Working on this brand would be fun. Remember when they were the leaders? Time flies in tech.

What this few hundred will get at is how you can tell you are wasting your time in a pitch. The post was inspired by a comment a friend of mine made on Facebook. They said the next few days of her children’s education will be wasted because no one wants to be there. Everyone is going through the motions. Kids are thinking about their summers. Teachers, too, are no doubt thinking about how they will enjoy the next few months.

Who hasn’t felt this way in a new business pitch? Like the potential clients are not paying attention to your thinking and creative brilliance? All that waste is enough to make one race out of the classroom, never to return.

In some pitches, the outcome was already determined earlier. And what you’re pitching doesn’t matter. So no one is truly engaged in the pitch event. When your prospects are looking at their blackberries and iPhones instead of you, that’s no good. But that suggests you’re well done the pitch path. You need to know sooner.

So, just how do you know that your audience is not taking you seriously? Here are a few things to consider:

You’re invited by procurement
You’re on the pitch list because someone paid to come up with options did a bit of research or heard you might be a good agency. The manner in which you were invited also counts. Was it via email? A phone call? An engraved invitation only sent to five agencies? Don’t know about you, but the last one would get my attention.

You don’t know any of the decision-makers
Closely related to the above thought. But if you or someone on your team doesn’t have a relationship…odds are not in your favor. The kids are looking out the window…

Your questions are met with non-answers
Typically, this happens earlier in the process. But when you get bad, not helpful or politically correct, meaningless answers? Another sign. Your sense of their willingness to participate is also a qualifying factor, right?

No love
What I mean here is no special treatment or enthusiasm. No flexibility. Easier to see this in person than over the phone. But over the phone, for instance, should you experience pauses, voice tightness, interruptions, and a general unwillingness to build conversation synergy…Alice Cooper is blaring.

A great spin on “no love” is from pitch guru Don Peppers. Read about that here. Look for the idea of testing your relationship late in the post.

Anywho, hope the above gets you thinking.

Should you be wishing to avoid crickets in new business pitches, look here. It’s a series of posts that will inspire you to more full engage and convince your prospect you are the agency for them.

If, however, you’re thinking about the above through a lens of qualifying your prospect, take a look at this.

Thanks.

###

Jumpstart strategic thinking
Either or yourself or for a prospect or a client. Here’s a great example. This smart post illustrates four ways a company can stay relevant.This particular article is written by David Aaker, a thought leader who has published more than 100 articles and 15 books on marketing and branding. This post could be something you could pass along to your pitch, planning or account management teams. Or maybe even – gasp – a potential client.

Identify a few potential partners
While I have no idea if Mssr. Aaker is open to some sort of win-win partnership, he’s not the only writer on their blog. Many of these professionals write for the purposes of business development. They might welcome a call should you have a good idea or opportunity.

Demonstrate you are current and smart
Kinda goes with saying. But what I have always loved about the kind of writing seen in HBR is it’s clarity and simplicity. Harvard Business Review is a well regarded brand. Just reading what’s on their blog makes me sound and look smarter. Imagine what your potential clients and existing clients would think.

Here’s a thought or two on what I look at when I use this work on behalf of agencies. Of course, your mileage will vary. It really depends on usage context. And while you might read about some specific examples, that stuff is zipped in Thunderclap’s cone of silence. But here you go:

• Avoid posts written by other agencies. Generally speaking, not that great an idea. I try to stick with people that are general management consultants, and better known authors. People or people at brands that already have some awareness. This adds impact.
• Check out the “more popular” links. This is a quick way to determine what might be in the minds of your target: business readers. You can check all sorts of metrics: most read, most shared, etc. Smart.

Anywho, hope this helps. Thanks. And happy surfing.

###

There are lots of ways to use this unique and interesting technique in your new business pitches. Here are just a few:

• Summarize a key thought or insight
• Demonstrate a potential client opportunity
• Point out how you are different than other agencies

What follows are two tactical representations of how to present this style of work. Both in a good way and maybe not so good way…

A good way.
Jessica’s own site. A teaser-type headline, and then a graphic that pays it off.

Maybe not so good.
Check out how Forbes does it. They lead with the graphic, then pay it off with some copy. To me, not as effective. And honestly, I didn’t see how this works at first. The problem is the number. You want to read the number and associate the graphic below it with that number. At least I do. Particularly if I’m just scanning the article. Maybe it could be fixed simply by taking out the number.

Tricky business, this. You will probably not have this challenge in a pitch room.

(By the way, Forbes has been really hitting it out of the park with some terrific CMO-focused content. Should absolutely be on your reading list.)

Full disclosure: she has a Google page full of resources that have talked her up. (So, yours truly might be the only person that wasn’t aware of her work. I just dug it and thought you might find it helpful in your new business development efforts.)

Should you be interested in working with her, feel free to contact her at this site. She’s based on the West coast and can work remotely.

Happy pitching.

###

How about a Chief Experience Officer?

Hmmm.

