Pt 25 – Pitch To Win

We would all agree that to successfully pitch you need a fair degree of self-confidence. Through the ongoing drive for new business you’ll find the more you pitch the more self-confident you’ll become.

But what are the other keys to pitching successfully:

·         Prepare well - get a firm grasp of your subject, brood over it; get to know it far more than you are going to use.

·         Gather – get together all relevant intelligence and then cull to the most succinct and relevant, bearing in mind the audience you are pitching to.

·         Appearance and delivery – be well groomed but not over dressed. One of the Directors here is renowned for his pinstripe approach – over the top, possibly, but they stand out from the crowd and that’s what you want to be able to do. Get gripped in your delivery and really live for the moment – all other mannerisms will fall into place like the dreaded limp arm syndrome!

·         Platform nerves – everyone gets nervous, even the best of us.  This will actually help you with your pitch. It will help you keep controlled if you remain friendly towards your audience. Remember they are not your enemies, but your friends who have paid you a compliment by coming along for you to pitch to them.

·         Be vital – call on your own experiences as much as possible when delivering your pitch. To gain and hold interest, deliver in such a way that is empowering to your audience – you’re bringing the pot of gold to them so make them see it.

The client will want to not only buy into the concepts you are presenting to them but also that they want to believe that they can see themselves working with you for the long term.

A final example of this mentality comes from one of our previous experiences agency side.  A major automotive company was pitching out their dealership programme and two members of the client team turned up at a major agency to see whether the environment matched with the potential creative output of the agency. They were disappointed to find a lacklustre, dark and unassuming office with little or no creative atmosphere – the pitch was lost on this point alone. The agency changed its ways and turned the office into a vibrant atmosphere, productivity went up and the actual quality of work, which was never really lacking, increased further. A harsh lesson learnt but they are now one of the leading agencies in their particular field.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 25 – Tact Is Key

New Business personnel continue to make a name for themselves for all the wrong reasons so a thought piece on this area seemed plausible – just our thoughts and opinion. They may differ from others but we hope they prove useful.

Situations to avoid

Avoid making people look small. When working with the larger agencies we always stress the importance of engaging on the same level and not frightening prospects off with your size. Conversations that immediately revert to “well I’m too small for you” should not happen if, one, you’ve targeted correctly or two, you’ve done your homework beforehand and there is a tangible reason for the call. This is particularly relevant when targeting audiences such as the Fast Track 100. They may be small now but evidently they are growing and rapidly.

Avoid infringing the rights of others. Prospects have a right to protect their domain so going in all guns blazing will only alienate them. Avoid pumping for information and really, if the approach is consultative, they will be volunteering information from the outset. Opinion orientated questions tend to work well particularly if the prospect is struggling in a certain area.

Avoid boosting yourself. There is nothing worse than having a call that starts off with “well we’re working with some of the largest FTSE 100 companies ....”. Not consultative in its approach and not really particularly of interest unless you’re asked.

Don’t teach other people how to do their job. We’ve heard this approach countless times – “I wouldn’t recommend going down that route etc”. Go down the route of bolt on. If you have what you believe to be an opening try the supplementary approach – your service could add further value rather than replace and take the prospect back to square one, something they’ll not admit to but afterwards might consider. They’ll not thank you for it though and they will rarely call you back.

Consideration is the positive aspect of tact. The most obvious area is that initial call. You have not been invited to call them and make a demand upon that prospects time therefore a simple apology for the intrusion before commencing the call will deal with this sensitive area – if they ask for a call back you might have inadvertently warmed the call up on the second run.

Simple reasons to be tactful but we hope they prove useful.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 24 – “Lead” Generation but not as we know it Jim

Here’s a completely different take on lead generation which has come to the fore through the ever changing approach.

Let’s look at the word “Lead”. Then attach a business network element to it. Now reflect these two steps into a forum on one of the business networks, let’s take LinkedIn.  Utilise your pedigree now within a specific area and open up a discussion based on this. Then blog it, tweet it and monitor the listeners, comments etc and you’ll find you’ll begin to engage with your potential target audience a little more robustly than you would through standard means.

