For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 17, 2009

Contact:
Ed Barks
(540) 955-0600
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Updated Buyer’s Guide Aids Groups in Need of Media Training

A newly updated buyer’s guide is now available free of charge to corporations and associations seeking to fine tune their executives’ message and communications skills. A Buyer’s Guide to Communications Training Consultants provides specific action steps executives should take when in the market for media training, presentation skills training, or legislative testimony training.

“It is no easy task to find the best communications training consultant for an organization’s unique situation,” said the paper’s author, Ed Barks. “This revised issue of A Buyer’s Guide to Communications Training Consultants was written with an eye toward making this tough decision a bit more straightforward.”

The revamped 14-page publication is available on the Barks Communications web site at www.barkscomm.com/pdf/buyersguide.pdf.

Among the concrete tips spelled out in the publication: Ask how much of your consultant’s business flows specifically from communications training, avoid consultants who follow cookie cutter approaches, select a consultant proficient both in skills and message development, and ask plenty of questions before signing an agreement.

The revamped guide retains the popular appendix of 20 questions to ask potential consultants. Barks further refined the list for the new edition.

The updated resource offers new information on how to gauge a prospective consultant’s presence on various social media sites and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of using a consultant with a high public profile. Also, the new edition provides more thorough advice concerning budgetary issues, a particularly crucial issue given the current economic climate.

Lifelong learning also matters. “Communications training is a highly skilled business, one that demands constant professional development,” Barks believes. “Organizations that hire a generalist for this complex learning experience—particularly in these challenging times—reduce their odds for success while increasing the possibility of spinning their organizations into a death spiral.”

A Buyer’s Guide to Communications Training Consultants can be downloaded at no cost at www.barkscomm.com/pdf/buyersguide.pdf.

Ed Barks works with corporate and association executives who deal with reporters and members of Congress, and with public affairs experts who want a seat at the decision-making table. The former radio broadcaster is the author of The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations. As President of Barks Communications since 1997, he has taught more than 3000 business leaders, association executives, government officials, athletes, entertainers, non-profit executives, and public relations staff how to succeed when they deal with the media, deliver presentations, and testify before government officials.