There are lots of reasons why a Marketing Director will dedicate an hour of his time to finding out what an agency that he’s never heard of before can do for him.

One of the key differentiating factors between the many “sales calls” that will be rejected as a “waste of time”, and the rare “interesting call with an agency worth meeting with”, is the ability of the person who is calling to have an intelligent conversation – i.e. a conversation that focuses on something that is relevant, that makes good business sense, and that is with someone you enjoy talking to.

There’s no big secret:　

• be clear about why you are calling and what you want to get out of the conversation
• be curious
• ask relevant questions (get the prospect to open-up and focus on relevant issues)
• have a genuine interest in the person you are talking to
• listen
• listen
• listen
• resist the urge to tell the prospect everything about what you do and why you are the best thing since sliced bread
• listen
• listen
• listen
• make sure you understand what the prospect is telling you
• let him know you can help
• ask for the meeting!

Although you don’t need to be an “expert” in everything you are talking about (other people are there to sort out any technical details after all), it’s important to know what’s happening in the market/sector that you are targeting, understand the issues that prospects are faced with and be able to demonstrate how your client can help with their priorities.

Which is why it takes a special breed of people to make the kind of calls that will stand out.

Nobody wants to receive a call which is scripted and goes over a list of services offered; that’s just “another bloody cold call”!

Any agency that wants to seriously stand out and win new business needs sales people who can think on their feet and can engage prospects in an intelligent fashion and on a personal level.

Winning new business is not rocket science; it’s hard work, but it can often be fun and interesting if you have the right attitude!

Making intelligent new business calls is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

We know personally of several agencies who have had to shut their doors this year, never good news, particularly when staff have been laid off.

Interestingly, most of the agencies we know who’ve gone under have blamed themselves rather than ‘the market’. They attribute their demise to leaving it too late to respond to the changing needs of clients and their marketing budgets. Examples include:

• not developing a serious digital offer whether through acquisition or partnership
• not having a clear offer and/or targeting strategy for business development
• a lack of investment in proactively looking for new clients and/or markets

On the other side of the coin, we’ve added over 600 new agencies to our already extensive agency database and more of our clients have won business this year than for the last 5 years.

Out of interest, here is a breakdown of client wins by discipline:

• Research: 19%
• Digital: 17%
• Full service/integrated: 17%
• Design/branding/packaging/corporate com: 17%
• BTL, PR and media planning &buying: 30%

As a glass half full kind of person, I always look forward to the forthcoming year with the hope of more and better! I wish this to all my readers!

Goodbye 2011 is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

As a pro-active new business agency, Alchemis generates leads and qualified appointments through intelligent conversations. Much has been reported about how the rise of digital communications has/will impact on the business-to-business (B2B) sales process, but our strongly held belief is that communication needs to include a good level of human interaction (i.e. phone calls and meetings).

Alchemis works specifically with marketing services agencies so we undertook research into our client base, examining key successes over 2011. We also investigated wider and more generic research into all B2B markets in order to quantify the significance of personal contact in the sales cycle and how best that should be deployed.

Our key findings were:

• Human Interaction remains vital, both for activating a lead and nurturing it through to business conversion. The key benefits of personal contact include:
  • The ability to identify a true need
  • Enabling an opportunity to be accurately evaluated to see if it is right for your business
  • Ensuring opportunities are not missed
  • Increasing conversion from opportunities
• The value of the ultimate sale does not dictate the frequency of human interaction required to convert business
• Email and digital tools are useful, but suit some industries more than others. However, a general trend indicates effectiveness is declining (research from Marketing Sherpa taken from a survey of 1745 marketers, showed SEO and email saw a 50% decline in their overall effectiveness in 2011 versus 2010)

All of these points are covered in more detail throughout this document.

It is worth highlighting that the report is based on identifying the importance of human interaction. Whilst we compare other B2B marketing and sales techniques, to evaluate each area in detail would be a much larger undertaking.

We have looked at the frequency of interaction and how best to manage that contact. We hope that this report proves useful and insightful in demonstrating how human interaction allows you to get a true picture of YOUR target market and how it is central in selling your product or service effectively.

The Report

Approaches to B2B sales are varied and the spread of digital media shows no sign of slowing down – but have they really changed the psyche of the purchaser and how much influence do digital (or other) communications really have in buying decisions?

This report seeks to establish the key routes to market for B2B companies, through the examination of various research papers cross-referenced against our own data.

It also crucially examines if personal contact and interaction remain an important part of the business development process or if new, online and digital techniques are taking over.

Figure 1 below illustrates how B2B spend has been spread across all channels in 2011.

Figure 1 – B2B Marketing Expenditure:

Source: Marketing Sherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey

A recent paper by the SCi Sales Group investigates the influence of digital techniques on the B2B sales cycle versus that of human interaction and the Marketing Sherpa Benchmark Report examines current patterns and trends within B2B marketing as well as making forecasts on future activity.

Both papers cover generic B2B sales techniques and processes in many different markets. Our data is based solely on marketing agencies and it is interesting to compare this specific market against the wider SCi and Marketing Sherpa findings.

Figure 2 – B2B marketing challenges versus priorities:

Source: Marketing Sherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey

To break down the whole process and examine every facet of the sales cycle would be too involved, but there are two key areas to look at based on the challenge versus priority graph above:

1. Lead generation and establishing initial contact with a prospect
2. Nurturing and converting a prospect from initial contact to sale

Figure 2 highlights that lead generation is a key priority for most companies, but that conversion to business remains the biggest challenge.

Initial Contact/Lead Generation:

It is clear from the graph above that lead generation is both a high priority for B2B marketers as well as a big challenge.

As a small business owner, I know how we as an organisation make decisions on new products or services based on the following simple criteria:

• Requirement either to replace an existing or to invest in a new product/service
• Cost
• Upheaval and risk factor of change

But, how does a company engage with myself and my fellow owners of Alchemis and establish our interest in the first instance?