Always remember though to play to your strengths when carrying out this strategic approach to lead generation – you’ll be found out if you have any chink in the armoury so ensure you communicate from a position of strength.

This is a useful approach for adding a supplementary channel to the new business process and lead generation does tend to get lost when the focus is on the end game of new business.

Better to engage with a target that has a need rather than one that doesn’t, particularly if they engage with you through this type of activity.

We’ll offer up further nuances to this approach in the days to come, and there are many of them. These are also useful if you flip them to client side thoughts – social/business media still holds fear in many eyes because it remains a relative unknown. But you only have to keep your eye on the wire to see that 90% of discussions are now emanating through the use of these channels. Utilising them for new business purposes will become second nature to many but, for the majority, they are at the bottom of this particular hill to this point – strikes us as an ongoing opportunity.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 23 – Learn To Love New Business!

We come across an array of new business personnel with differing attitudes to new business – from the driven to the despairing. So we thought it might be useful to pen a short guide to why we love new business and how we have reached this point.

New Business personnel spend at least half their waking hours earning their bread and butter. To be happy, therefore, your daily work must contribute towards that state. You must accept your role and all that it entails.

So how do you do this? First, focus on it as your primary interest. Do it to the best of your ability. Find out all you can about it, how others are doing it. See whether you can introduce any new ideas or improvements. A useful approach is to delve into the psyche of your agency – the history, what has bought it to where it is now.

Secondly, always bear in mind the final results of your role. Visualise people benefitting from your efforts and the positive changes it brings to them.

Thirdly, determine how to excel in your role, however difficult you might perceive it to be. Excellence will not go unnoticed, and promotion will bring its own rewards, not only materially, but in a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

This all sounds very simple in its approach but sometimes simple is the best policy – hence our business model being results driven. The more you complicate your approach in your mind the harder the task becomes.

Like all things in life we enjoy those things we like to do – what better role than one that offers you the opportunity to talk with all manner of individuals on a subject that should be close to your own heart.

On a final note – “The greatest motivational act one person can do for another is to listen”- Roy E. Moody – sums up the approach to new business succinctly.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 22 – Connecting Virally

Email has fast become the most popular form of communication in the digital age and as such can provide a potent channel for developing a dialogue with your audience. A well structured email, sent to a pertinent list of contacts (ideally pre-qualified) at regular intervals can provide a powerful addition to any agency’s marketing activity.

If successful, the benefits of producing a viral are obvious – as the communication is “pushed” to the target audience, you do not need to rely on your audience visiting your website to provide them with the latest information.

Get it right and you will have opened a powerful new channel of direct communication with your target audience.

As to the do’s and don’ts – in our view these are:

·         Do instil confidence in your target audience. All users to respond negatively as well as positively – remember you do not want to alienate your audience and burn bridges unnecessarily.

·         Do test your viral to numerous email accounts to ensure delivery is successful.

·         Keep it clear and concise

·         Don’t use plus-ins or JavaScript in HTML virals – they will not work.

·         Don’t use the Cc field when sending your viral – there’s no greater faux pas than exposing all your recipients emails to each other!

Some useful pointers but a final point to consider that may be obvious but works wonders. Test the message internally to see the response. Create a viral that engages with your internal audience – you’ll be surprised at the response which sometimes can trigger a tweeked approached that makes your viral even more effective externally.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 21 – Spinning Those Plates

A good new business push will encompass keeping a variety of new business plates spinning – not just one that suits.

There is a variety but the mains one are:

·         Specific DM activity to a chosen audience to follow-up

·         Generic activity to Tier 2 targets

·         Network activity derived from contacts you know

·         Social Media activity to engage with an individual or group of targets (lists in Twitter are useful to monitor specific targets)

·         Internal hot targets – the one’s the boss really wants!

