Just a quick note to say that further to my last blog, the venue for the next Designer Breakfast on Thursday 14th July will be at Lumen URC, 88 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RS. Click here to book tickets.

Hope to see you there.

I went to a really inspiring talk by Richard Seymour of Seymourpowell last Thursday morning at the Designer Breakfast which takes place every 3rd Thursday of the month at BBH’s offices in Kingly Street .

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

We have recently carried out a comprehensive survey to establish why prospects agree to meet with creative, strategic and digital agencies. We asked our New Business Managers to complete a questionnaire and then cross-referenced this with two years of data covering 340,000 calls, 46,000 decision maker conversations and 3,400 meetings generated. We looked at conversion rates and other success indicators to arrive at some very clear conclusions.

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.