By Category: New Business for CEOs
Sparkfly personalizes offers to influence shopper behavior and drive maximum margins
Published on July 14, 2010
One of the "if only we could" wishes of B2C Chief Marketing Offers is delivering highly personalized, one-to-one offers to customers - offers that result in increased brand loyalty and higher profit margins. I've come across a company that now delivers on that wish.
This is a way for your advertising agency to bring new technology and significant value to your current clients.
Here are some of the technological innovations now taking place in the sales promotion industry:
- Personalization is now possible in real-time - while customers are present in-store.
- Retailers are focused on customer loyalty and retention more than ever before.
- Personalization tools and processes are being integrated at the Point of Sale (POS).
- Post-promotion analysis can now be done in hours, not months.
Technologies that integrate real-time promotions into the POS deliver:
- Much better customer targeting
- Much higher redemption
- Tighter segmentation
- Greater market share
- Reduced traditional media spend
- Revenue gains
According to a white paper published by Retail TouchPoints,
The new paradigm makes possible a 1:1 relationship between seller and buyer that was inconceivable a few short years ago.
Besides new technology, what makes all this possible is that "the consumer is absolutely willing to sign up for personalized loyalty and rewards programs on the Web", says Sahir Anand of Aberdeen Group.
According to Retail TouchPoints, Sparkfly has "emerged as a leader in the transformation of existing POS systems, smarter CRM data integration, and a vastly improved consumer experience."
Sparkfly CEO Catherine Tabor adds this tantalizing summary of her company's solution:
Imagine a world where you know exactly which of your products an individual consumer is purchasing; when and where they're purchasing; and based on that behavioral purchase history, you can then communicate a very tailored and personalized offer to the individual consumer that will drive them back into the store, the restaurant, or to your product, at no incremental cost.
Without mentioning the Fortune 100 companies that Sparkly is now working with, after visiting the company's offices and seeing their clients' results, this may be a technology you want your clients to implement. It can and will benefit them, their customers, and further solidify your relationship.
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It's tough to improve if you don't know how you're doing
Published on June 29, 2010
How do you measure the performance of your new business team? Is it just number of wins and revenue generated? If those numbers are good, do you know what they're doing well? If those numbers aren't good, do you know where they're falling short?
If you consistently measure the right things, you'll have all the information you need to hire, fire, train, and retain a high performance advertising agency new business person or team.
Measuring how you're doing is only effective if you're measuring against something. You first need to set an annual goal for each item. Then, break the goal down into monthly increments, and if appropriate, weekly and daily. With the goal, you can then measure your performance against your target. In addition, you want to measure yourself against how you did for the same period last year, and perhaps last quarter.
Marketing Metrics
Social media: On your blog, measure followers against your goal. Review posts that get the most reads (and be sure to write more of them). Identify which ones don't get read and adjust accordingly. Track how many reads you get per day and per week against your goal. Identify steps to improve reads based on how they're trending (up or down). Measure traffic sources - where does your traffic come from - and track it against plan.
Events you host: How many guests do you expect to attend; how many show - that's the show rate, which you need to predict future attendance. How much did the event cost? What's the event's cost per attendee? How many new business meetings do you get from each event? What's the event's cost per new business meeting held? How many pieces of new business do you win as a result of an event? What's the cost per new account landed? Over time you'll have enough numbers to evaluate whether to continue hosting events or perhaps to increase the number of events, and it'll be based on a true ROI.
Events that you attend: What's your cost to attend? How many new business meetings do you secure from each one? What's the event's cost per meeting held? How many pieces of new business do you win as a result of each event? What's the cost per new business account landed? Over time you will have enough numbers to evaluate whether to continue attending certain events and perhaps if you should increase the number of events you attend. That decision will also be based on a true ROI.
Branding Email: If you use email as a branding vehicle - measure how many emails you send with each blast. What's the overall cost per blast, and per email? How many opens do you get? What's the cost per open? How many inquiries do you receive? What the total cost per inquiry? What new business do you win from emails? What's the email cost per new business account landed?
Branding/direct mail: If you use direct mail as a branding vehicle - measure how many pieces you send with each mailing, and the mailing's total cost. What's the cost per piece? How many inquiries do you receive (if any)? What's the cost per new business inquiry received? What new business do you win from direct mail? What's the direct mail cost per new account landed?
As you can see, if you measure all of your marketing activities, you'll soon have metrics on the marketing cost per new business inquiry, per new business meeting, and per new account win. This is incredibly valuable information for your future planning.
