New Business Intel

» Ad Agency New Business Starts with Confidence

To be successful, a good new business hunter needs to feel their boss' confidence

Faye Hyman died six months ago after losing her battle with cancer.

I met Faye in 1997. When I took my new position, Faye was on probation, facing the loss of her job if her numbers didn't improve.

In this new role I had 40 direct reports in a severely under-performing sales organization. I had to quickly determine who was good, and who wasn't. Anyone on probabtion was on my short list to be fired.

One thing I knew, however, was that the easiest way to determine if a sales person is any good it to listen to them. If they prospect over the phone, record their calls and listen to them; if they network in-person, join them at their meetings, soley to watch and listen. (You'll be amazed at what you learn.)

So, I listened to Faye's sales calls and in-person meetings. I saw that she:

• Established rapport with her prospects
• Asked open-ended questions to determine their needs
• Identified and discussed ways we could help
• Set a next action, or asked for the sale - as appropriate

In a word, she was excellent. Her process was consultative sales by-the-book, flawless. The only thing she was missing was self-confidence. The look on her face and the way she carried herself made you feel that she was beaten down, almost like a dog that's been repeatedly kicked by it's owner. I immediately took her off probation.

Just two years later in 1999, Faye became a President's Club member. I believe she was then ranked #3 out of more than 200 sales colleagues. She continued that run for years, and then became a national sales trainer, teaching hundreds of others how to be truly professional sales people, in the best sense of the word.

I spoke to Faye for the last time a few days after a group of friends, colleagues and former colleagues held a party in her honor. She expressed optimism in her full recovery, and then said,

All that I achieved I owe to the confidence you showed in me.

Everything Faye achieved was the result of her own ability; she just needed to be released from the chain attached to her by her former boss so she could live up to her full potential.

What a lesson for all managers of ad agency new business people!

A good salesperson is always striving for attention; if you beat them down they will almost always underperform. The confidence you show in them, and they feel, may be the boost they need to achieve their potential.

» SAT Question of the Day Can Improve Ad Agency New Business

Measuring and graphing trends over time will show whether your new business process is improving, or not

If you have kids between 7th and 10th grades, you should know about The College Board's The Official SAT Question of the Day. It provides a daily question that is a fun and challenging way to learn about the types of questions asked on the SAT and how to answer them. As a parent, you will also be challenged (and happy that you don't have to go through that process again!).

The question on Saturday, May 30th made me think about how important metrics (measuring your activities) are to a successful new business process.

Here's the question that was asked:

In the figure to the left, "the large rectangle is divided into six identical small squares. If the perimeter of the large rectangle is 30, what is the perimeter of one of the small squares?" And your choices of answers:

• 5
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 12

To create the new business metaphor, think of each small square representing one of the activities of a well-developed new business program. They might be:

1. Direct marketing
2. Prospecting
3. Networking with colleagues, past clients, search consultants, and friends of the firm
4. Responding to RFPs
5. Organic growth
6. Agency public relations

If the perimeter of each small square represents the sum of the activities in the square, the individual activities you might want to measure for "responding to RFPs" might be:

• Number and average number received per month
• Number and average number of man-hours required to complete each
• Average and total number of days from receipt to submission
• Cost and average cost to complete each
• Ratio of "on to next round" divided by the number of submissions
• ROI: Pre-tax profit from wins that involved an RFP divided by total cost of RFP submissions

I'm sure you can add other metrics to the above list. If you break down each of the 6 major new business activities into what needs to be measured for each one, and then measure and graph trends over time, you'll soon know whether your new business process is improving, or not. With that information, you will be able to make the right decisions to improve your process.

So, the answer to the SAT question is 12. Whether you got it right or not, hopefully you now see how weekly (best) or monthly (at the least) measurement of your new business activities will improve your ad agency's new business process.

In any case, good luck with your daily Question!

» For Strong Ad Agency CEOs: How to Survive, Thrive, Dominate in the Recession

Take a page from Jack Welch's playbook

Ad agencies must drive new business to grow. But then there's growth through acquisition. Or, perhaps "stealing" your way to growth. If you missed this from today's Vanity Fair/Bloomberg Panel, read on...

HUNT: Okay. The next question is directed - is from India, and it’s directed to Jack and Joe. And it says, “How does your perspective differ as a businessman versus an economist on the way any organization or firm should try to be proactive in an environment with as many uncertainties as we have today?”

WELCH: Well, Al, we have 11 companies in our private equity company. We meet with them every 30 days. Our objectives with them and our challenge to them were three things. One, cash is king. Get every drop of cash you can get and hold onto it. That is number one.

Number two is communicate like you’ve never communicated before to your people. They’re scared. They don’t know what’s happening. Every action you take must be understood by every employee in the place. If used to think you communicated a lot, communicate tenfold more now in every morning at businesses.

Get in the skin of every employee so they know everything that’s happening and they aren’t kept sitting out, wondering. They understand what the situation is.

And finally, the third one is if you’ve got the cash, you’ve communicated with everybody, you’ve taken care of your best, you’ve differentiated with your people, go out and buy or bury your competition.

