipline
There is a secondary point here as well, which is to emphasise commercial discipline as part of due diligence. Focusing on retained agency revenue rather than being seduced by standalone projects is an important part of growing an agency. Projects can be exciting, but they are often higher risk, more resource intensive and margin sensitive.
If you do undertake project work, it should be priced to reflect that risk. Long-term, RAR (Recurring Annual Revenue) with clearly scoped budgets tend to create more stable partnerships and healthier businesses on both sides of the relationship.
Furthermore, charging by the hour or the day was acceptable in the 80s, but it’s not a great way of charging in 2026. It doesn’t deliver value to the client or to the agency.
If you find yourself unsure about any of this, think of it in the context of the Nolan Principles, established in 1995 to govern the behaviour of UK public office holders. They are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
These principles were designed for public life, but they offer a good way of looking at your potential clients for PR practitioners. If your client seems like they match those values, you are almost certainly likely to have a long an fruitful relationship with them.
Providing you do as well, of course. That’s the catch.
Our work shapes perception and influences decision-making. Applying structured scrutiny before entering a client relationship is not bureaucracy; it is an expression of integrity and leadership. In PR, reputation is both the product and the asset. Due diligence is how we protect both.
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