Outreach metrics
Networking / referral program: If you employ a networking and/or referral strategy, how many meetings or requests does it take for you to get one referral? How many new business meetings do you get for every 10 referrals? How many of these turn into new clients? You want to know these ratios so that you can determine how many referrals it takes to generate one new piece of business. Then, you can extrapolate and plan for the future.
Search consultants: If part of your new business strategy is to keep in touch with various search consultants, I encourage you to track your efforts and the ROI. How many consultants do you keep in touch with? How often do you do so? What does it cost (in terms of time, travel expense, mailings, etc.) to stay on their radar? How many RFPs do you get from them? How many do you respond to? How many do you win?
RFPs: How many RFPs do you receive (separate from search consultants)? From whom? Be sure to track the source of each RFP (i.e. how did they hear about your agency) so that you can better target your future marketing efforts. Track the cost (in terms of time, out-of-pocket expense, mailings, etc.) to submit an RFP. How many RFPs do you get from each source? How many do you respond to? How many do you win? What's the cost per submission? What's the cost per new account won?
Directories: Many agencies submit their creative work and other information to websites that cater to corporate marketers. You should measure these sources as well. Capture the cost of each directory, the number of times your profile is viewed by a corporate marketer, and the conversations, meetings held, and new client wins from each directory. Then, calculate the cost per profile viewed, per new business conversation or meeting held, per account won, etc. This way you'll be able to evaluate whether the particular directory you choose is providing you ROI. [Note: some of these sites may be considered "branding sites" - i.e. the cost is relatively minimal and you just need to be there. That may influence your decision to maintain a presence on the site.]
The most important metrics with outreach activities is the cost per win and the cost per source. You need to be able to answer the questions, "What does it cost us to land a new piece of business? And, "What are the least (and most) expensive sources of our new business wins?" One of the best ways to do this over time is to rank your sources by the number of accounts won from each.
Activity metrics
Using a CRM system, I recommend that you track all the outbound activities between your new business person and potential clients, which are typically the following:
- Emails Sent
- Emails Received
- Quick Chat (example, "I'm sorry I've caught you at a bad time, I'll call you tomorrow.")
- Good Conversations (this is a substantive conversation that moves the prospect down the sales funnel)
- VM (left voicemail message)
- DNLVM (did not leave voicemail)
- Received VM (received a voicemail from a prospect)
- Meeting Set (set up a meeting with a potential prospect)
- Meeting Held (meeting was held with a potential prospect)
- Business Won
With these activity measurements, you can create metrics that will allow you to determine what's working and what's not. Here are those I find to be the most valuable:
Total outbound activities = emails sent + quick chat + conversations + VM + DNLVM. You should use this daily, weekly, monthly, etc. to measure and ensure that activity is taking place.
Activities per day = total outbound activities for the month / # work days in the month (or week, quarter, etc.). How much is enough? Someone in new business who's charged with outbound prospecting to a significant number of potential clients should make at least 30 outbound calls per day.
Calls : conversations = total activities / total conversations. This is a measure of how many total activities it takes to have a good conversation with a prospect. These days, having one substantive conversation out of every five or six calls is good.
Meetings per conversation: Total meetings set / total conversations. This tells you how many conversations it takes to secure an initial meeting. The lower the number the better your new business person is able to establish rapport, ask relevant questions, and establish a reason to meet. I think you should aim for a 1:2 ratio, or one meeting from every two good conversations. If you find that the ratio is higher, I recommend doing role practice to improve your new business person's skills.
Meetings held % = meetings held / meetings set. This is a measure of the quality of the meetings that are set. Over time, you should aim for nearly 100%, as this will mean that your new business person is doing an excellent job of identifying a need and establishing your agency's relevance to satisfy it. If meetings regularly don't take place, then they weren't quality meetings in the first place.
Business won% from meetings held = business won / meetings held. This will tell you how well you convert initial meetings generated from proactive outreach. Recall that in the above funnel, we used 10%. You should be able to do better. However, a note of caution: I can't tell you how many agency CEOs have told me over the years, "Put me in front of a prospect and I'll close the business." The exact same number have been terrible at moving an initial meeting along the process to actually winning. The objective of a first meeting is...a second meeting. Don't try to win on the first meeting. For more on this, read here.
With the information discussed in this post, you'll have all the information you need to allocate your resources to the sources and activities that drive the most new business for your agency.