·         Target Marketplace activity – what’s the sector up to

·         Agency Marketplace activity – what’s the competition up to

·         Word of mouth activity – a hot lead!

Daunting when you look at it but once you have all your silos in place you’ll begin to see how they marry together to become a potent formula for exceptional new business opportunities.

It may take some time to get all of them up and running and whilst you are developing each channel you’ll find immediate opportunities by default. The important thing is to keep all of these active, populated and refreshed regularly.

Remember the more specific business intelligence you gather the more opportunity you will come across – just like panning for gold!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 20 – The Social Media Wave

Given that we monitor an array of agency and prospect communications across a variety of social and business sites daily it seemed useful to share our thoughts.

Twitter, as a starting point, has a large following among an older professional audience that might not initially be evident.  What this offers agencies is an immediate host of prospects to communicate to – and yet there are a multitude of agencies that continually fail to grasp the opportunity and leave it to the younger members of their teams to tweet relentlessly on matters, shall we say, unrelated to the job at hand.

Linked-in and Facebook both offer the ability to maintain current connections and create new ones. The ease with which entrepreneurs use these sites to build networks and keep their market interested, and engaged, means that an understanding of social media has become hugely important particularly for online marketers.

These mentioned avenues offer a cost-effective method of extending the reach of agencies far beyond what they have been able to do previously.  They increase the stream of visitors to your online presence and also allow you to alert visitors to new detail you upload.

None of these or the other channels replace the need to actually meet people face to face but what they do is offer a tangible avenue of activity that can raise the awareness of an agency far beyond the normal methods of contact.

Agencies also need to realise that whatever detail is held within the digital space they must ensure it offers value to the audience and engages just as they would expect from the activity they deliver for their clients.

This is a brave and still relatively new world for many but the opportunities are astonishing with the right approach.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 19 – The Entrepreneurial Spirit

New Business must always be approached with the same driving force that encapsulates the entrepreneurial spirit.

Just going through the motions fails to motivate the very best of us when it comes to looking for those opportunities that make a difference to everyone within an agency.

The very best new business personnel can see an opportunity even before any initial contact is made.  This is probably why the majority of the best practitioners within the space either work for themselves or within a tight knit group.

Agencies need to appreciate that to get the very best new business opportunities they need to think beyond the constraints of their own commercial environment and become aware of the benefits of going externally to the very best.

Whilst never underestimating those more generic new business agencies, and the value they bring, the ability to communicate with the C-Level of contact is essential to really get those opportunities that make a substantive difference to an agency moving forward.

So agencies need to be brave and encompass this spirit of engagement that the entrepreneur brings – it works wonders not only for the new business personnel but for the agency as a whole

This entrepreneurial spirit is highlighted quite succinctly in the following quote – “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” - Buddha

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Pt 18 – Key to a Successful New Business Push

We have been asked recently to flag what we believe to be the 3 key stages for delivering a successful new business initiative. These stages might sound obvious but you normally find only one of the stages in place at any given time which is why so many initiatives fail.

So, the 3 key stages are:

·         Plan and plan well

Agencies are keen planners. Plan and prepare for the push. Think about how you will go about winning new business not just how you are going to get through the process

·         Collect, gather and consolidate your resources

Make sure that the process, the people involved and the financials are in place for a successful execution and to attain this success smoothly. You need to have all of these in order to make sure that the plan is well ironed out to ensure success

·         Execute the plan at the right time

Put a succinct timetable together and make sure the timing is right. Viral campaigns are a good example where more harm than good can occur if the timing is wrong. It never ceases to amaze us to hear that a viral has been sent out over a half-term holiday period when the email will get lost in amongst 100 others that pile up in a dormant inbox. Knowing when the pitch processes tend to occur within a particular sector is also a succinct way of ensuring timing is correct.

These three stages might sound obvious in their content but they are a potent combination. Actioned individually and a new business initiative will ultimately fail as so often happens not through the fault of any individual but eyes tend to fall on the ultimate prize, the win, rather than the journey to it.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 17 – Listening Is Different From Hearing

When any new business call is made you can be guaranteed that 9 out of 10 times what you hear can differ from what is actually being said.

