I can throw out several potential reasons: no consistency, no plan, no one owns the effort, to name a few.

These are all valid reasons and I don’t mean to diminish their importance with a quick list, but recently, I’ve seen several patterns reoccur across multiple firms I’ve spoken with.

Their new business efforts are stalled and once you step back and take a big-picture look, you begin to see why.

Here a few reasons:

1. New Business Efforts Aren’t Effective? You’re Not Creating Any Context

I swear, if I get one more cold LinkedIn sell, I will lose it.

Similarly, if your only approach is to go for the throat in your first email, you’ll never get in the door.

What you’re trying to get is attention, right?

Sending yet another cold email only adds to your prospects’ full to bursting inbox.

You have to create context around your prospecting.

Look at your efforts as a campaign.

A campaign that can be repeated with small changes over time.

The key is creating awareness first and selling later; however, by later, I mean the whole campaign over the course of a month, for example.

You create context by first reaching out and speaking the prospect’s language, conveying your understanding of their vertical.

You must do this with multiple touches, using multiple mediums.

Here’s an initial example:

In the first week, start things off by mailing something-a simple letter or a simple collateral piece.

It’s such an uncluttered medium-you need to take advantage of it.

And while people are all over today, as far as where they’re working, someone is picking up the mail. (It still works.)

And follow with an email, letting them know you sent something to them and why you sent it (because you focus on their industry, you’re expert in this service, etc.).

In the next week, follow up with a first call, and if they opened your email from last week, consider linking in with them, but DO NOT message them with a cold sell.

And follow several days later with a second email.  This is where you start to sprinkle in a case study.

By the third week, you may not have broken through, but you’ve created that context, and therefore permission.

The key of course is in the messaging.  (See #3 below).

But about that permission.

2. New Business Efforts Aren’t Effective? You Misunderstand The Concept Of Permission

I mentioned above the right way to go about getting your prospect’s permission.

Agencies sometimes take this far too literally though, and rather than building prospecting tiers by layering targeted, meaningful messages, they literally reach out the first time and do the “aw shucks” or “hey, I’m in your corner” type of messaging.

I am not a fan of any of the following prospecting language:

“Your time is valuable, so I’ll cut right to the chase”

“I know you’re busy, so. . . .”

“(Insert prospect’s industry here) is more complex/harder than ever. . .”

I’ve talked before about cutting to the chase.

If you’ve created that context I mentioned above, you can prospect with confidence and not worry about filler like “I know you’re busy.”

Of course they’re busy-you’re wasting your time and your prospect’s when you write that.

3. New Business Efforts Aren’t Effective? Your Prospects Don’t See Value in A Conversation

As mentioned in #1 above, if your messaging doesn’t speak to the business challenges you help solve, you’ll never get past square one.

First, you have to speak to your prospects and not at them.

If your initial outreach reads or sounds like brochure copy, or like an ad for your firm, it will never resonate.

Instead, mention a real-world challenge you helped a client solve.

Don’t get overly familiar, but do treat it as though you’re talking to the prospect on a professional, but natural level.

Use clear, concise language and state your specific expertise, a few examples of your work, and the intent of your reach out. (An initial conversation).

Onwards and upwards!

The post Wondering Why Your New Business Efforts Aren’t Effective? appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

In our 3 Takeaways video series, we discussed the topic (Agency New Business Directors-The 18th Month Curse) of just how difficult many firms find the process of hiring a new business director.

I don’t bring this up to be self-serving, it continues to come up in discussions I have with firms.

I had a conversation recently where an agency principal relayed her experience of a new business hire they made, where the new business director sat at his desk and literally waited for prospect calls to come in.

There are many reasons why new business directors fail, but the lack of earnestness, of purpose, is a trait I see often.

These individuals are afraid to pick up the phone, and their success, or lack of it, becomes evident fairly quickly.

It’s an interesting barometer, because the phone is obviously only one of several platforms that should be used in the agency new business process, but look out for that trait.

Too much emphasis on email or LinkedIn, to name two examples, typically results in an overall lackluster performance.

Let me be clear, I am not saying email and/or LinkedIn are not useful, they most certainly are, but as old school as it may seem, if your new business director is not picking up the phone as part of a methodology, they will most likely be gone within that dreaded 18 month window.

So what are you to do?

How do you find that salesperson with “true grit”, for lack of a better phrase?

If I could answer that question, I would probably be hanging out with Jeff Bezos.  (OK, maybe not Jeff, but at least Larry Wilcox.  Of Chips fame.  Look him up.)

