New business agency blog

The article “Brush up on your email etiquette” (Evening Standard, 15th Feb 2010) covered the subject of unanswered emails and voicemail messages. The author, Philip Delves Broughton, relates the subject to job-hunters, entrepreneurs, and most importantly business development and sales.

You have met a prospect, established a strong rapport, and they have promised you a crack of the whip at the next appropriate brief/project/pitch.

You have followed up on that meeting with an email or left a voicemail, but………………..silence. Delves Broughton poses the point and the question that “the unanswered message is a curse. What are you meant to do?”

The truth is that there is no right answer to this. There are a number of differing articles relating to this subject and average “touch points” between initial contact and securing business vary from 5-15. It is dependent on so many variables such as company size, industry, offer, right down to the personality and working practices and preferences of the individual prospect.

Some would prefer an email and some a call. Some won’t mind multiple calls and some will. However, that follow up strategy is one of the mystical keys to winning new business and is dependent on a number of factors. What was the opportunity time frame? What was the type of opportunity (brief/roster review/formal pitch)? However, most importantly, what was agreed with the prospect at the meeting?

This last point is paramount and if there is a “golden rule” of a cold approach new business program, this is it. The follow up process must be driven by the prospect. Whether your lead pipeline is generated in-house, outsourced to an agency or the prospect has contacted you directly, never leave a meeting without agreeing the next steps. Once this is agreed, a bespoke strategy for each prospect can be formed.

The article suggests a follow up email and phone call soon after the meeting. I don’t disagree with this, but it then goes on to suggest that once this is done, the ball is in the prospect’s court and if they do not respond, it is because they are busy or have no interest. This, I strongly disagree with.

Prospects are busy, but you have to break through that barrier. If they are not interested, we want to know and rule them out. If they are too busy, fine, but we want to agree a new appropriate time with them. Of course, there is a balancing act between a professional approach and being a nuisance. However, it is a competitive world and you will not be the only potential supplier vying for attention. However, you must make sure that your message is the one that stands out. You can only do this by communicating with them. Newsletters, relevant emails and new case studies are all soft methods our clients use, but there is no substitute for speaking to these potential clients.

Once you have agreed when to get back in touch, make sure you diarise that communication. We know, that for the owner of a busy, time poor marketing agency, that is easier said than done. This is where a professional new business agency can help. Generating fresh appointments is only part of any effective campaign. It is clearly in our interest to see those meetings through to the most positive conclusion as our real margins come in retaining clients and that can only be done through generating ROI. That is why it is in our interest to drive the follow up process. We know you are busy and we know that it could take multiple calls to contact that prospect. We have the systems, processes, skills, and above all, time to make sure that happens, so utilise your agency. It will pay dividends.

As a sign off to all of this, don’t take things personally. In the 11 years I have been in business development, the world is becoming a tougher, busier, noisier and dare I say it ruder place. People forget about emails and voicemails almost as soon as they are picked up. It is nothing against you personally, but don’t assume someone is not interested from his or her silence. Take the time or use the resources available to you to be “politely persistent”.

I’m delighted to say that our accent colour turquoise is Pantone’s colour of the year for 2010 – apparently it’s ‘an inviting luminous hue’.

There is a wonderful quote at the top of the report – Turquoise Transports Us to an Exciting, Tropical Paradise While Offering a Sense of Protection and Healing in Stressful Times.

Whilst I’m not sure that all those thoughts were running through my mind when I selected this particular shade of turquoise, I do love the sentiment behind them.

In fact, I chose this turquoise as it complements our primary colour of brown, although I can see why it would ‘evoke thoughts of healing, tropical waters’

I would also like to thank a few of our creative clients (you know who you are) as I always check my intuitive thought processes with those who really understand colour and branding.

What do you think of the colour of the year?

What does it invoke for you?