Take for example the call made to a prospect. It’s quite clear that the prospect is pushed for time and gives only slight credence to the call. The majority of times the take would be to arrange a call back at another time which may or may not happen.

But what if the question was asked “what’s causing the time issues for you?  Now you’ll either get a no time to talk further or you’ll get war and peace. This war and peace may well highlight business issues where the prospect is crying out for some help so why not offer exactly that particularly if it relates to an area of your business that you were calling about. Not exactly rocket science but all of a sudden you have valuable traction and the prospect may well already be seeing a valuable connection.

So what you initially heard was different from what was actually being said. It’s a matter of paying attention but we all know that in any given working day when searching for opportunities this is easier said than done. It’s not enough to hear you really have to listen. People say more than they actually say.

This approach tends to get lost in our every day working lives but it is such an important one and can so often generate an opportunity from absolutely nowhere.

Thanks, always, for reading.

Pt 16 – Developing The War Chest

The majority of agencies are constantly active within the new business arena. Using traditional methods of finding new business ekes out a few opportunities. The lack of focus on strengths remains the major failing of agencies to find the better ones.

This brings us to the war chest scenario. What quite a few agencies lack is a clear and concise focus as to what their chosen marketplace needs against what they have to offer. The very simplest of methods can alter a sectors perception of them.

By looking inwards at their recent wins and the reasoning behind them this can offer substantial value to their ongoing new business push. An agency that knows that they had their hand bitten off by a prospect with regard a specific piece of work that worked wonders for them can act as a superior tool when approaching similar audiences.

Engaging with all departments within an agency can often also throw up opportunities. One agency does just this. They hold weekly meetings that last little more than an hour in length but involve all internal parties. Departments hold their own pre-meeting get together just to delve into the thoughts of team members as to areas where they feel the agency might be missing a trick. These are brought up within the main meeting and the findings are then fed through to the new business team or individual to action with the results then raised in the next meeting.

Such activity generates on average a 25% uplift in opportunities because the war chest contains more tangible arguments when approaching prospects.

So for 60 minutes of each week you can have a constant reinvigoration of new business activity that not only generates opportunities but also brings everyone into the process and also creates that team ethos sometimes lacking.

The final point on this approach is you can also find gems within your various teams that may not necessarily be evident in the day to day operations. And utilising these strengths can further enhance the agencies standing in a sector that has strength in numbers but remains strategically amiss in terms of focus.

Thanks, always, for reading.

Pt 14 - The Second Pitch To Close the Deal

We seem to continually create a stir with our approach to new business but one absolute differentiator is the ongoing activity after that initial meeting delivered.

Time is always at a premium within any agency. You know the scenario, you go to a new business meeting, you get on well with the prospect, timing is slightly out but you needed to sow the seed and the follow-on action is to go back to the prospect in 4,6,8 weeks to hopefully pick up a brief.

Back at base you’ve deadlines to meet, client meetings to attend etc etc. The opportunity gets lost and you’re back to square one.

This brings us to the key point – we follow up post meeting and keep those opportunities live. We follow up and get you back in there for that brief. And because we have the insight you have supplied in terms of the key points from the initial meeting, we talk off the same script as you in terms of the touch points and the awareness of the potential opportunity.

So given the number of shall we say “operators” within our arena how many can say the same thing. Very few – they’ll book and take the money and move on.

Succinct new business activity needs to tick all the boxes not just those that suit a supplementary new business arm. Driving those opportunities to fruition is what sets us apart because results are what we want for all concerned. Not only does it make a difference to your bottom line, the end game, it also raises the quality of our model to others that you may feel comfortable in introducing us to.

Thank you, as always, for reading our thoughts and opinions.

Pt 13 – Historical Intelligence

The beauty of new business is it always throws up pleasant surprises through a change in tact.