In all seriousness, sussing that trait out during the hiring process is very difficult.

Yes, you can and should call on references, which will most certainly help, but I know many of you reading did just that as part of the hiring process and it didn’t work out.

I’ll make two recommendations to you, and I don’t see agencies do these enough:

As part of the interview process, ask to see an outline of his or her prospecting process. What platforms will they use, what does the cadence/timing look like, how many touches do they foresee until they break through, what content will they use/will they need?

Understandably, this is partly based on conjecture, but the goal is to see that there is the shape of a plan ready to be put into place.

Give them a writing test. This can take many forms, but let them know before they come in they’ll be asked to create 2-4 sales emails (with a computer available) for example, that will walk the reader along the prospecting path. You’ll gain many things by this: how well they understand your firm at that stage, how well they write and how well they research on the fly, to name three.

Neither of these guarantees a new business director that lasts longer than 18 months, but they will definitely help you hedge your bets.

The post Two Ways To Beat The Dreaded Ad Agency New Business Director 18 Month Curse appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

There’s a reason the phrase “shameless self-promotion” exists-agencies feel like it’s unseemly, for lack of a better word.

And in some cases (even with all the craven social media self-promotion out there), it is.

There’s nothing worse than attending a webinar or a presentation that is essentially a thinly-veiled commercial for the company, service, or platform for example.

And I hear, “we don’t really like to self-promote, or “we’ve never really done much self-promotion”, predominantly from small to mid-sized agencies.

So let’s get into why.

Why Ad Agencies Don’t Self-Promote

Here are the reasons why:

1. Per the above-it doesn’t feel right/we look like Dbags
2. We want the work to speak for itself
3. It takes time we really don’t have
4. We don’t really need to
5. We don’t know how to

I’d like to briefly reply to the first 4:

1. Not if you do it correctly
2. Tough for the work to do that if you’re not sending prospects to it.  Build it and they will not come.
3. Fair, but you can’t let that be an excuse (more on that momentarily)
4. Maybe not now, but eventually, you will.

Now let’s look at #5:

We Don’t Know How To Self-Promote

The good news is, you actually probably do, and I want to give you some real-world examples of how (without having to create a ton of new content or spend a ton of time), and then talk about why you really do need to do it.

First, pick a platform.

And that platform is your site and LinkedIn.

If you’re already creating content like a blog, reports, or video and you’re posting to your site, that’s great.

Ideally, you’re sending, via a newsletter, or direct contact, your prospects to that content.

And you should also be posting it to LinkedIn.

But a lot of small to mid-sized agencies aren’t creating content and that’s who I want to talk to with this post.

You don’t have to create ongoing, brand new content to still have a presence on LinkedIn.

Ideally you’re making an effort to, even once a month, but I understand the reality small and mid-sized agencies live with-it’s tough.

So instead, use what’s already in front of you.

5 Ways to Create Content For LinkedIn

1) Examples of Work

Here’s an example from Owen Jones and Partners in Portland, OR.

You can see the LinkedIn post with video here.

This may seem obvious, but it’s interesting how few agencies take advantage of this opportunity.

Ultimately, you’ll want a case study for something like this, but this is an excellent way, in two paragraphs, to showcase your expertise and make a little humble brag as well.

Is this self-promotional? Yes.

Is it “unseemly”, as I said previously?  No.

Yes, it is ultimately about the work and the agency, but the focus is on the client, the menu item, and a recognition of the team.

2) Use Those Case Studies!

Here’s an example from Sanger & Eby in Cincinnati, OH.

You can see the post here.

I mentioned case studies above.  If you have them, use them!

Their LinkedIn post works well because it’s concise, and is all about the end result.

And this is a great example of showing results without raw numbers, which agencies, understandably, get concerned about.

3) Send Your Prospects To Your Site-That’s Why It’s There!

Here’s an example from the team at DSM in Mahwah, New Jersey

You can see the LinkedIn post here.

DSM are absolutely being self-promotional here.

But does it come off as too much? Overly promotional?

Not at all, and the key here is the way they’ve written this, like they’re talking to you , and not at you.

4) Talk About Those New Clients!

Here’s an example from from Barkley, in Kansas City.

You can see the LinkedIn post with video here.

Simple, punny (in a fun way), and obviously impressive with a name client like Post.

And the video is fun and creative.

But your new client doesn’t have to be Post, or have a video that goes to this extent.