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Build your plan
Published on June 24, 2010
Creating an advertising agency new business plan is a step-by-step process. With the outline of ingredients necessary to create a new business plan provided in this post, you'll be able to make the decisions necessary to put your plan together in a matter of days or weeks.
Important note: Many "new business initiatives" are unsuccessful because management isn't fully committed to the effort. To avoid this common result, I encourage you to read the prior post (Step 1) and then "take a time out". Think about what it says. Discuss it with your management team. Together, determine if you have the collective will to change your agency's new business culture. Without this commitment, implementing the suggestions in this post will only guarantee mediocre success (at best) or failure (more likely).
Step 2: Build Your Plan
Before we begin, I'd like you to put yourself in the right mindset. Creating a new business plan is creating a marketing and sales plan for your agency. You know how to do this for your clients; now you need to do it for yourself. Perhaps rename your new business plan 'New Business, Inc.' - this might help you give it the client-oriented importance it deserves.
INGREDIENTS
Who Are You; How Are You Different?
Every agency thinks they're unique, while clients think most agencies are alike. Everyone in your agency needs to know who you are, and how you're different. If you say, "We're a retail agency that delivers our big-box retail clients 15% annual year-over-year growth", you'll probably get a number of potential clients to meet with you pretty quickly. On the other hand if you say, "We're a full-service agency" and you only have 10 employees, there's going to be a disconnect.
What's your most effective approach?
Every agency needs to choose how they want to get noticed. What has worked best for you in the past, or how do you want to go about it in the future?
- Are you best when you do your own category research, and offer it as "bait" to a prospect?
- Are you most successful when you purchase research from 3rd parties and draw insights and conclusions from it?
- Or, are you best when you lead with your create work?
If you need help or are unsure about the most effective apporach, or the approach you're considering, you might ask an expert who works with agencies every day. People to consider include a friendly agency search consultant, consultants like Ignition Group, Robb High Consulting, Michael Gass, or Mirren Business Development, or one of the outsourcing companies like Linkergy or Catapult New Business.
Define Your Objectives
- How much new revenue do you want this year? Write it down.
- How much do you want to come from organic growth? From proactive new business? From passive new business (e.g. relationships with consultants, RFPs that "just show up")? Break down your revenue growth into these categories, and others if you have them.
- Now, turn your revenue growth numbers into a discreet number of wins by category. For example, how many clients do you need to land to hit your proactive new business number? Your revenue from review consultants or RFPs?
Turn Your Objectives Into Achievable Goals
Once you have your top-line numbers for each of your categories, determine how you're going to hit each of them.
- Proactive new business: using metrics from your recent past, create your sales funnel. This will show you how many prospects you need to target to have the meetings you need in order to win a new client. Extrapolate these numbers based on how many wins you want this year. These become your new business team's proactive sales goals, to which you will hold them accountable monthly, quarterly, and annually.
- Organic growth: using metrics from last year, determine the rate at which you win new business from current clients. Determine what you've done to achieve this growth. Ask yourself how you can do better this year. Assign revenue growth goals to each account team, communicate those goals to them, and incorporate them into their monthly, quarterly and annual goals, and hold them accountable to hit them.
- Passive new business: Your agency may have a "nurturing strategy" with various search consultants, or, "friends and family", among other groups that you keep in regular touch with. Set goals for each of these channels, communicate them to your new business team, and hold them accountable to hit them.
Note about accountability: we've all heard the expression, "What gets measured gets done". The great thing about this one is that it's true. If you don't know what you want to achieve, you won't achieve what you want. So, set goals ahead of time, and then make your team responsible to hit them.
Staffing
Too many ad agency new business plans fail because the agency doesn't have a 100% dedicated, talented new business person who is regularly measured, and held accountable to the effort.
The challenge for many advertising agency CEOs is that dedication means the new business person can't work on client business, and won't be billable. I encourage you to look at this situation as you would one of your clients: do they have billable sales reps? Or, are those sales reps 100% dedicated to revenue generation? You know the answer to the question.
So, the decision you need to make is either:
- Will you appoint an internal person to be responsible for new business (if so, who?)?
- Will you hire someone from the outside?
- Or, will you outsource to a 3rd party expert, who will focus on proactive new business (only).
Whichever option you choose, your next step is to define the job description, how you're going to find them, and when you want them to start. Then, initiate the search. As an aside, if you're considering a recruiter, you might want to speak with Mirren Talent.
