Herb Greenberg Says “Talk to Me”

Herb Greenberg, the talented but often vilified business columnist for Marketwatch, has some advice for company executives: talk to me.

Greenberg recently gave a lengthy interview to Talking Biz News, a blog about business journalism. Here’s his advice for corporate executives and spokespeople:

Q: Do you find it difficult to write about companies and people who don’t want to talk?

A: Not at all. The brilliant and always insightful Allan Sloan [of the Washington Post], speaking at a SABEW* conference a number of years ago, put it best when he said, “More space for me, less space for you.” Still, it really does behoove a company to talk and sometimes, depending on the intensity of the story, I’ll give them a week or longer to respond. There are times, after hearing their side of the story, I soften the blow or even kill the story entirely. Other times, of course, their words bury them.

I was very early a number of years ago in writing about accounting issues at EDS. While interviewing the CFO, I asked a question and he said, “You’re asking the wrong question.” Asking the wrong question? That’s a classic spin tactic. At that point, I knew I had him nailed.

* SABEW = The Society of Business Editors and Writers

In other words, Greenberg (and other media) are going to write about you whether you cooperate or not. So rather than ducking the press, why not prepare to deal with them. That’s what spokesperson training is all about: getting you ready and comfortable to talk to the media, so you will have good answers for both the questions you want to answer and the ones you don’t want to answer.

To his last point, about the CFO saying “you’re asking the wrong question:” that’s simply a bad way to evade the question, and it obviously backfired. Here’s a better way to handle it:

1. Brainstorm the possible questions you will be asked in advance.


2. Develop answers for all of them, even the ones you don’t want to answer.


3. For the ones you do want to answer, this will give you the opportunity to develop answers that might actually get quoted. Make sure to use facts and figures, examples, anecdotes, analogies and references to pop culture or things in the news.


4. For the ones you don’t want to answer, have some plausible and credible planned answers like, like “I’d like to answer your question but I can’t” or “That’s not something we disclose.”