What better way to demonstrate this than with what we class as dormant contacts that have moved on. You have an agency that has delivered breathtaking creative over a period of time but, having delivered successfully, for whatever reason they have let their contact slip.

LinkedIn as an example that enables anyone to trace past clients at the press of a button. The use of historical intelligence can introduce renewed vigour into a new business push. You know where people have been and where they have gone to. Now join the dots and you have new strands of contacts that can you push and pull on with ease.  

The conversation pieces can firstly revolve around individuals that have stepped up into a role previously held by your old contact. In this instance you have historical pedigree to illustrate previous work with the new contact who may well remember you. That has worked wonders with quite a few lapsed contacts. The other side of the coin is tracking your old contacts to their new roles and if you have had a previously good working relationship there should be every opportunity to re-engage – you’ll have news to offer and no doubt they will. And most importantly it will be a warm call.

All the above might sound obvious but the obvious can so often be missed. This is what we do for our clients and it really gets the flow going on the new business front and with some gusto.

Thanks again for reading.

A Whole New Approach with Older Minds

We seem to have hit a vein of thought with regard what makes our new business model work compared to others. So rather than send our usual viral out we decided to blog and tweet our response.

The true answer is in the approach:

·         Small team - all have worked both agency and client side

·         We all carry out the activity – it’s not outsourced or carried out by inexperienced personnel

·         A fixed fee per opportunity delivered – we can open the door and you just need to close it and this is with top C level personnel as well as Tier 2 targets

·         Visibility – you need to see the activity on a regular basis not just once a month or even a quarter, with it being purely results driven and nothing more. No drivel about developing pipelines, potential opportunities and the like.

We also enjoy what we do, rather than going through the motions and hoping we can get away with extortionate fees and retainers for as long as possible.

And most importantly we get underneath the agency skin and give you market feedback – the good, the bad and the ugly. We help develop the agency proposition and highlight strengths and weaknesses as the relationship builds between us. Becoming part of you as an agency is essential rather than just the generic supplier approach.

That’s a little more insight than may be apparent via our online presence which I hope answers some of the questions received.

All marketing activity is about developing relationships with both existing and new audiences – so why shouldn’t a new business consultancy sing off the same hymn sheet – very few do and have short-term wins but little else.

Thanks again for reading our thoughts and opinions.

Pt 12 – Small Is Good

There appears to be a changing envioronment in what companies are looking for in agencies when they have a particular brief.

Without reference to any specific agency there was a recent pitch involving a direct marketing brief within the retail sector. Some of the usual suspects were involved in the pitch but the client also involved a couple of smaller players into the process. Now these smaller agencies did not necessarily have the historic pedigree required for the brief but what they lacked in this area they more than matched with a less muddied approach to the brief. Smart thinking away from the norm, mainly because they were less tied up in having been through this process before, allowed them to deliver succinct pitches which stood out. The end result out of 5 pitching agencies – the two smaller ones were the chosen Tier 1 and Tier 2 agencies and the larger agencies, whilst not a distant third, were still not perceived to be shall we say hungry enough.

The old adage “all good things come in small packages” is being seen more and more in the decision making process. Larger agencies that have been around the block for quite a few years need to change their approach and discard the replicated work that appears to come through. That’s not to say the effort is not made by all concerned but it’s all about the perception. Whilst the major agencies will always be a step ahead in terms of resource this may not necessarily win the day – lean and hungry is also a must, something you find more so in these smaller agencies.

The bottom line is listen to the market, follow the wins, adjust the approach. Build on what you are good at but remember your roots, remember those first forays into the world of pitching and what worked well for you.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Pt 11 – Emotion Led New Business

You know when you visit a website, and this is particularly relating to agencies, you see the word “passion” emblazoned through the piece. We recently tested this out with some calls just to see how far down the line this word was applied. We called 6 new business personnel in a mixture of small, medium and network related agencies just to get a feel as to whether this  “passion” stood up to scrutiny. And the results - all were lack lustre, grey in approach, absolutely no passion and little interest – going through the motions in effect.