And the idea is buy them because they might not have done what you did. Bury because they’re sitting around scared. Steal their employees. Steal their R&D people. Steal their salespeople. Bury them. Now is the time.

Now that's advice straight from the gut.

» In a Recession, Ad Agencies Should Put Everyone on New Business

Facing lack of new business growth? Loss of clients? This is what a recession feels like, so now's the time to rally your troops

» If You Think Ad Agency New Business is Difficult, Try Living in Venezuela

But in any economy, clever entrepreneurs find opportunity where others see only problems

Imagine running your agency while fearing imminent kidnapping of a family member.

I spent the Memorial Day weekend with family. We are quite a crew of different nationalities and cultures. One of my step-sisters brought along a cousin who lives in Venezuela. He's a very successful late thirty-something guy from a prominent family; let's call him call Juan (no real names - you'll see why in a moment).

Juan's life is quite different from ours. He can trust no one but himself and his wife because of the threat of kidnapping. Every family member has multiple body guards, and he must have different sets of guards at his country home and house in the city. He can never tell his guards where he's going in advance, because any routine or advance notification presents an opportunity for guerrillas or members of the government to infiltrate and grab a family member. He carries a revolver on his hip and an automatic pistol at his ankle. He sleeps with a hand grenade.

One of his wife's family members was kidnapped a few years ago and it took millions of dollars to get him released, fortunately alive.

You'd be right in thinking that doing business in a country like this is challenging. 50% inflation is one thing, kidnappings, government corruption and the threat of industry or company nationalization are altogether different. At the same time, instability can create opportunity.

We heard about a friend who builds houses for people related to the Chavez government. One customer insisted on a marble roof for his house (it formerly had dirt floors), despite the fact that the weight was impossible to support. This client paid in cash, with money stolen from the oil companies, which they pulled from bags containing bundles of wrapped $100 bills.

Juan told us a story about a some polo ponies he purchased on a trip outside the country. When they arrived in Venezuela, someone from the government was at the airport, suitcase in hand. He'd heard about the ponies' arrival and wanted one for himself. Recognizing that not selling one of the ponies to this guy was not an option, Juan suggested a price 60 times more than he paid a week before. The unsophisticated, newly wealthy 'gentleman' opened the suitcase and paid the asking price with hundreds of thousand of dollars in cash.

What dysfunction do you see in our current economy? Which of your clients or prospective clients are poised to take advantage of them - and might not even realize it? Could you bring a good idea to them or even create some intellectual property of your own to take advantage of an opportunity only you see?

» Ad Agency New Business, First Build a Relationship

Your agency's first meeting with a prospective client should be all about them and not about you or your capabilities

I've enjoyed reading Norm Brodsky's articles in Inc. magazine for years. He's seen and experienced just about anything you'll ever encounter, and there's a wealth of good business insight in every article and post. If you're a creative person who's perhaps less fond of the business aspects of running an agency, reading his stuff is a quick way to get a degree in management and sales.

Take the following post about the first meetings. This topic is one of my favorites because I've seen so many ad agencies blow what could be the first step towards a sizable piece of new business. Here's what Norm says:

I usually go out on the first sales call with any new sales person we hire. After we leave that first meeting, the new sales person's comment is usually, You didn't tell them what we do.

My answer is always, they know what we do. And they know we're there to make a sale. But the best way to close a sale is by building a relationship. Every time I go into somebody's office, I look at the plaques on the walls, the trophies, the memorabilia, the photographs. I always try to learn something about the person I'm meeting.

More times than not, I steer the conversation toward their hobbies, their passions, their families, and try to relate my experiences to what they like. In our business, which is a service business, we never close on the first call anyway. But when I leave that meeting, I want them to remember that we've been there.

It's so simple. But how many of us use the excuse of the first meeting to talk all about ourselves and our companies?

Instead, why not ask your prospect questions? Get to know them? Build a relationship. After all, they know why you're there - to sell your agency's services. But they, like you, need to determine if there's chemistry.

You're probably heard this before - people buy from people they like. So stop presenting and instead try building a relationship. When you're successful, closing the deal becomes a matter of deciding when to start, which is a fun way to add new business.

» Is Your Ad Agency Practicing Inward Facing Dog?

Don't be one of those new business professionals (or CEOs) who's missing what's happening outside the four walls of your agency

If you're the new business person at a small or medium-size agency, or the agency CEO, a recent post from OnStartUps by Dharmesh Shah may resonate.

I borrowed this post's title from Dharmesh, who alludes to the popular yoga pose "downward facing dog" when he asks his readers, "[are you] practicing inward facing dog? That is, are you overly focused on things going on inside the company with too little attention on what might be going on outside the company?"

Here are his 6 ways to determine if your agency is Inward-Facing (he wrote this for start-ups; I've re-written his points to apply to ad agencies):

1. You haven't talked to your client(s) this week for any reason other than to provide support.

2. You don't know what your closest agency competitors are doing, or what new ones are cropping up (yes, even in a recession).

3. You don't read the blogs of at least 5 people you respect in the advertising industry. Read. Stay up to date on the conversations shaping the industry.