Celebrating a new win in a real way (I wanted to use authentic, but it’s so overused) is fantastic.

Shows your expertise, prowess, and appreciation.

I love it.

5) Discuss A Trend, Tool, Or Platform

From The Cyphers Agency in Baltimore, MD

You can see the LinkedIn post here.

You don’t always have to be agency-focused in your content to post something value-added that will show your chops to a prospect.

This is a great example of content that’s not directly about the agency, but they name-drop, in a non-intrusive way, some of the verticals they focus on, and then most importantly, a call to action at the bottom of the post in italics.

It’s unobtrusive but well-written:

If you would like help with your webinar strategy or moderation, feel free to contact us. We offer a variety of services like social media marketing, digital marketing & analytics, marketing & brand strategy, and more to small and large companies.

Ideally, these examples help your firm feel better about promoting all the good work you do-all with the aim of bringing on new clients.

Oh, and I mentioned I would throw out why you really do need to do it.

Because if you aren’t, another agency is.

The post Why Ad Agencies Don’t Like To Self-Promote appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

Along those lines, we just released our latest survey report, which you can (and should) download here: RSW/US 2021 Marketing Technology & Agency New Business Tools. 

As we point out in the intro,  

We took a break last year and have completely revamped our report.  

With 67% of marketers saying their company’s spending on analytics and marketing technology tools is increasing and 88% of agencies recognizing that the need for these tools continues to grow, we didn’t think you needed to know that LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform for agency new business again. 

Instead, we surveyed marketers on a specific, brief set of questions around these tools and their potential challenges, for additional perspective, and then performed a more in-depth survey of agencies, to bring you a total of 19 tool categories: 12 on the tools you and your peers are using to support the marketing activities of your clients, and 7 on the tools you and your peers use to help drive agency new business. 

And along with those two stats, there’s another, recent stat, that you and your ad agency team need to be aware of:  

CMO tenure slipped to just 40 months in 2020, the lowest average since 2009. 

CMO tenure has always been a roller coaster, but the lowest since 2009 is worth paying attention to. 

And one of the quotes from the Drum piece I linked to mirrors language in our report. 

From the piece: 

Top marketers are coming under severe pressure from ever-tightening budgets coupled with a need to improve return on investment 

You’ve heard this before, but now couple that with a question we asked marketers in our survey:  

Which of the following challenges related to marketing are most likely to worry you over coming years? 

Per the chart below, the top two answers are (tied at 58%): 

1) Tracking marketing effectiveness and media spend 

 2) Personalizing the customer experience without violating customer privacy 

Personalization continues to be top of mind, from the Marketing Charts piece, Personalization of Content A Key Coming Priority: 

About half (49%) of the senior content team executives at enterprise-level companies surveyed say they will prioritize investing in technology that enables real-time delivery and personalization of data, while 46% will be using better data to create personalized content that serves the customer journey. Another third (34%) also plan to prioritize investing in platforms, people and processes to scale the production of personalized content. 

And further in our report, when marketers were asked what techniques/tasks their companies would work to improve over the next 1-2 years, they zeroed in on “experience optimization” and “general audience analytics”. 

We’ll be covering more on our report in future posts, but these stats certainly represent more potential opportunities for agencies to deliver value, ROI, and ultimately increase client retention.

Certainly for those agencies that take advantage. 

I’ll leave you with one last stat from our report along those lines: 

Only 56% of agencies have specific individuals that “own” activities related to finding marketing analytics and technology tools at their agency. This is short of the 70% of marketers who responded saying that they have dedicated people exploring new ways to use technology to drive their business. 

For small and mid-sized agencies, understandably you typically won’t be able to dedicate someone full time to that activity, but you can certainly have an individual who “owns it” as part of their job description. 

Or, as we do here at RSW, have a revolving group of individuals who meet monthly, for example, to examine current/new tools. 

The post 8 Marketing Technology Stats To Help Ad Agencies Boost Client Retention [Data] appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

First, a bit of explanation. 

Your traditional brand vs. your prospecting brand

When I say “traditional” agency brand, I often hear agencies talk about their philosophy, and/or culture, and that’s certainly important. 

But this isn’t the same as your “prospecting” brand. 

What is your “prospecting” brand?

Your “prospecting” brand is how you present your agency ongoing to your prospects, and is really a mindset that should inform your entire new business process. 

To have an effective prospecting brand (I’ll stop the quotation marks now), you need to answer yes to these three questions: 

-Are your new business efforts memorable? 

-Are you providing value, in some way, with every touchpoint? 