I love this idea. It captures the soft side of a client / agency relationship. The human side. The people involved in delivering and receiving our Professional Service. It’s one thing to create and manage ideas that make money for a client. But when we talk about “experience,” we’re talking about the bits your agency can control to help ensure happiness. This, in turn, leads to a longer, more profitable relationship, new business referrals and more revenue for your agency.

This role was recently created at HY Connect, a terrific mid-sized, independent agency with offices in Milwaukee and Chicago. To learn more about their take on the position, I recently connected with Kellie Bliss, the professional in the role. We covered two basic questions.

What is the role of the Chief Experience Officer at your agency?
Kellie suggests this senior-level professional is responsible for ensuring success. HY Connect sums this up best: it is focused on improving and accelerating HY Connect’s ability to adapt to every client’s needs and exceed their expectations.

And just as important? The agency’s staff.

You will see this in some of the functions of the position:

• Defining & improving use / sharing of best practices across specialties and departments
• Streamline and enhance priority customer touch-points. This includes new client on-boarding, developing client retreats, and leading the development of agency thought leadership and value-added intellectual property.
• Improved training:  developing an energized & competent staff that delivers an energizing (or inspiring) experience

How is this different than the Account Service leadership function?
The Chief Experience Officer at HY Connect does not drive client business strategy, manage day-to-day responsibilities for client management or get work out the door. Rather, the position is a resource available to account management to help cross-sell and up-sell agency services and ensure Account Service has what they need.

I’ve known this agency for years and have come to admire them. They understand the values of culture, relationship and partnership. It has served them well – for nearly 80 years.

Should your agency also hold these tenets close to your heart, consider how the role of Chief Experience Officer could work at your agency.

Should you wish to contact Kellie Bliss, feel free to do so here.

And if you’d like to know more about an agency experience audit, check this out. Or, maybe you’d like to read about reversing a slump…

Thanks. Hope this gets you thinking! Oh, and should you have any thoughts on improving your experience on this website and blog, feel free to lemme know at your convenience.

###

Oh, and in full disclosure… I also worry because some of these guys will begin to get into my business – giving paid advice to agencies and agencies alone. They become an ad agency new business consultant. It’s bad enough that some play both sides. Happy to accept checks from either clients or agencies. We don’t need any more of this monkey business. Papa’s got a mortgage to pay. But we digress…!

So, what’s a search consultant do to?! Here are some thought-starters:

Sharpen your own marketing and business development
The Ad Age article about agency compensation was based on a survey performed by a highly regarded and well known search consultant. Very, very smart. Naturally, I encourage you to take a look around this site for new business strategies. But   here’s another place to find some inspiration and innovation. This “place” lists a few non-agency resources for professional service business development. Having suggesting this, though, there are a couple of really easy things to consider:

• Develop win-win partnerships with other professional service offerings (law, accounting, etc.)
• Get published regularly. Very smart guys out there doing this right now. But there are many platforms still available.
• Re-engage with all your past clients. Odds are good they’ve moved on from the brand you served. I wonder if there isn’t some way you could keep in touch with your old clients each month with some valuable, helpful information.

Change up what you offer
Try to take a 30,000 foot view of what’s happening in the CMO suite. What are they looking for that you are not providing? Blow apart the Integrated Marketing Communications function. Find the areas in which your skill set has value. And yes, that’s a big, fat hint.

Specialize
Agencies are beginning to build practice areas and market their specific expertise in targets or categories. Is this something for you to consider?

Change your business card
Buy someone, join forces, or become part of a much larger firm. For instance, my experience has suggested that when a management consultant gets an agency search project, they bungle it. I wonder if there isn’t an opportunity there for you.

And these are just for starters. It’s not lost on the industry that the most successful search consultants are changing the way they do business. They have already employed one or more of the thoughts outlined above. YOU can do this, too!

Many search consultants are actually nice folks. Competent, fair, smart professionals that are industry experts. While I feel for you, we are at a point when change must be necessary to thrive. Don’t make me pull this car over!

Gentle reader, should you have any thoughts related to helping a search consultant out, feel free to share with the class.

Thanks!

###

Here are just a few posts written about the consultant world on this blog:

The consultant world in ad agency new business

Do you need to know agency search consultants?

The 4as List of Search Consultants (and how to use it) 

But then…bee-yoop. It all goes to crapola. A piece of business is lost. Some people leave. The press turns. Bloggers get downright mean. And you have a hard time attracting terrific talent without paying a premium.

What to do?!

The following are a few things to consider in your new business development efforts.

Take a look at your past
Audit yourself. Take a look the two most critical areas in new business development for your ad agency: prospecting and closing. By prospecting, we’re talking about all of the strategies and tactics you employ to increase the number of pitches your agency earns. “Closing” is referring to pitching. The stuff you do when you’re convincing a potential client that you are the right agency for them.

Take a look at your competition
When’s the last time you did some homework? The last time you checked out the agency space with a critical eye? Take a look at some of the agencies featured in the trades and industry blogs. Note the kinds of things they’re doing. How they position themselves and their professionals…their capabilities…their digital presence…and their new business activities. What’s different about their efforts? What do you like and not like? What might work at your agency?