As highlighted above, the primary routes taken in B2B sales to establish initial contact include:

The SCi research reports the findings of B2B Marketing Magazine, who asked 211 executives their thoughts on each channel. The most interesting points from a human interaction perspective were that, despite the difference in spend in each area:

• 8% cited email as the least effective
• Only 1% highlighted telemarketing as the least effective

As these figures are across all industries, an element of caution needs to be taken. Each approach will differ in its effectiveness depending on the market within which it is being deployed.

What the statistics do not show is the reasoning behind the choice. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses.

• Email is cheap, but is becoming increasingly competitive and crowded
• Events are a good way to meet face-to-face, but a) there is no guarantee you will meet the decision maker and b) at an exhibition, the prospect is more interested in selling themselves, rather than listening to you sell yourself
• SEO/PPC gives you volume of traffic, but can you guarantee the quality?
• Direct mail is expensive
• Telemarketing is comparatively expensive, but it allows you to establish a direct interest quickly. It identifies buying signals and allows you to drive the conversation

Hence, it is worth viewing this from a different perspective. i.e. which approach makes the prospect feel most valued?

The SCi report breaks “value” down in a human way – at the end of the day, B2B sales are based on communicating to humans. It asks, if it were your birthday, what action from your friends would make you feel more valued?

1. A text message
2. An email
3. A card
4. A phone call
5. A visit/meeting

The answer is obvious, so when 100 managers were asked which marketing channel made them feel most valued, face-to-face meetings and telemarketing came top with 81% between them.

Within the marketing industry, adding perceived value versus your competitors or the incumbent is a crucial element in any sale, so as an industry it is suited to the more personal approach. It is often very difficult to identify genuine USPs or points of difference from agency to agency, so in terms of developing new business, the initial contact to establish an interest is vital. Ultimately, agency experience (and therefore agency personnel) will be a major reason for selecting a partner and that initial call needs to reflect that agency personality effectively.

Human contact allows you to do this in a way that email, websites and direct mail never will.

A survey of our clients found that approx 65% have used email marketing as a tool. The main reasons cited being:

• It’s cheap
• It can be tailored to specific customers
• It’s traceable and therefore measurable
• It’s a good way to remain in touch with prospects

However, the main reason for engaging a new business agency has often been as a result of poor responses and conversions from either sporadic or regular emailing campaigns.

Prospect Nurture:

Once contact and interest have been established, communication will be via telephone, email or face-to-face meetings (inclusive of online video meetings).

SCi researched a group of buyers across a wide range of markets and the group were asked if they had either had a telephone conversation or meeting with a company before placing orders on their last 3 purchases.

The result was that 70% of buyers had received either a call or had a meeting prior to purchase, aside of how the initial lead had been generated.

Alchemis cross-referenced the SCi findings against our own over the course of 2011 to see if there are any patterns that may help our clients develop new business.

Our data examines a broad mix of clients across different marketing disciplines in order to establish trends. We have examined where and why clients have won business and surveyed each conversion to establish frequency, type and timescale of communication/touch points from initial contact through to conversion to business.

Size/budget of new business win is a key factor in how much personal contact is required with any given prospect.

The SCi findings were that:

• Average order value with human interaction was £22,734
• Average order value without human interaction was £1,242

However, these figures covered repeat and new orders. The key was that 100% of new purchases required human interaction, even as low as £300.

Within Alchemis’ client base, 100% of all conversions arise as a result of at least an initial telephone call to generate interest and in almost all cases, further face-to-face meetings have been required in order to secure the business. We do have a handful of cases where business has been won over the phone from conference calls or online demonstrations of a product or service, but this is very much the minority.

More important is the frequency of contact with any given prospect once the initial call has been made.

Whilst some clients have converted business from just one meeting and subsequent calls and emails and others have attended 5 face-to-face meetings, on average clients are being required to meet the prospect face-to-face at least twice before the contract is signed.

The table below shows the number of actual face-to-face meetings required to convert business, based on the value of the opportunity.

It is clear that the number of meetings required don’t differ wildly based on the budget of any given project. There are anomalies where business of £70k plus has been won purely through email and phone correspondence and indeed, comparatively low value wins have taken 60 weeks and 5 meetings.

So what does all this mean?

It appears to be a common theme that a lot of new business is lost as people give up on the process after 4 or 5 points of contact (email, phone and face-to-face). From the statistics above, this means that potential opportunities are being lost. There is no doubt that the most successful of our clients are those who are prepared to follow each step in the right way and at the right time.

It is hard work!

This is highlighted by the example mentioned above, citing 5 meetings required for conversion. The full process was:

• 12 calls in total
• 5 face-to-face meetings
• 9 emails

The end result was a win with a value of £30,000.

The reality is that the company has the potential to be an agency changing client and this is just an initial foot in the door project, but it does highlight the dedication to business development any marketing agency needs to have.

Another area is the time frame from initial contact to securing the business. This differs depending on the timing of the initial contact. If your timing is right and there is an opportunity on the table, the lead-time may be much shorter. However, based on our client conversions, that does not always mean less interaction. It just means it is squeezed into a shorter timeframe.

Whilst not covered by either the SCi or Marketing Sherpa data, it is worth looking at target universe coverage. On face value, email allows you to cheaply cover a vast number of new business prospects and advertising and PR will get you coverage, but the reality is none of these can guarantee:

• Direct interaction
• Prospect qualification
• Prospect nurture

Ultimately, the initial contact with telephone calls can take longer, but a call does allow you to cover all of these areas. It allows you to eliminate the non-interested and focus on those that have a requirement and to agree the best contact strategy directly with the prospect, which may be a combination of calls, meetings and emails.

Often our clients may have a defined number of target prospects. A key reason for using Alchemis is to:

• Identify key decision makers
• Establish contact and interest (eliminate if not interested)
• Create a contact strategy

Once interested parties are identified, we will build a strong rapport with a prospect over the phone and arrange meetings when appropriate. Often prospects will be spoken to 10+ times over a long period before any appointment or opportunity is identified.

To highlight this, it is worth looking at a case study from a client who commissioned Alchemis in January 2009. From a list of 279 companies, we have:

• Identified decision makers and had conversations within 251 of the companies (89.9% coverage)
• Had 943 conversations with the target audience
• Arranged 121 meetings
• Created 13 new business wins

The conversions/wins are shown to demonstrate how effective telephone marketing campaigns can be, but the important part is that we now have a direct relationship with almost 90% of their target audience, that we understand their current situation and requirements and that we have established a contact strategy with all of them. That will include further calls, but will also include emails.