-Are you building prospecting trust? 

To be fair, one could argue that the two (traditional and prospecting brands) shouldn’t be separated, but I do think there is proper timing for which side you present initially, especially to your prospects. 

For example, in episode 27 of our 3 Takeaways series, we argued, Your Prospects Don’t Care About Your Culture. 

Culture is important but it’s not your elevator pitch

Think about how busy you are.  

Now think about how busy your prospects are.  

One of my ongoing agency new business mantras is, put yourself in your prospect’s place. (Agency New Business-Don’t Send This Email) 

 I’ll give you a real-world example to illustrate: my company, RSW, as much as we’ve worked to build our culture over these last almost 16 years-you, reading right now, as a member of your firm, and therefore a potential client of RSW-you don’t care about the culture we’ve built.  

At least not upfront. 

At the top of the funnel, what’s the first thing you want to know? 

Culture is very important to us as a company, and everyone here has worked hard to establish the culture we have and we’re proud of it.  

But what’s the very first thing you want to know, as an agency principal or new business director, if I reach out to you-what’s the first thing you care about?  

It’s not the culture we’ve built-you want to know how can we help you first.  

How can we help you drive more new business? 

Which is why, at the top of the funnel, your agency culture will not get you in the door with a prospect. 

So how do you foster a prospecting brand?

You do this by creating trust, and trust at the top of the funnel is different than the trust you build once a prospect becomes a client. 

You have myriad opportunities to build trust with your clients, through service, quality of work, and dependability, to name a few. 

But at the top of the funnel you have no relationship with your prospects, and therefore no trust-yet. 

So you build that trust by building on your prospecting reputation, yes, over time. 

By making your efforts memorable and providing value, in some way, with every touchpoint. 

In order to do this, you first have to make sure you have a few tactical pieces in place. You must: 

1) Define your agency 

2) Define what you do 

3) Define who you do it for 

(All this is another post, or several posts, on their own, but here’s more to think about: You Must Do This For Prospecting Success) 

With these pieces in place, you can now drive your prospecting brand and your proper prospecting mindset, and begin to build that initial top-of-the-funnel trust. 

So here are four ways to drive your prospecting brand: 

1. Always tie your prospecting language to your prospect’s language 

Generic check-ins and asking if your prospect got your email are a waste of time.   

Instead, always tie your language to your agency’s POV, your expertise, or the challenges you help clients solve. 

2. Create content or use thought leadership content 

This one can be tough, but it doesn’t mean you have to write long form content all the time.   

(Although, 73% of marketers say they read agency blogs/content.) 

You can make an insightful comment on a prospect’s LinkedIn post, or at the very least, turn to Google for an industry trend or piece of news. 

3. Stay Consistent 

(Speaks for itself) 

4. Don’t sell all the time 

Especially when you’re on your 3rd or 4th touch-take a breath, and rather than a call to action, or asking for a meeting, send over that though, or piece of content to your prospect. 

It may feel strange, not selling, but indirectly, you’re still selling, and more importantly, you’re building on that trust. 

You have to provide reasons to trust that you are not wasting your prospect’s time 

When you do this, you create a prospecting brand, and a prospecting mindset to use as your guide. 

And then,  

You won’t write ineffective, generic emails. 

You will have more confidence in your outreach.

And you will become memorable. 

And ultimately drive more new business into your agency.

The post What Your Agency Prospecting Brand Is And Why You Need It {Data}  appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

If there’s anything agency leaders know, it’s the cyclical nature of the industry. 

Certain trends ebb and flow like the tides, for example, this sound familiar? 

“This year, we’re moving everything in-house.” 

(Next year) New plan! We need an agency. 

(Mid-Year) We need multiple agencies. 

(End of Year) OK, we really need one agency that can do it all, time to consolidate. 

(The following Year): OK, new plan, we’re moving everything in-house! 

 And so it goes.  There is another trend though, if that’s the right word, that I wouldn’t call cyclical necessarily, so much as an ongoing agency state of being: 

Clients Come First, and New Business Comes Last 

Most commonly referred to as the Cobbler’s Children story/situation (Your Phone Is Your Client-A Cobbler’s Children Update for 2021), agencies get so busy servicing clients, it’s not until things slow, or a client leaves, that they realize they should have been pursuing new, new business. 

And unique circumstances are currently in play that are driving this trend for agencies right now. 

We’re Busier Than We’ve Ever Been 

That’s a common refrain we’re hearing from a lot of firms right now. 