Take a broader look, too. What’s the category doing? Why? What are the consultants saying in the space?

Take a new look at your target
With what you’ve seen at your agency, the competition and the category, let’s get some perspective from the people buying our services. CMOs, Vice Presidents of Marketing and agency decision-makers of all shapes and sizes. How might you describe them? What are their challenges? How do they think? What’s changed over the last three years for them?

These kinds of questions and many more like them will help you pull together a plan that you and your agency can execute to reverse a new business slump.

And while it’s awfully self-serving to suggest you should hire out an audit, it is entirely possible to do this yourself. (Though, naturally, there are some inherent benefits in hiring an experienced new business expert! But I digress.)

###

Oh, by the way, here’s a different take on an audit. It’s from an customer experience perspective. And here’s a post that discusses common closing problems and a potential solution. And then, apparently another closing post was written that looks at zen, motorcycle maintenance and agency new business.

Another similarity: both technology companies now seem to be searching for replacements.

If you only knew of someone who could help you get up to speed on these companies or even put you in touch with a professional or two that would be an ideal candidate for these jobs! (Rest assured, new business fan, you do know someone. Should be interested in a backgrounder or some ideas on how to win this business through a connection or two, feel free to contact me.) Thanks!

###

P.S. Here’s an entirely different way of looking at these marketplace changes. Hire one of these folks as a category ringer.

But first, let’s define the term. A “brag file” is a collection of nice things people say about you. A part of your own permanent record. One of my first ones was mumble-something years ago when Dan Fox, Group Account Director at FCB wrote, “Nice job. Really!” on one of my Nielsen reports. It was routed through the Coors account team. But this is just one example. Letters of recommendation, voice-mails and emails are great things to have thrown in your file. And nowadays, you have a whole new source of things to add to the pile: tweets, LinkedIN recommendations, blog post comments and more. Of course, the higher the title from a recognizable source, the better. You could also collect other notable personal achievements.

From a career perspective, here are some more interesting things you might do with these kind of comments and positive juju:

• Work it into a page and add it when you are asked about references
• Sprinkle it in a resume
• Throw them on your LinkedIN profile or on a personal blog
• Share it with recruiters as you put your materials on file
• Take a look at it next time you have a crappy day
• Note why and how you received the accolades and make an adjustment or two

From an agency perspective, we’re really talking about a form of testimonials, right? With a little imagination, all of the above can apply to you. But here are some additional thoughts that might not immediately spring to mind:

• Use them throughout an RFP response (or to add color to a specific question)
• Create posters out of the comments and throw those on the walls between stop on an agency tour
• Make a coffee table book out of them and put it in your lobby
• Work them in in specific agent pitch videos

Anywho, hope this gets you thinking! Thanks.

###

Chris Shumaker wrote a bit in Ad Age that offers up some tips to clients on developing RFPs. I love what he has to say. Chris would definitely be one to know, by the way. He’s an experienced new business hand, having worked in “the bigs” for years. Personal experience suggests he’s a smart, nice guy.

By the way, one of the things Chris recommends clients use are the new 4As / ANA guidelines. Agreed. Find Thunderclap posts here and here on how this can be used in your agency’s new business efforts.

Avi Dan wrote a piece in Forbes CMO Network also aimed at clients. Avi’s a search consultant – one of the good ones, I understand. He writes a good post. And while his message is a little self serving (that clients should hire search consultants instead of working through procurement), get over that quickly. He’s got some suggestions in it that you should be aware of as an agency. Here’s a snippet of what he writes with regard to a good RFP…

“ a good RFP should provide information about how the agency differentiates itself; what is its business model, what is its vision. We want to know: have any of your ideas ever failed? What did you learn from that?”

He goes on:

“You are not hiring an agency’s past; you’re hiring its future. And that future, while somewhat informed by previous accomplishments like case studies and samples of creative work, is more likely to be a reflection of an agency’s culture and people, and its willingness to embrace what’s coming rather than preserve what’s been.”

Pretty damn inspiring stuff from an experienced pitch man.

From your perspective, these articles can mean a couple of things:

Understand the benefits your vision, business model and culture can deliver to your clients
This should kinda go without saying. But you’d be surprised how often agency RFP responses don’t call out the value of these things to readers. I see this a lot when past responses are used as source material. The readers of your document are looking for the WIFM – what’s in it for me. Spell it out.

Take part in the industry paradigm shift
Value yourself more. The Ad Age article suggests that the smarter agencies are also evaluating their client just as much as the client is eyeballing them. Your taste alone in new business blogs suggests you are smart! Avi’s wisdom suggests it’s OK to be yourself, relying less on the Jedi mind tricks of ad agency new business. Should you be looking for more ways your uniqueness is marketable, do a search for “authenticity” on this blog.

Anywho, hope this helps. If you’ve noticed any new RFP trends, feel free to share. Thanks!

###

Almost forgot: if you are looking for FREE RFP Response How-To tips, sign up for the RSS feed or drop me a line. Happy to send some over to you in the form of a presentation I delivered to a group of 4As agencies.