No other approach would allow you to do that.

Conclusions:

Every business is different and all B2B marketing and sales techniques have a role to play. However, within the digital field I do believe that they have led to an element of complacency and laziness in proactive prospecting. Certainly within the marketing agency space, they are, all too often, being used as the easy (but not necessarily the right) approach and often in isolation, without follow up and to little effect.

Building relationships is key and human interaction through the telephone call or meetings is crucial. As covered in the initial summary, telemarketing and subsequent meetings allow you to:

• Identify a need
• Make the buyer feel valued
• Accurately evaluate an opportunity
• Fully explain a proposition with no chance of misinterpretation (a common problem with emails)
• Build rapport
• Handle objections and barriers
• Enhance client/customer service
• Identify areas for cross/upselling

Email and digital communications suit companies and industries with huge target audiences and specific (usually product based) offers. They are a great way of remaining in touch with prospects and keeping “on the radar” once initial contact has been established and often we/our clients use them to good effect in this manner.

Research by BrandScience in 2010 suggests that using 3 channels in a campaign may enhance ROI by 700%. The reality is you need to do what is right for your company in the context of the industry you are in. This may well include more than one approach and a good new business campaign will often use a blend of channels, but don’t under estimate the value of human interaction.

Why personal interaction is vital in generating new business is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

Entitled ‘Add value, don’t give away your thinking for free’ it will focus on how to reclaim the high ground in client relationships and abandon free pitching.

The series this year has delivered some hard-hitting truths and insights into business development and client relationships from a design agency perspective – if you missed any of them, they will be available online from January 2012.

Designers Breakfast on Thursday 24th November is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

When I say cold calling I mean intelligent, well targeted approaches to prospective clients who meet all the agreed quality criteria of profile, budget, size, location etc rather than the ‘let’s hope some of it sticks’ scattergun approach.

In fact, a significant percentage of the calls we make are to cultivate existing contacts so are follow up calls rather than cold calls.

However, that’s only part of the picture and as an owner or partner of a creative/strategic/digital//communications/research agency you should never knowingly delegate new business entirely, either to an in-house person or to a specialist business development agency like Alchemis.

The most successful new business campaigns in our 23 years experience are those where the whole agency embraces the concept and practice of ongoing business development, from using your own personal contacts to keeping your eyes open for appropriate brands and companies for your agency to approach.

Here is a list of the ten activities that should form part of your longer term strategy (in no particular order) even if you only have the time or money to do only some of them now or at any given time:

1. Cold calling (always use an expert, don’t expect your creative team for example to either have the time or the inclination to do this!)

2. Always make time to treat all incoming enquiries with respect; a £5k brochure today could lead to a £250k account in 2 years time

3. Cultivate and proactively develop your referral base; find out where your current clients are going when they move and don’t be scared to contact them in their new role – they used you once for good reason and if you don’t ask…..

4. Make a wish list of brands/companies you would love to work with; be realistic and also think about why they would like to work with you

5. PR – this doesn’t need to be through a PR agency, if you’ve got something to say, make your own noise, pick up the phone and speak to that journalist at The Grocer  or whoever

6. If you’re an agency of a certain size or have a specialism, then the marriage brokers such as the AAR, Haystack or Oystercatchers can play an important role in recommending you to clients who register their briefs with them

7. Maximise the business networking sites such as LinkedIn; you would be surprised how small this world is and a referral or a personal contact can go a long way

8. Make sure your website is SEO friendly and that it reflects the core pillars of your offer; it’s not good if we’ve talked about some great work you’ve done to prospects on the phone if those case studies aren’t reflected on your website

9. Maximise your relationship and therefore the referral power of your business partners; we’ve had several referrals over the years from our IT support partner for example

10. Don’t forget your existing clients and always try to develop more business from them. Be careful that you’re not ‘put in a box’ and always treat all meetings with current clients as an opportunity to talk about other potential work

In summary, new business should be part of the fabric of your agency, it’s your lifeblood and frankly, it’s also very exciting when you win a new client!!

10 steps towards successful business development is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

It is entitled ‘Expand your horizons: getting business overseas is easier than you might think’

UK design talent is even more in demand internationally so now is a great time to seek opportunities overseas.

The panel is made up of design agencies who have recently won business abroad, some of whom have done it on their own and some with help from UK Trade & Investment.

Click here for ticket information

Designers Breakfast – generating new business overseas is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

Following the recent positive feedback from our last White Paper which looked at why prospects agree to meet with creative, strategic and digital agencies, we decided to cut the new business cake a slightly different way and analyse success rates within the most widely targeted markets by our clients in 2011.

Success is determined for us and our 60 clients in several ways – the greatest of which is winning new projects and clients. For the purposes of this analysis we focused on our ability to set quality meetings for our clients with the right decision maker at the right kind of company where there is a current or future need for the services our clients offer.

We took the overall conversion rate (defined as setting a quality meeting from a number of decision maker conversations and represented as a percentage) from each of the 11 most widely called markets in 2011 (see the table below) and compared this overall conversion rate to the conversion rates by marketing discipline. We concluded that any discipline showing an above average conversion rate for that market was deemed to be well received by the decision makers in that market. For example, if the average conversion rate within leisure overall was 8%, and a digital offer within leisure was 9.5%, then we concluded that digital was well received within leisure.

This is a good indicator of the receptiveness of these markets to these offers, but is only based on our calling activity this year and isn’t a defining piece of research. There are a number of other contributory factors that influence the success of the call, including the agency’s relevant clients/case studies, specific proposition etc.

New business campaigns are most effective when the marketing services/disciplines offered are the ones a prospect wants/needs. We would recommend that targeting is based on one or more of the following key factors:

1. Those markets where the agency has in-depth experience (eg. retail, leisure, fmcg)

2. Those companies who are facing the kind of challenges/problems that the agency has experience of solving (eg. decreasing footfall)

3. Those companies who target specific demographic groups who the agency has experience of communicating with (eg. youth)

4. Those companies who are most receptive to certain types of solutions (eg. search, social media)

Here is a table of the 11 most frequently called markets this year based on a total of 107,000 calls made to prospective clients.