And a large majority of that work is coming from current clients. 

This is about the time you’re asking, “and that’s a bad thing, Lee?” 

And of course, it’s not, it’s fantastic.   

While a blanket statement (certainly we’re not out of the pandemic yet, and of course, there are still verticals trying to recover), many of those projects and campaigns that were put on hold during the pandemic are back on. 

We’ve spoken to the importance of organic growth previously: 3 Ways Agencies Can Land And Expand. 

It’s never been more important, and now is the time to put the effort towards landing and expanding. 

But in doing so- 

You cannot Ignore Outbound 

When you’re busier than you’ve ever been?  That’s when you pursue new business. 

I mean, you need to be consistently pursuing it, but it never fails: agencies start or restart at the worst possible time, behind the eight ball, in a place of desperation. 

And that rarely works out. 

But you’re thinking, yes, Lee, we’ve heard this before, we know. 

But there are two, current, concrete reasons you can’t ignore your outbound new business process right now, both from Ad Age posts. 

Here’s the first: 

1) CMO moves jumped 25% in North America in 2020 

Per the article: 

Announcements of CMO moves rose 25% across North America in 2020, with 523 publicly disclosed appointments, up from 420 in 2019, according to executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates. 

 And there was an uptick in hiring as the year progressed, with 282 CMO moves in North America coming in the latter half of 2020, up from 241 in the first six months of the year. 

So these individuals are still effectively new, or new-ish. 

What a potential opportunity to get in on the ground floor with a new CMO.

The key, of course, is not to inundate these new CMO’s out of the gate.

But many agencies will, and the majority of the messaging will be the same, and probably not driven with intent.

From our standpoint, we count on it, it does make it easier to differentiate our agency clients. 

And here’s the second: 

2) One third of brands are considering change of agency in the next six months 

Per the article: 

Nearly one-third of U.S. brands may be contemplating switching up their ad agency in the next six months, while more than nine in 10 say chemistry is the most important factor in forging a new agency partnership.

Even more reason to make sure outbound is part of your ongoing strategy, becasue:

i. There’s going to be potential opportunity to grab these clients 

and

ii. It could potentially be one of your clients looking for a new agency 

Not fun to think about, but it’s a truth in our industry: 

Sooner or later, all clients leave. 

You don’t want to be behind the eight ball.   

It’s not fun. 

The post 2 Reasons Your Agency Can’t Ignore Outbound Right Now [Data] appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

Jody Sutter is a business development expert and the owner of The Sutter Company, a new business consultancy that advises small agencies on organizing and operationalizing their growth strategy.  

She helps them generate revenue by demystifying and simplifying the process of pitching new business. Her programs make it easier for small agencies to embrace and sustain a new business strategy because they take both the agency’s strengths and available resources into consideration.  

You can learn more about Jody and her programs at www.thesuttercompany.com or by emailing Jody at jody@thesuttercompany.com. 

You can also pick up her book, A Small Agency’s Guide to Winning New Business: 8 Steps to Winning More of the Right Kinds of Clients, on Amazon.com. 

Thanks Jody!

In November, Adweek released the results of a survey of 70 brand marketers asking them to rate their agencies’ performance during 2020 and anticipate plans for changing or retaining their agencies next year.

The headline warned that 40% of brands may seek new agencies in 2021. Attention-grabbing stuff, to be sure. But not wholly surprising.

Earlier this year, MediaPost also predicted a high-level of pitch activity. The article framed it as an opportunity for independent agencies. Why? Because clients were starting to feel the full effects of layoffs and cutbacks at agency holding companies, pricking those clients to take their business elsewhere.

And, anecdotally, many of my clients, small independent agencies, have never been busier. This includes shops that specialize in serving sectors that were particularly hard hit during the pandemic, such as restaurants and education.

The RFPs and new business inquiries keep rolling in.

I’m not here to read the tea leaves (I’ll leave that to Adweek, MediaPost, and others more qualified than me), but the situation did get me thinking about pitching and, more specifically, positioning your agency to win.

Your job is not to please the client

 A couple of months ago I wrote about how the pandemic was changing the nature of agency reviews and I said (perhaps optimistically) that disruption on the scale of a global pandemic may provide the jolt we need to break free from patterns that don’t serve us anymore (like the one-sided process of a marketer selecting from a collection of overly solicitous agencies vying for its business).

As I mentioned in that post, your job is not to dump a bunch of credentials slides on the clients and hope to overwhelm them with your awesomeness.

