PR vs. Sales: Why success should be measured on different scales

As the global business scene grows more competitive, clients increasingly demand tangible results from public relations. They often compare PR efforts to marketing and sales, which are much more metrics-driven fields.

But while this point of view is understandable, it’s also somewhat misplaced. PR operates on a broader scale and the results it yields show themselves more across the long-term. It cannot — and should not — be perceived through the same lens as short-term marketing or sales activities and KPIs that govern them.

This distinction, however, is often clouded by various misconceptions. I’ve seen many cases where our client companies treated PR as an extension of their own marketing or sales departments. They would often demand that we showcase the value of our efforts in more easily measurable ways (like conversion rates, for example).

Personally, though, I feel that this approach not only gets PR’s purpose wrong but also creates unnecessary friction between departments. Sales and marketing teams are usually accustomed to getting direct results quickly, so they may see PR’s long-term strategies as too slow. But that is precisely the point. PR isn’t a one-off thing; it’s a prolonged, consistent effort meant to create a trusted image of your brand that will last for a long time and support your growth for years to come.

The main that distinguishes PR from marketing is the party providing the validation of your business. With marketing, you talk about your company and product yourself. With PR, you have others talk about them for you. This sense of external validation is the primary distinction between the two.

Another thing to mention is that public relations aren’t just about promoting your brand; it’s about protecting it too. In times of crisis, you need to manage communications in a way that would preserve the company’s image and mitigate the damage from whatever bad circumstances you’re facing. This is also a crucial part of PR.

Public trust, once damaged, can be very hard to restore, and marketing or sales alone cannot accomplish this. That’s why PR must take the lead when it comes to setting the narrative for all company communications.

Ultimately, PR, marketing, and sales share the same goal: strengthening the brand and driving its growth. But the methods differ significantly. Marketing and sales focus on measurable outcomes in the immediate perspective, while PR focuses on building a reputation that will sustain you in the long run. Measuring PR with the same KPIs as sales and marketing is fundamentally inaccurate and doing so undermines its broader strategic value. This is something that any PR-seeking business needs to be able to understand.

If you want a way to measure your PR efforts, then I would advise shifting attention to the different ways in which it contributes: media visibility, narrative control during crises, recognition among potential investors and during networking events. By recognising and actively pursuing the value of these contributions, businesses can become more effective about building their brands to be resilient.