By Category: New Business Metrics & Management
Look before you leap, and measure carefully
Published on July 07, 2010
It's really tempting for an ad agency new business person to look at inexpensive data sources (call them "Jigsaw-like") and get enticed by their low-price business models.
We get asked about services like this all the time, so I thought it might be helpful to provide a framework to review them.
Of utmost importance: Accuracy. These services usually claim an accuracy rate of around 75%. Taking this number at face value, they're admitting that 25% of the data is wrong.
Now, the reality of measuring accuracy. Unless these services are actually cleaning their data themselves, they really have no idea how clean it is. The questions to ask yourself are, "Am I okay knowing that one out of every four contacts I get is inaccurate?" And, "Am I okay wasting 25% of my time?"
When you're purchasing data from a service that relies on users to keep it clean, be cautious about data accuracy claims.
Why does this matter? When you think of accuracy, think of this formula: accuracy = time savings. The more accurate your data provider's information, the faster you'll reach your intended decision-makers. The less accurate it is, the more time you'll spend researching, trying to find your intended prospect.
With this in mind, here are some Pros and Cons of "Jigsaw-like" services:
Pros
- Wide variety of contacts
- Inexpensive
- Exchange out-of-date contacts with another
- No long-term contract
Cons
- No industry focus - you'll sort through lots of companies and titles to find good prospects
- Inaccuracy
- No research support
- Highly competitive - millions of people are going after the same people
- Value of your time - if you have a minimal amount of time to spend prospecting, how quickly you can get to decision-makers is critical
The best way to evaluate various data sources is to do some measurements. For example:
- Out of 100 contacts, how many are incorrect information? More than 10 incorrect data points and you're dealing with inaccurate information.
- How long does it take you to find the contact you're looking for? How does this compare to your current data provider?
- Once you have your desired contact, do you have the (correct) email, direct dial, address? If not (or it's incorrect), how long does it take you to get this information? Does your current information provider have it? Is it accurate?
- What's the value of your time? Calculate it as follows: (annual salary+bonus)x1.3 / 2080. This will show what it costs your agency to employ you, and takes into account taxes and benefits. If you apply this rate to the time it takes you to do what you've identified above, and extrapolate it annually, you'll have a true measurement of what your data really costs.
With this information in hand, you'll be able to decide whether a "Jigsaw-like" service is right for your agency.
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
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.
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
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.
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
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.
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
Consultative selling at its best
Published on June 17, 2010
I was told a story a few month ago about a salesman and his son. They're not involved with ad agency new business, but their story and the lessons learned are 100% applicable to a successful hunter.
Howard Weisnberg is a master salesman of the old school - he believes sales is a numbers game. His approach is simple: make as many calls as possible while offering solutions in a consultative way to creatively get to the buyers' needs and budget. He often surprises his customers with packages and prices they never thought of. His deals range from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars; on average he sells $50,000-$80,000 per month. His profit margin is the highest in the company's history.
Both of Howard's sons are gifted salesman. Last year his son, Adam, took a job selling B2B training courses that average about $1,500 each. At his company, all new hires are given "proving leads". Each of these leads has already been called 30-40 times by past new hires.
Adam closed three deals in his first week.
Okay, let's consider what's going on here:
- You have a talented father who passed on his skills to his son.
- You have a company that knows there is value in "old, dead leads" and recognizes that good sales people will find it.
- You have a son who is clearly able to find a buyer's need where others were not.
New Business lessons:
- Does your agency have a group of prospects that you consistently work over the long-term?
- Do you abandon efforts after the first rejection?
- Are you consistently working to improve your sales skills - to practice identifying needs and establishing value?
As Guy Kawasaki (former Apples exec and founder and managing director of Garage Technology Ventures) said in a NYT interview some months ago:
Success in business comes from a willingness to grind it out...
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
Recent Entries
Response time is critical
published on June 08, 2010
How would you react if you learned today that responding to a prospect within one minute of their inquiry could improve your ability to win new business by 391%? Similarly, if you help your
Read on...
Be the guest
published on May 11, 2010
You fly into a strange city. Your flight is delayed. It's raining. You manage to find a cab that takes you to the hotel in a car that's sorely in need of new shock absorbers. The hotel restaurant
Read on...
"Live Pitch" provides insights
published on May 07, 2010
For those who attended the 2010 New Business Conference, the annual "Live Pitch Competition" provides an opportunity to participate in or watch a random group of agency new business people prepare
Read on...
Interview with Mattel's ex-procurement chief
published on March 23, 2010
When you mention to a new business person that "procurement" is getting involved, the typical reaction is dread. You've built rapport with your prospect, established their need, demonstrated how
Read on...
7 ways to make your committee more effective
published on February 09, 2010
Many smart ad agency Presidents create new business committees with the best of intentions: bring together the best and brightest in the agency who touch new business, give them a mission and
Read on...
Objectives and Key Results
published on February 02, 2010
Two days ago I was introduced to a management technique that's widely used at Intel and Google, about which I was previously unaware. The idea is to get everyone in the company focused on the
Read on...
Change can be just another thing that you do
published on January 29, 2010
In our company, we constantly push ourselves to figure out how to change and improve in order to grow. Part of the pushing comes from an external source (the executive coach I mention in a recent
Read on...
Everyone likes the best of...
published on January 08, 2010
As a way to kick off the New Year, here are the ten most-read posts from 2009. Enjoy!
- 7 Voicemail Messages for Successful Ad Agency New Business Development.
- The Other Reason Why Your Clients
Read on...
The good news is that everything is measurable
published on December 15, 2009
A reader recently wrote me, saying that he's a new ad agency CEO, but has never managed a new business department. What objectives should I set, he asked? What should I measure? As many agency
Read on...