4. You haven't been to an industry conference in years - solely to learn and have in-person conversations.

5. You don't follow the news about where the money is flowing in the ad industry or your clients' industries. Who is being funded? What technological innovations are occurring? What companies are getting bought, being sold?

6. You don't regularly meet with other new business professionals (or agency CEOs). Your experiences, challenges, frustrations are not unique - others have been through it before and you can learn from them.

Hopefully, one or more of these ideas will help you get tuned back in to what's happening outside. It's important for your professional growth as well as as the health and vitality of your agency.

What other signs might indicate that your agency is too inward focused? What else do you do to make sure you stay in touch with what's going on outside your four walls?

» Agency New Business: Making Your Vision Reality

What is the one thing that must be done extraordinarily well to achieve your Vision?

In yesterday's post I mentioned participating in a Vistage meeting on Tuesday that featured an excellent speaker, Dan Barnett. Dan has run businesses for 25 years at companies like Pillsbury, Nestle, Constellation Brands, Vistage, and now on his own.

After giving us a lot of helpful advice about the Vision each CEO had for his company, he introduced us to a concept that will help you make your vision reality - what he calls your "Make or Break". (To understand this concept and to make it meaningful, you first need a clear, specific, measurable and achievable Vision motivating your agency, which was the subject of yesterday's post.)

To get help us get started, he emphasized that the Make or Break is the one thing that must be done extraordinarily well to achieve your Vision, and then cited a few examples:

Once identified, your Make or Break will become the central focus for your agency.

What is the one thing that your agency must do extraordinarily well in order to achieve your vision?

As a thought-starter, consider the make or break that my friend Keith Browning came up with. He's the CEO of Sparks Grove, a boutique interactive agency and a participant in the meeting: he identified his make or break as "interactive design".

The next step is to Identify the activities that cause your Make or Break to happen.

Let's say your Make or Break is proactive new business (it won't be, but let's use this as an example of the activities that cause new business wins to happen). Here are activities that might be on the list - keep in mind that each one needs to be easily measurable:

• Make calls, send emails, leave voicemails
• Have conversations
• Set meetings
• Hold meetings
• Complete RFPs
• Submit proposals
• Meet with search consultants
• Pitch

With each of these identified, you can now set weekly goals and measure progress towards their accomplishment. You then create a dashboard in Excel to graphically show how you are doing.

Dan has proven that a weekly 30-minute meeting with everyone from your agency in attendance who touches any aspect of the Make or Break, will lead you to the results you want, and the achievement of your Vision.

Unlike most reporting, this is "forward-facing". It's not waiting until two weeks after the month you just completed: it's looking at your progress weekly, and then immediately adjusting or innovating.

We're putting this into place at The List now; I'll let you know how it works.

» New Business and Your Ad Agency’s Vision

What is the clear, specific, measurable and achievable Vision motivating your agency?

Yesterday I participated in a Vistage meeting that featured an excellent speaker, Dan Barnett. Dan has run businesses for 25 years at companies like Pillsbury, Nestle, Constellation Brands, Vistage, and now on his own.

He pushed us to write down our company's vision and then identify our "make or break".

Three things struck me that hadn't previously: written well, a vision statement should:

1. Motivate employees
2. Drive behavior
3. Last for (only) 5-7 years

Woops: I realized that ours doesn't accomplish either of the first 2 and was written 9 years ago. Dan said that while it's not uncommon, we were all missing a huge opportunity not to update or change it so points you in the direction you want to go.

The other question he asked was this: "Will achieving your Vision make you happy when you get there?" If you're the CEO or on your agency's management team and the answer is No, you need a new vision.

Think about this: your new business program needs to flow directly from your vision. Like your vision, it must be clear, specific, measurable, achievable and motivating. Is it?

• Does your agency occupy a clear position in the market?
• Have you set specific goals?
• Can you easily measure every activity that will lead to new business success?
• Are your goals and activities achievable in the time period?
• Are they motivating to employees?

Let the vision statement be your agency's guide. Once you have it, everything else will follow.

» Agency CEO’s Managing Their Time for Proactive New Business

If you can find the time to write a blog, you can find the time for proactive new business

A few months ago I committed myself to writing a blog post every day for the professional enrichment it provides, in that you don't really know what you know until you write it down.

The interesting part of the process is that it forces you to focus on the most important things in your day, and eliminate time-wasters. Here's what I've learned to change:

• Email - only look at your messages and respond at certain hours of the day. You may say, "That's impossible, I need to be on email all the time." You'll be amazed at the hours and productivity you lose every time you check your email.
• Meetings - focus the conversation, and start and stop on time.
• Writing - lead with what's important, make it easy to scan, keep it on-subject. Some posts used to take me 1-2 hours to write; I can now write them in 45 minutes or less.

Over the years, numerous ad agency presidents have told me that they don't have time for proactive new business. I've nodded my head in understanding and then pushed them to find it.

I am now experiencing first-hand a similar time challenge, and have discovered that while there are a limited number of hours in every day (for all of us), if there is sufficient time to write a blog, there is sufficient time for proactive new business.