The percentages reflect the amount of calling we’ve made to each of these markets – the remaining 28% of our calling is split between other markets such as Automotive, Building & Property and B2B.

Comparison to 2007:

When we compared these most frequently called markets in 2011 to our calling in the same period in 2007, in pre-recession times, there are some interesting observations which reflect the market as a whole:

1. There is more calling now in those markets relying on consumer discretionary spend compared to 4 years ago; markets such as leisure, youth, travel and luxury

2. There is less calling now than in 2007 in high value, business related/long term investment areas; for example, finance, automotive, IT and property are all significantly down in terms of calling compared to 2007

3. Some markets remain constant irrespective of what’s happening in the economy, for example food & drink. There is no significant difference between the amount of calling we did in 2007 versus the amount of calling we did in 2011 in fmcg.

4. Interestingly though, although basic brands remain almost recession proof, retailers are fighting for business and need to differentiate themselves through a range of marketing channels. This is reflected in the number of calls made to retailers this year which is twice the amount in 2007.

Our bespoke software that drives our database enables us to look at the main disciplines within each of these market sectors and analyse the conversion rates from decision maker conversations to setting a quality meeting.

Here are the main disciplines that we used in this analysis:

The percentages next to each marketing discipline represent the breakdown of our calling on behalf of these disciplines since 1st January 2011. The remaining 13% of calling is divided amongst other specialist disciplines such as retail design and media buying.

We have summarised our findings in two ways:

1. By market sector – for example, if you’re looking to target financial services, which disciplines/services are most likely to have traction within that market, thereby making it easier for us to set quality meetings for you

2. By discipline/service offer – in other words, if you’re a digital agency, which markets are most receptive to your offer

Please don’t forget that this research is limited to our client base and to our calling in the markets listed above on behalf of the disciplines listed above and is by no means intended to reflect the entire market. However, it is based on some robust statistics from our database.

Another caveat is that the lines between disciplines are becoming more and more blurred; for example, in the table above, it states that 13.4% of our calling activity this year has been on behalf of digital as a discipline – this is only part of the story as most creative and integrated agencies will also offer digital as part of their overall proposition. The 13.4% refers to those exclusively digital agencies we represent.

The disciplines that are currently being well received in the clothing market are creative, digital, integrated and research. Any brand or retailer will be using all of these disciplines to help them understand their target demographic better and communicate with them via the most effective and relevant channels.

Financial Services: (includes banks, building societies, health insurance, fund managers etc)

This continues to be a tough market to penetrate as decision makers within finance companies prefer to meet agencies with in-depth experience in their market. However, this isn’t as important as it was 4-5 years ago and they now like to meet agencies with experience of other markets as this can bring alternative thinking to their marketplace.

The most successful discipline in finance is research as it is widely used by the major banks and building societies seeking to understand their consumers better. For example, tier two companies in this market are looking to take advantage of the criticisms being levelled at the big boys and are therefore looking to run customer satisfaction surveys.

We have also helped our clients secure business from smaller companies within this market, such as fund managers.

FMCG: (includes food and drink, personal care, pet food, household products)

Although this is difficult market to get through to decision makers (partly because a lot of agencies are keen to work with consumer brands and so voicemail is a common problem and equally because decision makers change jobs fairly regularly in this market) this continues to be a fertile market across all disciplines, particularly in digital, sales promotion, research and packaging design. Research is particularly important for early product and campaign development.

The increase in BOGOFs and price led promotions has been used by FMCG brands to sustain sales during the recession. This is reducing their profit margins and can cheapen the brand; customers get used to buying the product for less and then stop buying it when the price returns to its previous level. Brand owners are therefore looking for ways to promote their brands whilst at the same time boosting the value of the brand, thereby justifying charging a premium price. Thus, they are looking to work with agencies who can deliver value added or partnership campaigns/promotions.

FTSE 250/Top 1000 corporates:

These lists obviously have a mix of companies from all markets, so it’s quite difficult to draw any firm conclusions.

We often target these larger companies as we know that they have the right kinds of budgets. However, a fair percentage of these top 1000 corporates will have been covered off by the statistics from the other market sectors.

Integrated, creative, research and below-the-line (particularly DM and Live Events) seem to fare best in this market. We have also helped our clients win business from corporate/stakeholder communications in this market, helped by having an angle, such as sustainability.

Home: (includes consumer electronics, home improvements, gardening, white goods etc)

Generally a receptive market all round with all the disciplines doing well, particularly creative and BTL. The only exception in this market is research (due to our current research clients not prioritising this market)

IT/Telecommunications: (includes a range of businesses including Dixons, Ericsson, Garmin, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Motorola and Nokia)

The service offers with the most traction in this marketplace are Direct Marketing, Channel Marketing and Research. Research is always needed in a highly competitive market and a lot of IT/Telecomms related products and vendors use DM.

Success in this area tends to be with the commercial/consumer end of this market rather than with hardware/software vendors for example.

Leisure: (includes bingo, cinemas, gyms, pubs, restaurants and attractions)

This has been a productive market for our clients over the past 2 years with a significant number of the wins we’ve generated for our clients coming from this sector. The core disciplines with most resonance in our study are all of them except PR (again, this is probably due to the fact that we haven’t done much calling in this market on behalf of our PR clients.)

A key discipline for this market not mentioned in our list in retail design consultancy who do very well in the leisure market, branding and designing bars, restaurants etc.

The biggest issue for the UK leisure market is how to capture a larger portion of people who are staying in England for their holidays, thus they are particularly interested in agencies who can help them build loyalty and get repeat visits, which will involve DM and digital marketing.

It’s really important for restaurants for example to stand out on the High Street with better branding and signage for example, thus the need for retail design specialists and leisure branding experts.

Professional Services: (including accountants, civil engineers, management consultants, solicitors and representative bodies)

The most productive calls in this market are on behalf of creative, BTL and corporate communications agencies. This is probably because traditional B2B firms such as Accountants still have a need for traditional paper based communications/sales tools such as brochures and direct marketing.