New business personnel within the agency arena are a mixture of unsung heroes and those that are purely treading water. Unfortunately on our test bed they were all the latter. The old adage “smile when you are making a call” is absolutely spot on. Your emotions are so easily transferred when talking with a prospect that no matter how good the proposition if you cannot deliver it effectively. Verve and passion is required, to not only make you and your agency stand out from the crowd, but also to ensure the proverbial door does not close with little discussion.

Those unsung heroes need nurturing and motivating consistently. They like to hear the good news as well as the bad. We may never be truly appreciated by the creative or account management teams but we do keep them in the manner they have grown accustomed to, ie their jobs, so motivation is key.  The odd nugget of information that you come across, that they can run with, pays well to successful delivery and that motivational factor is dealt with at the same time. A happy new business person equates to a healthy new business pipeline.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Pt 10 – The Value of Opinion

Everyone has an opinion but few ever use this approach within the realms of new business.

Take for example an agency that has its own take on a particular application that it’s been working on. It will go to a client, it will run a focus group either internally or externally but would it dream of approaching a prospect. Why not?

You’ve been developing the application for that market so why not ask it. New business is exactly the same.  Why not approach new prospects with just that type of approach – get an opinion, engage with the prospect on their level, get the feedback and then turn it round to your potential advantage given the opinion may well unearth an opportunity even if it’s not directly related to the original opinion!

We’re always mystified at the lack of common sense applied to new business activity – most of the time it is purely flipping what you do in situations when you meet new friends even in a social environment. Finding common ground and then developing the relationship from there.

It all may sound simple what if you asked the majority of new business personnel they would laugh at the approach. Results speak louder than words hence the world has Mint.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Pt 9 – The Email Address Conundrum

Now we start entering the world of smart working.

There has been many occasion, and many will relate to this, where you have the most positive of conversations with a prospect. In 90% of cases you will have agreed to meet but you have the small percentage that ask for a little more detail within a specific area and ask you to email them along with dates to meet. All fine to this point until you realise you’ve made an error with the email address or even forgotten it completely.

Here’s a little trick – if you go to your chosen search engine and having worked out part of the extension so in our case @mintconsultancy then type in email @mintconsultancy, 9 out of 10 times you’ll get a live and current example of the structure of the email. It’s very quick and easy and avoids the need to call the prospect back.

It’s also useful if you are doing a targeted viral to a small audience – you can often also pick up useful business intelligence as well that’s associated with whoever you are targeting.

And a further upside to this activity - if you type in the whole email address once collated you may well find your prospect discussing/writing about a specific issue they have – hey presto you have a conversation point and they’ll be impressed with the knowledge you have even before that first contact!

Thanks, as always for reading!

Pt 8 – A Supplementary Approach

Sometimes new business activity can grind down the best. We are in tricky times at the moment and a new refreshing approach can sometimes work wonders motivationally for new business personnel.

Take as an example an agency that has been successful in closing business but strives for more so the pressure remains on their new business personnel. Having a supplementary arm to complement existing resources can act as just the motivational fillip required. With a pipeline that is suddenly invigorated it acts as a further reminder that there are opportunities out there, they may pick up on new approaches that assist them in their own role and finally and most importantly – a business win always reflects well on internal personnel from whatever source.

The trick is to complement rather than replace. There is nothing worse in whatever walk of life you are in to feel railroaded or have that discarded feeling. We find engaging with all the parties involved with new business  activity within an agency is essential if it is to work to its maximum potential.

As a wise person once said “when approaching a two-way junction it’s best to have the ability to go both ways rather than to guess which way is best” – Mint 2011!

Thanks, as always for reading!

Pt 7 - New Business Win Win

Developing a new business pipeline is an extremely difficult job and takes a great deal of time and commitment particularly when the competition for clients and good New Business players is extremely high.

It is also a very expensive process particularly if you take into account the cost of hiring the best people to do the job.