Your job is to advance the sales process and close the deal. Easier said than done, to be certain, and you will be better served if you start off with a plan that involves more than just enthusiasm and the willingness to “do what it takes” to win.

How do you plan to win?

Start each pitch with a strategic plan to win the business. Here are a few considerations for what to include:

Distinguish between implied needs and expressed needs

First, understand what the implied needs and motivations of the client are.

Explicit business needs are expressed in the RFP, of course, but it’s a mistake not to consider personal agendas too. Each individual on the client team is likely to have other motivations beyond seeking an innovative, efficient marketing solution for the business they represent.

That’s the idea behind Bain & Co.’s B2B Elements of Value pyramid. It lists 40 distinct kinds of value ranked by five levels of importance to buyers of business-to-business products and services. From lowest to highest they are:

1.   Table stakes (which includes things like an acceptable price and meeting specifications)

2.   Functional value (e.g., improved top line, innovation, product quality)

3.   Ease of doing business (e.g., reduced effort, decreased hassles, availability)

4.   Individual value (e.g., growth and development, reputational assurance, fun and perks)

5.   Inspirational value (e.g., vision, hope, social responsibility)

You might be surprised, as I was when first introduced to the pyramid, at things like “innovation” and “improved top-line” are ranked lower in value and how comparatively important individual and inspirational values are, like getting ahead in one’s career or doing good for mankind. Bain & Company explains:

“As B2B offerings become ever more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal concerns that business customers bring to the purchase process are increasingly important. Indeed, our research shows that with some purchases, considerations such as whether a product can enhance the buyer’s reputation or reduce anxiety play a large role. Recognizing the full range of both rational and emotional factors behind business purchases — and tailoring the value proposition accordingly — is critical to avoiding the commodity trap.”

I’ve been working with a strategy and design consultancy and recently introduced the Elements of Value pyramid to leadership there. Despite no previous awareness of it, they were already incorporating the principles in their approach to pitching. One of the first things the CEO told me when I asked him to describe common characteristics among his typical clients was that his clients are often looking for a bit of glory — a promotion, a quick win in a new role, or even a sense of higher purpose.

By being aware of this and shaping their pitch to address it in some way (along with all the other overt requirements of the client), they often put themselves in a strong position to win the business.

Redirect the brief

How many times in your career have you grumbled behind the client’s back about an unclear or inadequate RFP or project brief?

An RFP describes what the client thinks is needed to solve the business problem at hand. And, in their zeal to please, agencies don’t often challenge those assumptions. They default to a “client is always right” mentality.

I’m certain that clients do their best to anticipate all their needs when writing an RFP. But clients are humans too and humans are imperfect. What’s more, they’re probably not experts in the subject matter to the extent you are.

(Can you imagine if you had to write a clear, comprehensive brief for your plumber when your kitchen sink mysteriously starts to back up?)

Sometimes winning the pitch lies in your ability not only to recognize that the client is asking you to solve the wrong problem but to probe for what the true underlying problems are. Your job is to ask questions, challenge assumptions, present alternatives, and ultimately guide the client toward describing the true desired future state. Only then can you propose the right solution.

Focus on the most convincing reason (not all the reasons) to hire you

Now that you’ve refined or even redefined the ideal outcomes at both the enterprise and the personal level, you must convince the client that your agency is the best-qualified choice.

And that hinges on playing to your strengths. Too often I see agencies fall prey to the temptation of offering the client all the potential reasons why the client should hire them. That’s a flawed strategy for two big reasons:

1.   It forces the client to do more work than they want to. We don’t like having too many choices. And when a client is sifting through multiple RFP responses that all kinda sound the same, they are craving a clear message.

2.   Some reasons to hire you are going be stronger than others. Why focus on your weaknesses?

It’s not easy to build a persuasive case for your agency when you are overcompensating for weaknesses.

Here’s an example. One of my clients, a website design agency, recently pitched a business that had issued two different RFPs. One RFP was for website design and it fell beautifully within the agency’s sweet spot. The other RFP was for traditional branding and marketing services. The client offered the agency a chance to pitch for both and the agency was captivated by the opportunity to potentially win a coveted branding project.

The problem was the agency didn’t have the right credentials for a branding project. And the proposal reflected it. The one for website design was concise, smart, and easy to read. The case studies were relevant, and the proposed approach demonstrated mastery and instilled confidence that the client would be in excellent hands.

In contrast, reading the branding proposal felt like watching someone try to punch their way out of a giant paper bag.