Retail: (includes department stores, online retailers, supermarkets, mail order, off licenses)

This is another productive market for our clients across most disciplines, particularly creative, below-the-line, corporate communications, digital and research. Again, specialist retail design consultancies (although not in our core list) do well in this market, unsurprisingly!

The main issues for retailers are the changing habits and behaviours of consumers, for example, UK shoppers have spent £31.5 billion online so far this year, which is up 19% on last year.

Retailers therefore need to rethink how to understand and communicate with their consumers, thus the constant need for research. They need to embrace multi-channel marketing such as digital, social media, m:commerce, thus why they are receptive to meeting digital and social marketing agencies. They also need to constantly improve the shopping experience such as pop up stores, interactive window displays, thus why they are receptive to seeing genuinely creative agencies.

Success in this market also tends to come from agencies with a specialism, such as POS or local marketing.

Travel & Transport: (includes airlines, airports, trains, hotels, tourist boards and travel agents). The most effective disciplines in these markets, resulting in us setting a quality meeting for our clients to attend are BTL and research.

Summary by marketing discipline:

Here is the same information but presented by discipline. I have extended the discipline list to include, for example, Direct Marketing separately from the overall BTL discipline, whilst still keeping BTL as a discipline. I have also added in others like retail design and packaging design

I have added in some additional markets such as Automotive and Building & Property for example where there was a significant trend. 

Best sectors for new business by marketing discipline is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

Although it’s written by an American ex military guy, it got me thinking about the reasons why creative marketing agencies dislike the thought of using a new business agency.

Here’s the number one reason to start off the debate – I’ll follow up with more reasons and my response to them in future blogs…..

“I went all the way to Hull to meet a 22 year old who didn’t really understand marketing, who didn’t have a decent budget and who wasn’t sure why I was there”! Ring any bells?

Poor meeting quality is probably the most commonly cited reason for not wanting to use a business development agency and is either based on personal experience or anecdotal evidence from friends or colleagues in other agencies.

We’ve all experienced meetings that are a waste of time and it’s why Alchemis focuses so heavily on ensuring that all our meetings adhere to some very strict quality criteria, agreed up front and in conjunction with our clients.

These quality criteria include the market sector, size, location and profile of any prospects we agree to target on our client’s behalf and the potential spend and need for our client’s service offer.

Our New Business Managers’ incentive scheme supports this approach by rewarding our team on quality meetings attended and not on the meetings they set.

This ensures that the focus on the phone is on engaging with decision makers and having a serious 2 way conversation about their current marketing/design/digital/research/communications challenges and priorities rather than haranguing them with ‘sales lines’ just to secure a meeting.

Things I hate about new business #1 is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

I kicked off the session with 5 top tips about how to create chemistry and demonstrate creativity and vision in a first meeting with a prospect (most of the tips are relevant to any client meeting, and frankly, I believe you should treat all client meetings as though they were a first one)

1. Develop insights, opinions and observations through market and competition based research – these insights allow you to express your opinions and more importantly, ask the client or prospect theirs

2. Prepare relevant case studies and examples of work based on your research; you can also use this research to prepare a list of questions to ask the prospect/client about their priorities and challenges

3. Walk a mile in the client or prospect’s shoes – think why they might want to work with you and also why they may not want to work with you – this allows you to pre-empt potential objections and therefore deal with them in the meeting

4. Structure the meeting by signposting how long it’s going to take, what it’s going to look like and where it’s heading (ie. let them know at the beginning of the meeting that a desired outcome could be a follow up meeting)

5. Do NOT take a PowerPoint presentation – the key objective of a first meeting is to get a second one where you can present ideas of how you can help them with their current priorities and challenges. The first meeting is about creating empathy and trust, identifying and highlighting those main areas of concern and showing relevant examples of work that have resonance with the two way conversation you have created.

Joe Ferry, SVP Global Guest Experience & Design at InterContinental Hotels Group made some very interesting additional observations to my process driven tips; namely that every client is different and should therefore be treated/dealt with differently and appropriately. Joe’s point was that people buy people who they can trust to deliver the work on time and to budget and that not all designers have fully developed their EQ.

This point was also highlighted by Tom Foulkes, Global Head of Marketing at Buro Happold, who very succinctly pointed out that some clients like smoke blown up their arse and that others don’t!

Other key observations from Joe and Tom included:

• Pay attention to detail – get the company name right for example (basic stuff but you’d be surprised……)
• Talk through your experiences outside the direct market sector that your prospect/client works in (they often like you to have a real breadth of knowledge as well as in-depth knowledge of their market)
• Tell the truth, but don’t go too far off brief
• Make your client look good by listening to the brief but challenging where you genuinely think there could be a better way
• Show them what you can do outside of your day job; in other words, show them some creative work that you’ve just come up with in down time or for a brand you’re not currently working with – show them your passion for design
• Don’t pretend to be bigger than you are, remember that people buy people and most clients don’t care if you’re 3 or 300 staff as long as they trust you to get the job done

There were loads of other interesting insights from Joe and Tom and you will be able to see/hear this session online in the Autumn – I’ll post the link.

Do you have any other do’s and don’ts?

After the Designers Breakfast… is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

Hope to see you there.

Designer breakfast update is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

His central theme was about being brave enough to tell the truth based on what you see and observe. He used a series of powerful anecdotes including Virgin Galatic and Apple to illustrate his strongly held belief that ‘the further you step into the future, the more you realise it’s behind you’.

I’m speaking at the next Designers Breakfast on Thursday 14th July when I’ll be part of a panel discussing the truth about what companies want from their design agencies. Alongside me are two clients who are responsible for buying design, so I’m sure the session will provoke some interesting debate – come and join us by clicking here

Designer breakfast is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

To help you find the areas most relevant for you we have presented the findings by:

1. Top line recommendations
2. Agency discipline
3. Reason to meet / success factor

This means there may be some repetition. We have included a table of results and some information about how the survey was performed but haven’t attempted to write an exhaustive report of everything we discovered.

If you would like to discuss this survey or would like further information about any aspect of this document please give us a call.

