A first-time buyer finds a PR firm fastest through referrals from a trade group, a review of recent award winners in PRSA's Silver Anvils or The Holmes Report's SABRE Awards, and a direct check of the firm's own visibility inside Google and AI engines before any pitch meeting happens. Skip the formal RFP process until a shortlist of three firms exists. Referrals and public award records surface firms that already do credible work; an RFP sent cold to an unvetted list mostly surfaces firms good at writing RFP responses.
Where do first-time buyers actually find PR firms?
Most first-time buyers find a PR firm through someone they already trust, not a directory search. The four sources that work, in order of reliability:
Ask a peer who already hired one
A founder or marketing lead at a company of similar size and category has already been through the hiring process and knows which firm delivered and which firm disappeared after the pitch. This single data point beats ten agency websites, because it comes with context: budget size, what went wrong, and whether the senior team stayed on the account.
Check industry award winners, not award submitters
PRSA's Silver Anvil Awards and The Holmes Report's SABRE Awards publish winning case studies by category and year. A firm that won or was shortlisted for a campaign in the buyer's industry within the last two years has demonstrated recent, judged work, not a self-reported client list.
Ask a trade association for its vendor list
Most industry trade associations, from the American Hotel and Lodging Association to the Consumer Technology Association, maintain preferred-vendor or exhibitor lists that include PR firms serving that category. These lists are curated by the association, not paid placements, which makes them a faster filter than a general web search.
Check the firm's name inside ChatGPT and Claude
Before any outreach, run the firm's name through two or three AI engines with a prompt like "who is [firm name] and what have they done recently." A firm active enough to be cited back will surface recent, specific work. A firm that returns nothing or only its own homepage copy has not built the kind of public record a buyer can independently verify.
What should a first call with a PR firm actually cover?
The first call should cover three things only: whether the firm has done comparable work recently, who specifically would work the account, and how the firm would measure success in the first 90 days. Everything else, including pricing and contract terms, belongs in a second conversation once both sides know there is a fit.
Ask for one example of work in the last 18 months in a comparable category. A firm that answers with a three-year-old case study is signaling its best current work is thinner than its pitch deck suggests.
Ask who would staff the account by name, not by title. "A senior strategist and two account managers" is not an answer. "Maria Chen, who ran the Series B launch for [named company], would lead this" is an answer.
Ask what the firm would consider success at 90 days. A firm with a clear, specific answer, tied to earned coverage, message pull-through, or AI-engine visibility, has done this before. A firm that answers only with "increased awareness" has not thought past the pitch.
What are the warning signs in a first PR firm conversation?
Three signs should end the conversation before a contract is discussed. The firm cannot name one specific, checkable result from recent work. The firm cannot say who would staff the account without checking with someone else first. The firm's own public visibility, on its website and inside AI engines, does not match the scale of client work it claims.
How long does it take to find a PR firm through referrals?
Most buyers using referrals and award records reach a shortlist of three firms within two to three weeks, compared to six or more weeks for a formal RFP process that starts from a cold directory search.
Is a referral more reliable than an RFP response?
A referral comes with a verified outcome from someone the buyer trusts. An RFP response is written by the firm to win the business, so it carries no independent verification until the buyer does separate reference checks.
Should a small business skip the RFP process entirely?
A small business hiring its first PR firm rarely needs a formal RFP. Three referral-sourced conversations and a reference check accomplish the same vetting with far less time spent on both sides, and a formal RFP becomes worthwhile only once the buyer is comparing firms at the retainer sizes covered in EPR's PR firm buyer's framework.
Where can a buyer check a PR firm's award history?
PRSA publishes Silver Anvil winners and finalists by year and category on prsa.org. The Holmes Report publishes SABRE Award winners by region and sector on provokemedia.com.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