Not only was the proposal longer and wordier, but even the language and idioms used were off. My clients over-relied on what they knew, how to build websites, in an attempt to camouflage their lack of experience in brand-building.

In the end, the agency was indeed awarded the website project and failed to make it through the first round of selection for the branding work. I admired the agency’s willingness to go for it, but it was too big a leap — and from my perspective, not worth the enormous amount of time and energy that went into trying to be something they are not.

Is 2021 the year of the independent agency?

We are entering a period where smaller indie agencies have a chance to shine and win business from clients that have traditionally hired larger, higher-profile holding company agencies in the past.

Take full advantage of this trend and have a plan to win.

The post You’re in the pitch. Do you have a plan to win it? appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

Welcome to “3 Takeaways”, your agency new business video series where we focus on one new business category and give you three takeaways to help improve your new business program.  

Something we’ve gotten a lot of questions about lately from agencies is organic growth-how to land and expand. 

We’ll explore the topic further throughout this year, but we wanted to kick off the topic with this episode. 

The thing about organic growth-it’s driven by account managers, right?

And their mentality is often farming, not a bad thing, that’s inherent to the position typically. 

But to increase organic growth, you need them to be salespeople as well.  

That can be tough, I mean, there’s a reason why moving an account manager into a dedicated business development role rarely works. 

So how do you handle it? 

Well there are many strategies, but I want to give you three takeaways that will help both your organic growth effort (land and expand) and your outbound effort at the same time.

So, your first takeaway? 

Keep prospecting, even after they become a client.  

Once your account folks take over, it’s heads down, let’s get it done, service the client as best we can. 

As it should be, as it has to be, but you need to foster a culture of organic growth as well, create a strategy that includes treating your client like they’re still a prospect-multiple touches, over time, providing value in each touch, above and beyond the work.

Now it’s obviously not the exact same process as outbound, but the bones of it are. 

That’s tricky though, isn’t it?

Your account folks may not be comfortable in that role, feel like it’s too pushy or just not something they want to do. 

One of the initial steps in this process is a bonus takeaway-treat your agency like a client. 

Keep your site up to date, create content, show your expertise and POV-these tools can help arm your outbound and organic effort. 

And that’s where your second takeaway comes in. 

Make your account managers comfortable with indirect selling. 

It’s not about telling the client, “we do a lot more digital work and we could really help you there”.

Instead, it’s showing your client just how much you can bring to the table beyond your current work, without shoving it down their throat-three quick paraphrased examples: one-bringing the work you’re doing for other clients to life, which you may not always be able to share, at least, not explicitly, but even better-something a competitor is having success with and that you could help your client accomplish or do better–“we know you’re aware of what x company is doing of course, and we’re keeping an eye on it as well-we have some ideas on how to push back” and then finally, another way-making sure your client is aware of a trend that could ultimately tie into future work you could do for them, or if nothing else, showing them you’re on top of it. 

“This is something we’re watching, not sure it applies at the moment, but could be a real driver for a future project, we’ll keep you updated.” 

That means you need to arm your account teams with the same content-posts, video, case studies, that your new business director has on the outbound side.

Now, not every piece of that is going to be appropriate for organic growth.

But helpful and valuable content that relates to your client category, and that you’re getting in front of your client, will take you beyond order taking and will provide that much more value to your client. 

And this helps in creating content overall, when you know you’re using it to gain new clients, and keep your existing ones. 

Let’s bring it all together in your third takeaway: 

Recognize your account managers as part of your growth engine. 

That’s another step that’s going to help drive them, and ideally feel proud to keep excelling in that organic growth role. 

Thanks for watching 3 Takeaways-lots of new business content on our resources page at the URL below-we’re here to help you drive new business if you need it at rswus.com. 

The post 3 Ways Agencies Can Land And Expand appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

Hey, welcome to “3 Takeaways”, your agency new business video series where we focus on one new business category and give you three takeaways to help improve your new business program. 

If you’re liking our series, please give us a thumbs up, we appreciate it, and we’ll send you a mental hug.

This is our final episode of 2020, and I want to talk about something a lot of agencies struggle with as they pursue new business-that is how to define your agency and your prospects when you go after multiple verticals.

This should help as you plan for 2021, but it really applies any time.  

Having a horizontal positioning, where you go after many different verticals can absolutely work, and we’ve talked about that in past episodes, but without some definition, agencies can struggle with their prospecting focus.

And especially through Covid, I know a lot of firms took what they could to keep things going. 