1. Top line recommendations

Make sure you have the right person making your new business calls – personality, knowledge and the ability to develop a rapport are critical. Interestingly, our survey revealed that the more experienced sales people on the team considered their own skill to be slightly less of an important factor than newer guys. This was because they were able to identify and leverage other factors; case histories and methodology for example. The better the person on the phone the more they will get out of all the other tools at their disposal

Stick with what you know – for example, direct experience in the market sector and / or helping your clients solve a particular challenge is essential. All other things remaining equal, if you try to break out of your current sector you will find it much more difficult

Get some facts and figures to support your case – outside of DM very few agencies have the facts and figures to prove ROI or increased sales, but it can be done. Work with your current client to develop a ‘before and after’ story that demonstrates how you have delivered a tangible benefit to the bottom line. If it’s hard to prove financial returns then try to compile statistics for the less tangibles; voice share, awareness etc. Doing some market research that delivers these figures is a worthwhile investment

Develop a branded methodology – is there anything you do differently that you can ‘package’ as a proprietary product or service? Great for arousing curiosity and ‘introducing’ this methodology provides a compelling reason to meet. Not enough agencies do this

Niche skills and technology – we all know digital agencies are doing things now that were unthinkable 10 years ago but this can also apply to PR for example. Marketing decision makers are genuinely interested in how the newest technology may benefit them

Every cloud has a silver lining – you may have just lost a client but you haven’t lost the skills and experience acquired servicing them. In fact, knowing what you now know you might have done things a little differently. Your experience is a commodity to be sold to other companies so develop a strong case study and start speaking to other companies in that sector

Offer a free audit – this kind of ‘Trojan Horse’ can be very effective at getting you in front of people you want as clients. Giving something away for nothing is easy; lots of agencies have found this out the hard way after running expensive seminars. Making sure that you give a little (but with high perceived value) in such a way as to maximise your chances to take a lot is the aim. Some of our clients have developed simple online tools that can grab the prospect’s attention and allow them to develop that initial relationship with them - so have a think about what you could do to encourage the prospect to believe that you have the solutions and genuinely want to help them.

The table shows how important each factor was in total and also drills into whether it was more important for some marketing disciplines than others. By far the most commonly cited factors were rapport on the phone and direct experience, reported as relevant (at least) for every discipline. But this doesn’t mean they were the most crucial factors. Rapport and experience were reported as relevant across the board as one would expect:

Rapport – Sales people will consider themselves to be a factor in their own success

Experience – Clients want us to target companies in industry sectors that they have experience in

The table provides an ‘at a glance look’ at why prospects agree to meet marketing agencies but the real story is buried in the data we used to compile this basic table. Here are the most interesting stories revealed:

Reasons For Seeing Your Agency (click for full size PDF version)

2. By agency discipline

Creative

Relevant experience and sales skills are most important. This suggests that many creative agencies find it difficult to differentiate themselves from others in the market by way of methodology or niche skills. Proximity was also considered a relevant factor.

Corporate Communications

Similar to creative but with even more emphasis on the rapport we are able to establish on the phone. This suggests that it’s vital to win trust and demonstrate that we (and therefore you) can speak their language.

Integrated

Sales skills and relevant experience are most important here. The challenge for integrated or full service agencies is convincing prospects that you are not a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. Prospects like to know what an agency specialises in. Relevant experience (either in the sector or with facing a particular challenge) is important as it allows us to position the agency’s focus, expertise and passion in retail (for example) rather than any single discipline. On the phone the approach we find works best is to quickly establish what the prospect’s greatest need is and then present our client as an expert in that discipline. To do this quickly on the phone requires good questioning skills and subtlety when introducing the client’s proposition.

Below the line

Referring to traditional direct mail and sales promotion. Case studies with quantifiable results make the big difference here. You need to demonstrate how you know what the target audience will respond best to and back this up with figures for sales uplift, new customer acquisition, reduced costs per acquisition/retention, etc.

Print

Massive emphasis on rapport. This is because we must develop a conversation with the prospect in order to highlight service and added value. Failure to do this will mean the conversation is all about cost. The incumbent being too expensive was raised as a significant factor for meeting, the only discipline where this was raised.

PR

Direct experience is particularly important if we can demonstrate industry knowledge. Proven ROI is great to have as some prospects still see PR as an intangible luxury. The big score for ‘gaining insight into competitors’ suggests prospects are more interested in a ‘creds presentation’ than is the case for other disciplines. It also points again to the importance of relevant and results driven case studies.

Digital

Niche skills and technology stand out. The speed of progress in the digital world is incomparably fast. Decision makers are very keen to hear from agencies that may be at the ‘bleeding edge’ of developments in the digital world. You should build a case for your agency being a leader not a follower. Prospects will try to distinguish between a ‘genuine’ digital expert and a creative agency that offers ‘digital’. Increasingly we are finding agencies that specialise in a particular area of digital marketing – PPC or Social Media for example. A full service digital agency would need to have very strong case studies across all the areas of digital marketing to be considered genuinely ‘full service’. Marketing Managers are infinitely more digital-savvy than they were a few years ago. The market has come along way very quickly since the days when a ‘new media’ agency would be referred to the IT department by Marketing Directors who were fearful of their own ignorance.

Research

Traditionally we find this discipline the easiest to set meetings for. One reason for this is that some research agencies use their researchers to make the sales calls, which makes it easy for professional new business experts to stand out. The main reason though is Market Research decision makers are naturally inquisitive. The volume and variable value of research projects mean there’s always a chance to try a new agency out without jeopardising relationships with existing suppliers. The problem for research prospects is they are on a permanent quest to understand their audience better but there are a finite number of questions to ask any one demographic. This is where a new agency with a fresh methodology can help. If you can establish a point of difference in the questions you ask, how you ask them, how you identify and segment or how you report on findings then you will be of interest.

3. By reason for meeting/success factor

Sales skills and rapport

Most significant for clients in disciplines we know have lower conversion rates or clients we know have an ‘average offer’ (2-3). The less we have to work with the more important the skills of the New Business Manager.

Rapport was reported as neutral or relevant factor for clients in high converting disciplines or clients with a unique offer (0-2). Interestingly, this means there is a direct correlation between conversion rate and the importance attached to sales skills; the lower the conversion rate the higher the rating given to sales skills.

