As we say in our Media Training courses for financial firms and other organisations – if you’re not speaking to the media, gaining positive media coverage and raising the profile of your firm, then you can bet that your competitors will be doing so. At Communicate Media Training, we work with in-house comms teams and public relations agencies whose clients include financial services firms to help them to prepare their spokespeople to deliver great interviews, which then raise the profile of the firm so that when potential clients are looking for a supplier, that firm will come up prominently on internet searches. Having good relations with the media means that if something does go wrong, then doors are already open and bridges built with journalists so that your defensive media strategy and your work to overcome any adverse reports will land better than it would if the journalist has never heard of you or spoken to you before. A final thought on why financial services firms can benefit from speaking to journalists. The trade of the media is gossip, and it’s a two-way street. Not only will talking to journalists enable you to raise your organisation’s profile positively, but it also gives you intelligence on what is happening in your sector, with journalists sharing what they are seeing and what your competitors might be telling them. Either way, there are many benefits to talking to journalists, but provided you do so in a planned and controlled manner, Communicate Media Training courses for financial firms can help.