On top of this there is the inevitable time lag of building the pipeline and making sure that new hires are adjusted to the agency culture and understand the brief.

It’s not surprising therefore that many agency management teams find it difficult to judge the NBD ROI. Quite often it is some way down the line before the ROI can be established. This though is the chosen cross to bear because it’s the only option on the table or so agencies believe.

In fact there is another option which is available - MINT.

At MINT we have been helping and augmenting Agency New Business Teams, rather discreetly, and building the new business pipeline activity from day one.

By using our significant resources we are currently delivering quality opportunities, averaging four a month, to our agency partners at a rate that equates to half the average wage of a new business manager – and from day one!

Our clients pay no retainer but just our fixed fees per appointment.

This offers our agency clients an immediate day one pipeline of opportunities in line with their strategic objectives and an immediate positive ROI calculation!

A win win for the Agency don’t you think!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 6 - The same old same old will not do

The lack of innovation within the sourcing of new business opportunities never ceases to amaze me, particularly within this Digital Age and especially by some agencies who offer social network marketing expertise to their clients.

It was only yesterday that I saw a job description for a New Business Manager within an agency where the nub of the brief was to cold call, generate interest through mail-outs and network.

Its not that I have lost interest in any of these old favourites and indeed they do have a place, but they cannot support an efficient new business growth strategy on their own, particularly in todays climate.

With the competition so fierce for clients across so many channels, new business teams have to work smarter than ever before to get in front of the client.

This means your market intel has to be excellent. It means you have to be one-step ahead of the competition in terms of knowing what the market is saying and spotting opportunities before anyone else does.

This is no mean feat.

It is a highly specialised task involving fairly elaborate systems, inventiveness and a certain pedigree of new business professional who has to have the skill to immediately read and engage with the client prospect.

Nowadays to win, the same old same old simply will not do ..........

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 5 – The Healthy Pipeline Made Of Smoke & Mirrors

"We have a healthy new business pipeline so have no need for further!" Statements like that are made every day of every week of every month. Well credit to the agencies that are in that enviable position. But I wonder if the owner or board members of these same agencies would agree.

Scratch beneath the surface of such agencies and they no doubt have a healthy pipeline built on that rock steady client of 10 years that consistently, and without review, feed the agency their life blood. Bang!  New blood, new relationship and new agency!  And the old agency finds itself in the now unenviable position of having to go into the marketplace to replace that “solid” pipeline having not ventured out into the harsh reality of new business.

And here’s another scenario. We spoke with an agency recently and were rebuffed with the comment “ if it’s a new business enquiry you’ll have to write in”. The retort was if we were Coca Cola looking for a new agency would you take the call? “No, they would still need to write in – we don’t take calls regarding any new business enquiry – all interested parties have to write in – we have plenty of business which allows us to be selective”.  No names but they were not an NMA Top 100 agency, and never will be with that approach!

How important for middle management and new business personnel to sing off the same professional hymn sheet as the more senior staff at the agency. Agencies spout the need for brand integrity but maybe, looking nearer to home to start with, might hold them in even better stead.

Thanks as always for reading!

Pt 4 – The Strategic Alliance Approach

They say in life that the answers to most conundrums are staring you directly in the face but because you are immersed in the daily business of any agency you don’t necessarily see them.

Every agency has its own USP but when you go on their website this is not necessarily evident.  The USP is invariably the pedigree an agency has in the form of either work delivered or where its core skills lie. How many agencies profess to cover every skill base but when you scratch below the surface, particularly in the client work, it appears to hone down to only one or two skills. You know the one’s – traditional with digital output, digital but just web content without the technical expertise.

A potential client wants to see the facts – what do you actually do yourselves as an agency and where does the fit lie with them? Marry these two and you have a far stronger point than pitching the whole service ethos only to be found wanting in key areas – use of social media is a prime example of agencies saying they understand the channel and the vast array of mechanisms involved etc. but can you see evidence of this on the agency site or within any pitch? In the majority of cases no.