Sales skills were considered most important for print and least important for research (the discipline with the highest conversion).

Direct relevant experience

Relevant across the board but most important in public relations (3). This is to be expected as PR is so sector specific and it matches our experience on the phone. We know we have to have good industry knowledge when talking to PR prospects.

Proven ROI of case study on the phone

Looking at the table one could be forgiven for thinking that this was less important than the two mentioned above. In fact it was given maximum scores (3) in the cases where an NBM felt they had the provable ROI to demonstrate. Quite a few NBMs felt they didn’t have a quantifiable case study in their armoury, which is why this factor didn’t come top overall. A case study that includes quantifiable figures for ROI is the nuclear bomb; devastatingly effective but not everyone possesses one.

Unique methodology

Scores very highly but not many agencies can claim they have a genuinely unique way of working. This was most prevalent for research agencies (39 points, the highest score any factor got), which tend to enjoy the highest conversion rates of any marketing discipline. Most of our research clients have a ‘branded’ methodology. We recently took on a research agency that didn’t have one and experienced less success on the phone. We worked with them to develop a suite of proprietary methodologies (stuff they were doing anyway but hadn’t thought of ‘packaging’) and conversion took off. Corporate communications was another discipline where this was cited as a factor but actually one client with a unique way of delivering annual reports skewed this figure. This was also the case in PR. If you can develop a methodology that is unique and can be ‘branded’ then you will find it much easier to gain an audience with decision makers so it’s a shame so few agencies have done so.

Niche skill set / technology

Similar to having a unique methodology but with the emphasis on using ‘bleeding edge’ technology to deliver the benefit to the client. Most prevalent with digital agencies (as one might expect) but also reported as significant for research agencies. To be at the vanguard of technological development is hugely advantageous but, by definition, very few agencies can claim this. We suspect many clients could do more however to push their ‘technology based’ credentials than they do currently.

Chance to gain an insight into challenges of peers / competitors

Most often cited when calling for PR agencies. We have already stated how PR is very sector / experience driven and this is why PR decision makers are most open to learn about work you may have done for similar clients in their space.

Location

These figures will be skewed by the fact that certain clients will require a location criteria to their new business prospecting. PR clients often do, research and digital agencies often don’t. People like to be physically close to their PR agencies as this makes regular face-2-face contact easier. We found this was also the case with corporate communications and creative agencies where proximity allows the client to drop in and see the latest hard proof of your work. As a trend, proximity is not as important as it was 10 years ago.

Issues cited with incumbent

Prospects will not often criticise their incumbent on the phone - they hired them after all. We did however find that incumbent issues were most often raised in PR and digital. For PR it was due to the incumbent agency not being proactive enough or not ‘understanding our industry enough’. Case studies that demonstrate dynamic and innovative thinking for clients facing similar challenges are crucial for PR at exploiting this.

For digital it was usually because the incumbent was felt to be behind the pace in terms of technology or exploiting social media, for example. As noted above, being at the forefront of everything new that is happening in the digital world is vital for digital agencies.

Incumbent is too expensive

Whilst pricing is essential when pitching face-to-face it rarely comes up when speaking to prospects on the phone. It is however very important for clients who provide a print or logistics service. And ‘service’ is the key word here. For print, most prospects will ask for a quote before agreeing to take the conversation further and will be looking for a quote significantly lower than their incumbent in order to justify the upheaval of changing supplier. We have to develop the conversation to the point where service and additional value can be discussed in order to win an audience.

Price is also raised as an issue when we are calling for well-known agencies. Prospects perceive the bigger agencies to be more expensive, but as most of our clients are small to medium sized it’s rarely discussed.

Recent relevant client loss

This is a rare occurrence but a very compelling reason to meet when it does occur. If you have recently lost a client then your experience will be attractive to other companies in the sector. Most applicable when a retained PR agency has lost a client. Securing a meeting is all about arousing curiosity in the prospect with an offer backed up with proof of competency. Few things are more intriguing and relevant to the prospect than the opportunity to look at what their (until recently) mortal enemies have been up to. At Alchemis we look for opportunities like this by talking with clients about current and recent work.

Offer of a free audit

This is a classic ‘Trojan Horse’ and really boosts conversion when we are able to use it. Most prevalent in the digital sector where, for reasons noted above, the prospect can be persuaded that they ‘may be missing a trick’. Our digital clients have won business from relationships that began with an audit. It lends itself to this discipline in particular because the audit itself can be done very quickly and remotely (electronically in advance of the meeting), which means the first meeting can focus more on suggesting solutions rather than generic creds.

We could apply this more widely across our client base but we feel it would reduce the quality of meeting for our clients. You must be confident that you have a chance of extracting a positive outcome from a free audit otherwise your ‘Trojan Horse’ becomes a cheap trick.

Our Methodology

New Business Managers submitted the 11 factors most likely to be cited by a prospect. New Business Managers then attributed a score of 0-3 for each of these factors as follows:

• 0 = neutral or occasional factor
• 1 = relevant factor
• 2 = powerful factor
• 3 = crucial factor

We looked at the 8 main marketing disciplines our clients provide and allowed for the fact that we have more clients in some disciplines than others when compiling the statistics.

• Creative
• Corporate communications
• Print and logistics
• PR
• Digital
• Research
• Integrated
• Below the line
• Other (variety of rare or niche disciplines)

Some reasons were cited as relevant in many cases but rarely crucial whilst some reasons were cited less frequently but were considered as crucial when they were. After looking at data for conversion across our database we were able to weight these responses.

The table shows reasons for meeting in descending order of significance. Colour coding has been used to highlight the significance of each reason by sector.

• 20+ points = Green: vitally important factor – will boost conversion hugely
• 13-19 points = Yellow: important factor, highly desirable
• 8-12 points = Clear: important but not crucial
• 0-7 points = Blue: could be relevant but not significant

Data for the ninth column (Other) is less conclusive as it covers a mixed bag of agency types.

We will be the first to admit that this isn’t the most scientific piece of research ever carried out but the results are supported by hard data and the overall detailed feedback from our experienced team of the New Business Managers.