If you are going after multiple verticals, and your positioning is essentially, we’re a full-service agency that does great work, or digital firm that does great work, it will be continually harder to break through effectively. 

It may be working for you now, and far be it from me to then say you should do it differently, but more focus will bring you better results, in our experience. 

Even with that horizontal positioning, you need to create some kind of focus.  

So for your three takeaways, I’ll explain and lay out 3 examples of how to achieve that focus with horizontal positioning.  

Your first takeaway is this:

Look at current clients and see if you can apply a broad category focus.  

Are there client continuities, where you could apply a focus like healthy lifestyles, for example. 

That could include a broad swath of verticals and companies-clothing, automotive, food, beverage-the list goes on. 

And if you have work to show within a broad category like this, you should consider it. 

That way you’re still able to go broad and have a diverse client portfolio, but also a stronger position of authority to differentiate yourself from your competition and to your prospects.  

Your second takeaway: 

Go local/regional in your focus. 

While I ultimately think you need some kind of broad category focus, positioning yourself as “in your prospect’s backyard”, coupled with your strength of service can work well across many verticals, especially if you have work to show there. 

We’ve had our own clients use this strategy with success. 

And your third takeaway:

Go the hybrid route and split your prospecting activity between a broad category focus and a local/regional focus. 

This one may seem like I’m cheating, but it’s interesting how some firms don’t think to do this in a meaningful way. 

It won’t apply to all of you watching, because you often “own” your backyard-you’ve tapped it out, and your goal is to expand beyond your city or state. 

Fair enough, but if not, give yourself as much opportunity as possible by employing this hybrid approach. 

Split your list evenly for example, and if one or the other is delivering better success, dial up or down the other.

Thanks for watching 3 Takeaways-lots of new business content on our resources page at the URL below-we’re here to help you drive new business if you need it at rswus.com. 

The post 3 Takeaways Ep. 62 – Don’t Lose Focus w/Horizontal Positioning appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.

We recently had a client come to us as they plan an internal review of their agency communications, and they asked several salient questions across categories and disciplines relating to new business. 

One of those was a question I wanted to share, because agencies ask some version of it often: 

What blog post subjects seem to be getting the most traction?  

Essentially, the question usually revolves around some version of what will really resonate with prospects?  

My initial response was this: 

As far as topics, the seemingly cynical, but serious answer is, it doesn’t really matter what’s resonating overall, but– 

what’s resonating with your specific prospect audience? 

 In other words, what’s resonating in the CPG world isn’t going to resonate in the pharma world (for the most part).  

So they should be focusing on thought leadership that resonates with the prospects they’re going after, regardless of what’s trending overall. 

 So while not really a secret, because many others have given it, here’s what I tell agencies: 

Write about what you know 

One word I never like to use when talking about new business is “easy”. 

There’s really nothing about sales that is-but, this is one area that is actually easy (relatively at least). 

You’re helping your clients solve challenges every day-that’s where your writing subjects need to come from. 

Our Director of Marketing Communications, Miguel Trejo, also added to the conversation: 

Agencies should really continue speaking to what they know.  

Keep an eye on trends but only in so far as that helps to recontextualize their expertise.  

If there is a shift in the marketplace, they should relate how that has affected their clients, how they’ve adapted to the shift to continue serving their clients, and how they see that shift affecting prospects in the future. 

Timely content that comments on current events add a sense of urgency and the evergreen content provides a solid foundation that establishes the pillars of their thought leadership.  

A good approach for them to take with other “trending” topics as well. 

So another “secret” (OK, this is not a secret either, but it’s where agencies often fall down) is not actually about writing content, but what happens after.  Remember this: 

Prospects only read what’s in front of them. 

Writing solid thought leadership content is only half the battle, but I often see agencies stop there. 

They tend to think if they write it, prospects will come to them, but unless you have a following, or you’re a known agency, that’s not the case. 

And thankfully, that’s another area where I’ll use the word “easy”. 

Writing is the hard part, but making sure you share it, in at least 5 different ways, is the easy part. 

But you have to do it-post on LinkedIn and Medium, tweet it out, include it in a biweekly newsletter, and don’t be afraid to share it again a few days later. 

And of course, this type of content is also an excellent reason to follow up with prospects. 

Remember these two “secrets” and you’ll find thought leadership content helping, over time, to drive more new business your way. 

The post Two Secrets For Writing Engaging Agency New Business Content appeared first on Outsourced Ad Agency New Business.