Recruiting, training, motivating and retaining good sales people is not easy. It’s one of the biggest reasons anyone would outsource the cold calling element of their new business in the first place. If you are a marketing agency that has someone on board who is happy to grind through the calls day-in-day-out AND they are delivering great results then you’re one of the lucky few, so hang on to them. Actually, there is a reasonable chance they’re an Alchemis alumni. Over the years we have seen quite a few of our people moving into “agency side”. Often they are people with strong creative skills in the first place who saw Alchemis as a proving ground to hone their sales skills and all-round industry knowledge.

If you have an in-house new businessperson who came from a business development agency background then they will know the process and metrics required to deliver success. And they won’t mind putting in the hard work. Often though marketing agencies employ sales people from a variety of backgrounds and are disappointed with the results. This may be less about the quality of person hired and more about the change in sales environment an experienced sales person is likely to experience when they enter the average marketing agency.

Most telephone sales people prefer working in a sales team, with a positive buzz where everyone can feed off one another’s energy and the success of teammates. And lets be honest, most sales people like to be able to moan to a colleague that’s “been there” about how tough it is when things aren’t going so well. The average sales person is not going to be at their best when they’re the only person pitching in a room full of “creatives” hunched over their Macs.

This has created a niche for new business agencies to service the appointment generation needs of marketing agencies. The best new business agencies will be doing the following:

• Have a reasonable sized team; fewer than 8 sales people and its hard to create and sustain the right atmosphere.
• Have clearly defined KPIs; like the pennies and pounds, if you make the calls in new business then the results will come….so long as you do the following
• Provide thorough and ongoing coaching; a new business manager will be expected to call on a variety of different clients and disciplines over their career so the learning process never really stops. A graphic example of this is the fact that probably a third of our clients make a living doing things that were not technologically possible a few years ago
• Reallocate (quickly and painlessly) the business development manager if it’s not working. This is a massive advantage a new business agency has over an in-house approach
• Provide a supportive environment. It’s one thing to have incentives and awards for the best performers but at any point in time it’s likely someone will be struggling with a new client or in a tough industry sector. Coaching will help but confidence is important as well, so helping people through a tough patch is important. A sales person at a new business agency is lucky as they can switch to calling on a client they are confident on, achieve some quick results and then crack on with their tough client with their “mojo” renewed and intact

Some large marketing agencies will be able to offer this themselves but for most small to medium marketing agencies the economies of scale just don’t work. They can’t justify a full-time sales team and probably don’t need a full-time caller at all, which may mean they have the one person making the calls and going on initial meetings with prospects. This will work for some marketing agencies and when it does it’s probably the best single solution to new business. This is how many agencies got started in the first place, the passion of the agency owner determined to build their business from scratch. But for many agencies the person hired for making the initial calls isn’t the best person for attending face-to-face meetings. Hiring a new business agency to make the first contact on the phone setting meets for a board level person to attend seems to work best.

If you are a marketing agency and you’re determined to explore the in-house sales person route then I recommend the following:

• Look for a proven business development background either at a marketing agency or in a new business agency. These people will know what they’re getting into and ought to be able to provide quantifiable evidence of previous success
• Have clear and reasonable expectations of what this person should be able to achieve with timelines
• Set short term and achievable targets to begin with in terms of calling activity and appointment generation, which can be increased over time. If these are not being met then you may have a problem but if they are, you should be patient and supportive if the big wins don’t come straight away
• Have a clear idea of the role and how it may develop. A business development person who thinks they will get out on face-to-face meetings will quickly become disillusioned if they find themselves chained to their phone. Similarly, someone hired to make phone calls may find themselves out of their depth if they find themselves pitched into meetings
• Ensure they have leads and software to work with, often this is a challenge for marketing agencies

In conclusion, having a dedicated new business all-rounder under your roof is probably the perfect solution but finding such a person can be a needle in a haystack even if you can afford it. You then need to make sure that you have leads / data and software for them to manage a lead generation campaign effectively. Even if going in-house was your first thought it would be well worthwhile bringing a few of the better established new business agencies in for a conversation as we do possess some genuine advantages.