Why do prospects meet with agencies? is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

The shortest I have been involved in is 30 minutes and the longest 4.5 hours. The latter is nearer the mark, although on average, they take 2-3 hours.

The briefing meeting is crucial. Sometimes it surprises me that agencies are prepared to spend a significant amount of money with Alchemis but don’t take the time to brief us properly. This is rare as most agencies are as excited as we are to be starting the campaign, but these are our top 5 points in order to brief your agency properly.

1) Allocate enough time

Sounds simple, but we need to leave that meeting understanding enough about your business in order to:

a) represent you as you would like us to and

b) sell your agency effectively.

This takes time and half an hour is not enough. You know your business, but we don’t. Remember, your New Business Manager is calling as if they are in your office, so they really need to “get” the agency.

2) Be prepared to have a follow-up meeting

We know that 2-2.5 hours is the optimum for concentration. This should be enough time to give us the key background, facts and case histories.

However, if we feel that it would be useful to have a follow up meeting once all of that has been digested to develop things further or just to meet other key team members, that is what we will do.

3) Prepare in advance

Anything you can get to us in advance helps. We will always send an agenda and a list of guideline questions well in advance; it really is beneficial and helps streamline the meeting if you look at these and prepare answers prior to the briefing.

4) Don’t assume we know everything

You know your business back to front, but we don’t.

Often clients rattle through case studies and propositions as they have heard it/said it a million times in advance. I promise you, we find this interesting, so please take the time to go through things properly and methodically.

We really want to understand why you did what you did for any given project and often this understanding can provide key points of difference or angles to use on the phone.

5) Be enthusiastic

We know you are enthusiastic about your work, but we also know that you probably have a hundred other things on your mind.

However, I guarantee that your New Business Manager will feed off your passion for the work and this will be reflected in the results.

Top 5 tips for briefing your new business agency/partner is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

A lack of professionalism when trying to win new business is one of the cardinal sins in my book. My previous blogs on customers for life and the difference between new business and business development will give you an insight to my way of thinking.

So picture the following scenario.

Before Christmas, I get an email from a “new business agency” – and I use the term in the loosest possible sense – offering me business development services for Alchemis.

Perhaps they sent it by mistake. I’ll just ignore it and we’ll say no more about it.

But a few weeks later a follow up email arrives – they’ve tried to get in touch with me but to no avail, surely I would be interested in their business development services for my company. This time, I couldn’t let it lie. I sent a polite reply to the sender which simply said “Gemma, please have a look at our website to see what we do as a company and then decide if we are likely to need a new business agency to help us.”

Surely this would do the trick – a two second check of our website would have shown the sender that we are, in fact, a new business agency ourselves. They could put me on their do not approach list and we will all be happy. But alas, my words fell on deaf ears as a while later I received another email from the same person – albeit this time into my junk email filter as I had marked the previous one as such.

Then last week I received yet another communication. Here is an excerpt:

We aren’t about sending over a high volume of poor quality appointments, we will create highly qualified meetings to make sure you are only meeting prospects that have a genuine need for your services.

Robert we would love to come and meet with you to discus in more detail how we can help you get in front of prospects and get you on track to fulfil new business targets. If you would like to arrange a date for a brief meeting then please do not hesitate to reply to this email or call me.

A few terms jump out of me from this. “Poor quality”; “highly qualified” (not) and “genuine need for your services.”

They also claim to provide a recording of every call they make – which is great except it is illegal unless the prospect is made aware that they are being recorded (and how would you react if you received a cold call from a company you didn’t know and were told they were going to record it)?

I am the only person at Alchemis who is not actively involved in a “sales” role of some description. But even I know that the key thing to any new business approach is to know a bit about the company you’re approaching (like, for example, what they actually do), listen to what the prospect is actually saying and only then are you in a position to know whether your services will be of use.

I’m not going to name and shame the person or company who keep sending me these unqualified approaches (despite my reply advising them to check what we do first) but as Mr T would say “I pity the fool” that would take them on to help with business development if this is an example of their attention to detail.

Companies like this give the more respectable agencies a bad name. And if the company in question happens to be reading this blog, please – for the love of god – practice what you preach.

New business idiot alert is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog

David Newman our Sales Director likes to encourage the ‘so what?’ factor when we develop our pitch. The rule of thumb is this – if you can remark on any one-liner with the response of ‘so what?’ then the pitch has fallen flat and you will lose the prospect’s interest at a horrifying speed. Another thing we periodically look at is ‘sexing it up’, which focuses on making an introduction sound interesting enough for the prospect to want to know more and be open to telling you more about their business. Putting these two key elements into practice I personally look to position my clients in the following three ways, below are examples of the good and the plain ugly:

1/ What is my client’s speciality?

- ‘We develop brand vision’ – this is sharp and interesting and explains that we are creative and work with brands from a conceptual and development standpoint.

- ‘We design brochures’ is not interesting, this may be exactly what you do but it’s all in the phrasing and this screams ‘so what?’

2/ How does my client go about doing what you have just stated?

- ‘We create sensory customer experiences through branded environments and communications’. This is the crucial part of introducing a client to a prospect, so here we indicate our core skills and subtly show we are interested in adding value to their business by placing emphasis on the word customer i.e sales/money

- ‘We design things which look good’ a prospect doesn’t want to necessarily know about the design being great, pretty pictures are not solely responsible for attracting customers, communicating a message or encouraging sales.

3/ Who do they work with of relevance? In this instance it’s all about tailoring; if I’m speaking to Tesco and my client specialises in high-end design for the luxury sector I’m potentially barking up the wrong tree if I tell Mr Tesco we work with Burberry and Dior. Again, it comes back to relating to the prospect in those first few moments and tailoring every introduction to each individual company.

Of course then comes the questioning part of the conversation where we gain understanding of things like budget, scope of projects/retainers, who they currently work with, why, do they review, why not, when, how- you get the gist, but that is another blog for another time.

All in all, when you have a New Business Manager from Alchemis working on your campaign, you can rest assured that they bring an insight into specific linguistics to ensure they speak to as many people as possible about your company and leave a lasting impression.

The ‘so what?’ approach is a post from the Alchemis New Business Blog