Marketing
Target criteria and segmentation: Decide on the criteria you want to use to target prospective clients.
- Are there specific companies you plan to pursue?
- If not, what industries, company size (by revenue and/or media spend) are best for you?
- In what geographical area?
- What are the titles of the decision makers you're best talking to?
- Are there particular brands you want to work with?
- Or, are there particular brand demographics that are best - e.g. brands targeting seniors or Gen X?
Data: Once you know who you want to target, you need to choose a new business database that will provide what you need. Be sure that the one you choose provides everything you need. There are a range of services available at various price points, starting with "free" and going up from there.
One thing I regularly hear from clients is this: "You get what you pay for". So, think before you go for the lowest price.
Five or ten years ago, direct mail was useful as a branding vehicle. Today, it may take doing things a bit differently to get noticed. However you do it, think about what you can do yourself, as well the leverage you can get from others. For example, there are websites on which you can post your work, testimonials, clients (and much more), that will essentially market your agency to prospective clients at an affordable monthly cost (one example is Marketing Mine - full disclosure, this is a sister company to The List).
Many agencies also utilize their CEO's blog to get noticed. This is a very powerful form of social networking. For more information about creating an agency blog, call Michael Gass.
Outreach
How do you want your agency to reach out to clients? For example, do you like the idea of someone making cold calls, or not? Decide, as a management team, what type of outreach you want to take place before you finalize the new business person's job description. Questions to consider include:
- Do you want them to make cold calls?
- Do they need to be an email expert?
- Will they network with search consultants?
- Will they interact with current clients to help drive organic growth?
- Do you want them to be a pitch specialist? (Are you willing to pay top dollar for this expertise?)
- Will they attend initial prospect meetings? If so, on their own or with someone else? Or, do you want them to stay focused on new business while others attend meetings?
- Or, do you plan to outsource your proactive outreach, and if so, what skills and responsibilities will be needed on the inside?
Once you define how you want your new business person or team to do outreach, you'll need to define the touch points they'll employ and goals you expect them to hit:
- If you use email, will you follow up with telephone calls? If so, what frequency do you expect? Do you want someone who sends a few targeted emails a day, or 50?
- If you're cold-calling, do you want someone to make 5 calls per day or 40? (Hint: not everyone who's comfortable making 5 a day will be able to consistently make 40.)
- What's your plan to use voicemail? Do you have a voicemail strategy?
- If networking is your preferred tactic, how do you plan to pursue it? How many connections do you expect per week, month and year?
- Or, perhaps you're best when you have a referral. How many referrals do you expect per week, month, year?
No matter your tactic(s), be sure that the person you appoint or hire is good at the approach you want them to use. If not, you'll experience a big disconnect and subsequent employee turnover.
Metrics and reporting
You also need to decide the following ahead of time:
- How are you going to measure the effectiveness of your efforts? What reports do you have to do so, or do you need to develop?
- Who's responsible to create them? Who's responsible to run them?
- Who will review them, and when? (I recommend at least monthly.)
As you think about metrics and reports, I encourage you to measure as many aspects of your new business performance as possible. Here are a few posts that may be of assistance: a simple call-tracking system; converting leads to opportunities; and, measuring your new business activity. There are quite a few others within this site. You might try using the search option on the home page. If you get stuck, don't hesitate to get in touch with me directly.
Filter Your Opportunities
What's your process going to be to review leads that you receive, as well as RFPs? Not every lead is a good one, and you probably don't want to pursue every RFP that comes in the door. Decide what you want to pursue ahead of time. Set the rules for your team so they know how you want them to respond when the moment arrives.
Here are three ways you might categorize opportunities:
- Core criteria: fits your pre-determined size, geography, category, discipline(s), etc.
- Strategic opportunity: Gives you the opportunity to move into a new category, geography, discipline, etc.
- Opportunistic: falls in your lap; represents something quick and easy to do; or, is a good source of cash.
When you've made your decisions about each of these new business plan ingredients, it's time to put your plan on paper. You now have a choice: do you want to create a document than sits on a shelf, or one that's a living, breathing guide to your agency's new business future? The former will probably become a binder and get distributed to key players throughout the agency, and end up on their bookshelf. The latter might be a one-page plan printed on colored paper that people bring with them to weekly new business meetings.