"Jarring" is not the reaction you want
published on December 11, 2009
A few weeks ago I wrote about how not to self-destruct during your first meeting. Unfortunately, in this true story the agency became the talk of the prospect's office. Here's the back-story.
Read on...
Good chemistry means learning how to have difficult conversations to maintain harmony
published on November 04, 2009
You've seen it happen: two members of your team aren't getting along. You've tried to repair the damage, but everyone knows it's there. While everyone tries to cover it up in the pitch, it still
Read on...
How one agency is turning an opportunity to win into a likely loss
published on November 02, 2009
Agencies will do almost anything to get a first meeting with an ideal new business prospect. But once the meeting is secured, optimism often turns to disappointment, and too often it's because the
Read on...
The issue is timeless
published on October 30, 2009
Knowing what your services are worth and being able to articulate and sell the value to a prospect is a critical new business skill.
I was recently emailed the following story, which was delivered
Read on...
How Justin is turning around an almost-lost client
published on October 08, 2009
Customer retention, let alone organic growth, usually comes down to people delivering on promises. Missed deadlines, less than acceptable quality, and poor communication all naturally lead to
Read on...
Just because you have a database doesn't mean it's accurate
published on September 28, 2009
Most agencies have a new business database. Twelve years ago, while working at another company, I would've agreed with the majority of agency principals who believe that their database resembles
Read on...
"Busy-ness" abounds in good times and bad...
published on September 02, 2009
Not long ago I had to let someone go who was always the first to arrive and last to leave. She willingly put in time on the weekends without complaint. And when she was at work, she worked; it
Read on...
You are judged on first impressions
published on August 27, 2009
A recent survey reveals that only one in three agency receptionists meet the characteristics of a Director of First Impressions. Staffed well and you'll have another new business weapon in your
Read on...
Input from entrepreneurs on management, marketing and sales
published on August 03, 2009
If your ad agency is new or entrepreneurial, you're in a start-up marketing services company, or you're a CEO, you'll relate to this list of 10 things MBA schools won't teach you and the
Read on...
Think discipline.
published on July 28, 2009
Too often, creatively-driven firms forget the business discipline that's required to achieve financial success.
A consultant recently reminded me of this. He's the product of the financial and
Read on...
Lack of ROI is usually caused by one of four things
published on July 27, 2009
It's not uncommon to hear that an ad agency (or other type of marketing services company) is suspending their proactive, outbound new business efforts due to low Return on Investment (ROI).
In
Read on...
The single best way to improve results is to measure activity
published on July 23, 2009
Those of us of a certain age remember the Ford Pinto. It had problem: hit it in the rear-end and the fuel tank might explode. This was a rather nasty surprise that drivers wanted to avoid, which
Read on...
10 steps to win more new business from first meetings
published on July 09, 2009
Too often ad agency principals and new business people approach their first meeting with a prospect as an opportunity to "show up and throw up". I've seen it happen repeatedly over the last ten
Read on...
A homeless man provides a life lesson
published on June 12, 2009
My son got a powerful dose of wisdom from a homeless man yesterday. When I heard the story, I couldn't help but think about the applicability of what he said to business in general, and to ad
Read on...
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
Read on...
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
Read on...
Prospecting is a numbers game and knowing your numbers is the key to success
published on May 28, 2009
Start at the bottom to end at the top.
When speaking at the 2006-2008 Mirren New Business Conferences, we talked about how agencies should build their new business “funnel” from the bottom up. A
Read on...
Your new business program will benefit from applying the principals of healthy living
published on May 13, 2009
I was struck by the parallels between maintaining good personal health and a successful and healthy agency new business program when scanning the recent Zappos blog, Slow and Steady Wins the Race.
Read on...
Don’t plow up your crops before they have time to grow
published on May 08, 2009
I recently saw an email from Mark and David Sandler of Sandler Training that caught my eye.
The Sandler's company specializes in sales training. They understand very well that it takes time, hard
Read on...
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
Read on...
Hire someone with proven success in consultative sales ... then ... let them sell!
published on April 01, 2009
Sales is a profession and a critical business function. The sales professional's personality is very different from any other staff member.
These 4 traits are critical - and common - among
Read on...
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
Read on...
Tracking what you do is the best way to determine how to improve your prospecting
published on March 10, 2009
Here is a very simple call sheet, which you can reproduce on a single sheet of paper and use to track the effectiveness of your outbound prospecting efforts. Using this form let's you see at a
Read on...
Smart business decision to expect new business director to build a prospecting database?
published on March 03, 2009
Not long ago, Jeff, a twenty-something new business guy gave me a call. He was a new employee at a well-known regional ad agency. His management team had given him a group of industry categories
Read on...
Jumping on a plane at the first whiff of potential client interest in your agency is a quick way to waste time and money
published on February 26, 2009
I had lunch the other day with a friend who's in charge of business development for an agency with a half-dozen locations across the country. She's a true expert in proactive business development,
Read on...
CMO friends consistently tell me that new business people give up too early
published on February 23, 2009
Here are the unofficial statistics they cite about agencies' proactive business development people:
- 50% never follow up on the email or material they send
- 25% follow up only once or twice by
Read on...
Make your plan, and then work your plan
published on February 12, 2009
A former senior colleague of mine on the client side used to preach the old adage, "Make your plan, and then work your plan." It works. Applied to new business, it works really well.
I remember
Read on...
Pay for single-use contacts or subscribe to a new business resource? Each has its purpose, pros and cons
published on January 23, 2009
I had a conversation the other day about renting email lists. The focus of the conversation was how to get the lowest possible cost per contact. What the new business person hadn't thought-through
Read on...
