The PR Rainmaker knows: Before you can attract a reporter, you must have something to report. It doesn’t get any more basic than that. And yet so many executives, professionals and entrepreneurs fail to comprehend this simple fact.

Instead, they have their flack call reporter and say something along these lines: “We have a great company and a terrific CEO. Are you interested in doing a story on us?”

Reporters hear this sort of lame pitch day in, day out. And you know what? It rarely works.

When it does work, it is because journalist is very inexperienced or was already interested in your company before you called.

All true PR Rainmakers faithfully practice this fundamental every time they design a story proposal for news media.

By FACE, PR Rainmaker means:

 F: Feelings

 A: Analysis

 C: Crisis

 E: Energy

These are elements of a well-crafted story proposal. Let’s look at each part one by one.

1. Feelings are emotions that your story stirs within reporter, and thus reader.

The seven basic emotions are love, hate, anger, fear, sorrow, envy and greed.

There are endless degrees, combinations and variations on these seven. (For example, “pity” is fear blended with sorrow.

“Rage” is an extreme form of “anger.”). Your story must strongly arouse one, and only one, of these basic emotions. (Note that only one of these emotions, “love,” is positive. This is one reason why news is almost always negative.)

2. Analysis provides logic that sells story. Feelings open door with a reporter, but logic closes sale.