My favorite plan is the short version - overall objectives, specific numerical goals and tactics on one page. How you go about pursing outreach, marketing, job description(s), opportunity categories, etc. might become your "standard operating procedures". They should be written down, printed and distributed, but the team won't have to refer to them very often (once they understand them). Your metrics/reports will be a work in progress; as long as they're reviewed weekly or monthly, they'll become part of how you do business in no time at all.
A final thought...
The Little Things Really Matter
We sometimes forget the little things that make a big impact on a prospective client. Things like hand-written notes and welcome gifts. For best results, these should be thought-through ahead of time, included in your new business plan and made part of your agency culture. Little things like those noted in these posts, as well as the ideas you and your team come up with, are an easy way to differentiate your agency.
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Are you committed?
Published on June 22, 2010
It may be the result of losing a client, reading a book, article or blog, attending a conference or meeting, or perhaps just having a conversation with someone: every so often an ad agency CEO will say to him or herself, "We've got to do a better job of going after new business."
What comes next varies from agency to agency, but generally there's a flurry of activity, followed by (hopefully) a new business win, and then everything settles back to "normal", as in, no consistent new business effort.
Can you break the cycle and develop a consistent approach to new business?
Sure, but it may be easier said than done.
In this two-part post I'll help you create your annual new business plan. It's broken into two parts for a very important reason: Many "new business initiatives" are unsuccessful because management is not fully committed to the effort.
To avoid this common result, I encourage you to "take a time out" after reading this post. Think about what it says. Discuss it with your management team. Together, determine if you have the collective will to change your agency's new business culture. Without it, going on to Step 2 will only guarantee mediocre success (at best) or failure (more likely).
Step 1: Commitment
An annual new business plan is more than creating a PowerPoint deck, producing a brochure, and assigning a junior account executive responsibility for new business (or perhaps creating a new business committee).
To really move forward and create a sustainable and successful new business effort, you - the CEO - need to affirmatively answer these four groups of questions:
- Are you willing to change the agency to one that's prepared to proactively pursue new business over the long-term? Is your management team fully committed to this effort? If not, why not? How are you going to motivate them to change?
- Are you fully prepared to treat 'New Business, Inc.' as a client? To invest the non-billable resources necessary to ensure that they remain a client for, say, 10 years?
- Are you prepared to create annual plans with objective, measurable, transparent goals? Are you prepared to promote, hire, or outsource 100%-dedicated new business people to the team? Are you prepared to hold them accountable for results on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis?
- Do the internal changes you'll need to make to ensure the success of New Business, Inc. mean that you need to make other changes to the agency? What are they? Are you prepared to make them, too?
With four 'Yes' answers you're ready to move on to Step 2 (the topic of my next post). If not, I encourage you to either keep doing what you're doing, or make the internal changes necessary to answer these questions affirmatively.
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Case Study: Cinquino & Co.
Published on May 05, 2010
Was your agency able to win new business from 71% of your first meetings in 2008? How about 60% in 2009? That's what one small agency in New Jersey accomplished after being on the brink of closing its doors in 2007.
Crisis often creates opportunity, which is what happened for John Cinquino. His agency won zero accounts after 34 first meetings in 2006-07. As he and his team faced the possibility of losing their agency, they decided to things differently.
They made a pact to put the quality of first meetings before quantity. And they vowed to learn how to win.
Here's what they learned:
- Start with a hard target list that's focused on specific categories.
- Develop key case studies for each category.
- Hire a strong new business hunter.
- Your new business hunter is responsible to prospect and set up first meetings.
- Your new business hunter also preps the prospect for a "10-minute qualification call"with one of the ad agency's principals, who will be the only person at the first meeting.
- The agency principal uses the qualification call to identify the prospect's pain points and needs. When it goes well, this call may last 20-30 minutes (and the prospect will NOT be looking to get off the phone).This call:
- Establishes rapport between principal and prospect.
- Helps the principal understand, "What hurts?"
- Provides specific areas for the agency to research to prep for the first meeting.
John's recommended questions to ask the prospect:
- What did you do in the last year that didn't work?
- What issues are you having with your competition?
- What issues are you having with your brand?
The key is that you identify their pain points quickly, and then move on to the next question. You want to get just enough information to be able to connect the dots. This will enable you to do your research on the prospect's competitors, distributors, and the brand itself prior to the first meeting.