Playing to your strengths is essential and one agency did exactly this. Very good creatively they wanted to break out into other areas within the digital arena and actually worked with key clients in developing their own proposition and understanding which bought excellent value to both parties. What better way to evolve than directly with the market place.

Thanks as always for reading!

Pt 3 – Following Up On Network Events

Most agencies do some form of networking either via particularly events that relate directly to their core business.

What most fail to do is the follow-up and specifically with those targets that you did not get an opportunity to talk to. I’ll also add at this point that even if you failed to go to an event the contact can still be made with the right approach.

So an example of a follow-up to an event attended – you have the list of attendees, you call up on the basis of having missed the opportunity of meeting. It could be you were sidelined by a time intensive individual that left you no room to engage with others. Pick up on this point with the target as well as adding your initial thoughts on the event itself – their thoughts, what value did they get from the event (if indeed they attended) – from these two areas you may well pick up on indirect buying signals – current pain etc.

On the event you did not attend – the same premise. You did not get an opportunity to meet but were keen to engage, similar approach re: thoughts on the event etc.

Now one other approach is the non-event. I know of one successful company who will purportedly express an interest in attending a B2B event as an example. They’ll question the organisers under the pretext of pre-qualifying the type of other attendees and 9 out of 10 times they’ll get an attendee list by the organiser, even just by name and company. They then turn around and say the event is not really relevant to them and then a few days after the event they’ll follow-up on the pre-text of having attended but missed the opportunity to meet with a relevant target. The important point here is to the homework before the call – make sure you have the insight into the key areas under discussion at the event. You only need one to throw into the initial introduction call which will either cement the call, warm it slightly or, in the event of your target having not been able to attend, even better – you’re following up having again missed them.

The important with all of these is be confident in your approach – the majority will be unaware of your attendance so you’ll need to know your facts on the event, whether you attended or not!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Pt 2 - The Initial Call - It's All About Business Intelligence

I’m consistently amazed how many opportunities are lost by laziness and the lack of ability to note the slightest opportunity to engage.

A prime example of this is the “call me back” scenario. 99% of callers who receive this response always put there contact, upon receiving this response, into the no opportunity silo. When someone says call me back there is obviously a small percentage that mean “I’m not interested” but the majority actually mean call me back. If you’ve managed to communicate your name and the company you are calling from then the introduction process has begun. When you call them back the recollection of that initial call may well be there particularly if it is within a few days - and especially if you called them at an awkward moment!

The best example of this was a call to a senior marketer who was picking her children from school and the company had put me through to their mobile. Well what a great intro when you call back – I always open up with the “timing is everything” statement and there you have a warmer call.

So the rule is – make a note of the situation - business intelligence, however minimal and even non-business related, is gold dust.

This might sound simple but this particular round of calls once again generated a significant opportunity for the agency concerned.

Thanks for reading!

Pt 1 – The Search For New Business

Generating new business opportunities is an art, no question about it. But the old approach to just picking the phone up and saying who you are and where you come from cuts no ice when little homework has been done.

The plethora of business networks where chatter is evident across all sectors enables agencies to be far more concise in their approach to target audiences. "Chatter" enables you to gain the valuable insight required to offer immediate value off any initial contact. A great example of this was "listening" to an exchange through Twitter on a desperate struggle by a senior executive of a major technology company for some assistance in developing an intranet that pooled all senior executives into an internal forum to discuss pertinent business issues. They wanted to use social media to do this but did not know how. Having made contact on behalf of a relevant client that conversation was as warm as you could get it and from that initial contact the opportunities that flowed through to the client created a significant new account by referral off some fabulous delivery of that initial piece of work. The recipient of that first call was the first to comment on our industry in spotting and following up on the specific issue. The tweet was purely made out of frustration but spotted and followed up. What a fabulous example of engagement!

I'm going to continue along a similar vein in days to come so hope that the insight assists those looking for a far more engaging method of generating new business opportunities.

Thanks for reading!