Thus quoth...the client

I like Dan Santow's advice to public relations practitioners and copywriters who are tasked with assembling a quote for a client.

Dan provides such helpful tips as making sure the quote advances the "story," that it sounds like something that someone might have actually said and that it doesn't make the client sound like a moron.

I'd like to add two more:

-- Make the quote colorful, if possible. In other words, don't have the client utter something stale like, "We're pleased about being named XYZ Corp.'s top vendor." Instead, try, "Being named XYZ Corp.'s top vendor has all of us walking a little taller these days."

-- Avoid using cliches in a quote (or in any other part of your copy), as in, "We expect this product to sell like hot cakes." Even if people use cliches in their everyday speech, these empty, overworked phrases aren't memorable and they say little. When writing a quote for a news release, the hope is that the resulting news story will include it. Using a cliche greatly reduces the chance of that occurring.