- Conduct meaningful research based on what the agency principal learned on the qualification call. Keep top-of-mind that every prospect wants to know more about:
- Their customers
- Their competitors
- The agency principal goes to the meeting prepared to take charge. Share your research and talk about the prospect's business. Try not to let them ask about you; when they do, answer briefly and then move on to something else you learned, or ask them another question.
- The agency principal leaves the meeting with very clear next steps. By now you should have a very good idea what the prospect needs. Before you leave the meeting, agree on a date for you to return to present a proposal to solve one or more of their issues three (3) weeks later.
With this approach, Cinquino & Co. closed 71% of their first meetings in 2008 and 60% in 2009. They now have three new business hunters instead of just one...out of a total staff of eighteen people.
John has proven that these nine steps work and is now in rapid-growth mode - and did so right through the recession.
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Adweek doesn't suggest an answer; Here's one.
published on July 15, 2009
Large, well-known agencies are getting frustrated at the length of time it's taking to fill open CMO positions and with the lack of available talent, according to a July 13 article in Adweek.
I
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Leaders never let their minds shut down, always strive to learn more
published on June 30, 2009
In college, I don't think there was any way to comprehend what a professor meant when he said, "learning is a lifelong occupation". All we wanted to do was graduate and not have to take another
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Making brownies while presenting your credentials doesn't mix
published on June 25, 2009
One day during the week of June 15th, 2009 a multicultural ad agency that can't be named had a conference call with a very large, well-known telecommunications company. They completely blew it.
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The greatest change of our work lives is on the horizon
published on June 23, 2009
Michael Malone's new book, The Future Arrived Yesterday hit bookshelves on Monday. You may remember his name from the early 1990s prediction that work was going to become increasingly virtual. He
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Think twice, then act decisively in pursuit of new business
published on June 19, 2009
Chi Wan thought three times before taking action. When the Master was informed of it, he said, "Twice will do."
Shaun Rein writes about "Confucius' Three Keys to Successful Leadership" in a
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4 steps to benefit from focused learning and strategic targeting during slowdowns
published on June 16, 2009
Elizabeth Baskin of Tribe passed along a good idea to me yesterday that may be of use to those who work or own small agencies. We ran into each other at Catapult New Business' New Business from
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Recession success proves the power of a well executed strategy
published on June 09, 2009
Amid stories about client losses, staff cuts and reduced spending are powerful reminders that a well-executed organic growth strategy can be a powerful revenue-generator in good times as well as
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To be successful, a good new business hunter needs to feel their boss' confidence
published on June 03, 2009
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
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Measuring and graphing trends over time will show whether your new business process is improving, or not
published on June 02, 2009
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
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Take a page from Jack Welch's playbook
published on May 29, 2009
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,
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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
published on May 26, 2009
Ad agencies and other marketing services firms are perfectly positioned to get creative and inspire their marketing talent on behalf of the firm. Rosabeth Moss Kanter reminds us that,
In a
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But in any economy, clever entrepreneurs find opportunity where others see only problems
published on May 25, 2009
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
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Your agency's first meeting with a prospective client should be all about them and not about you or your capabilities
published on May 21, 2009
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
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Don't be one of those new business professionals (or CEOs) who's missing what's happening outside the four walls of your agency
published on May 18, 2009
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
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What is the one thing that must be done extraordinarily well to achieve your Vision?
published on May 14, 2009
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,
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What is the clear, specific, measurable and achievable Vision motivating your agency?
published on May 13, 2009
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,
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If you can find the time to write a blog, you can find the time for proactive new business
published on May 07, 2009
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
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Starting an agency any time is difficult; succeeding today is even more challenging. Tips for success from a venture capitalist
published on March 27, 2009
I stumbled upon a post by Paul Graham, venture capitalist, titled "How Not to Die". It's the notes from a talk he gave at a dinner for the leaders of companies his firm had invested in. As someone
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Any excuse is a good excuse not to make prospect calls
published on March 23, 2009
Just last month an agency president told me, "Over 20 years I've made up every possible excuse in order to NOT make the new business calls I needed to make."
Here are 4 common forms of new
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Right-size your agency instead of eliminating your sales and marketing effort
published on March 17, 2009
The day before yesterday a Midwest agency CEO called and told us that they cut all new business spending at their 40-person full-service agency. I cringed when I heard the story.
What would you
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Spending money on what you don’t do well is as important as spending it on what you do well
published on January 21, 2009
Last week an agency principal from the West coast called and said, "I haven't forgotten you, we just got busy (months after his initial call). But, now we're ready to move forward with new
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