New business agency blog

I’ve just read the following headlines with interest: ‘The latest IPA/BDO Bellwether report announced growing optimism and confidence alongside increased marketing budgets for 2010 in comparison to last year. Effective marketing & advertising spend will be essential in 2010.’

This is certainly borne out by our experiences at Alchemis during the latter part of 2009 and into 2010. We started seeing an increase in the number of marketing budgets being released around August last year and we experienced a 70% increase in the number of wins for our clients in the second half of the year compared to the first half.

The key phrase for me is ‘effective marketing & advertising’ and those of our clients (typically small-medium sized agencies) who recognise this and who are prepared to develop their proposition to reflect this need are more likely to get in front of key decision makers with budgets.

The signs are that this upward trend will continue, although we remain cautious and work closely with our clients to develop propositions that are most effective in this climate and to focus our activity on those markets where we see the most opportunities.

Another strong month for the sales team. The two most remarkable things in January were the unprecedented number of rearrangements we had to manage due to global cooling at the beginning of the month and the significant increase in access we achieved when targeting marketing agencies for our own new business effort.

I’m happy to report that most of the meetings postponed at the beginning of the month have now gone back into the diary. Rearranging meetings is the bane of any Business Development Consultant’s life as there is always the chance that the meeting will not slot smoothly back in and occasionally such meetings can slip into a limbo-like state for months on end. We do everything we can to minimise the impact this has on delivering to clients, including;

• Regular contact with our clients to ensure we have the most up to date knowledge of their availability for meetings
• Setting high quality meetings in the first place, with a qualified decision maker and establishing a clear agenda for both prospect and client
• Ensuring the proven process for confirming meetings is carried out
• Factoring in a cancellation rate; we set more meetings than we need to because at the end of the day and despite everything we do, some meets will always drop out

The first couple of weeks in January posed an unprecedented challenge however. Some of our clients were literally snowed in and some prospects were inaccessible on the day the meeting had been set for. Fortunately the measures we took ensured no clients made a wasted journey and the majority of the meetings we had to move in the first week or so have now either happened or will do so shortly.

The increase in decision maker access we achieved when talking to marketing agencies is harder to explain. We were 50% more likely to speak to an agency owner in January than the historical average (which really doesn’t fluctuate much). One can only assume that marketing agencies are looking positively at 2010 when planning their proactive new business efforts, which is great news for people like us. This assumption is supported by the net increase in our client base we have experienced so far this year.

I’d like to report that we found it so much easer to get through to Marketing Directors in January but this was not the case. It seems there is no substitute for hard graft when it comes to winning a telephone audience with a Marketing Director. Fortunately the uplift in successful outcomes once we have got one on the phone, which began in June 2009, now seems entrenched so we enter the year optimistically, hoping to build on a very positive second half of 2009.

I’m pleased to report that the entire company has entered the Sport Relief charity run on Sunday 21st March 2010 (www.sportrelief.com.)

Most of us have entered the 3 mile race but there are a few hardy souls (or should that be competitive souls?) who have entered the 6 mile race.

Our joint aim for this event is to raise a minimum of £1000 for Sport Relief.

Alchemis has adopted a number of different charities this year including African Village Support, who help villagers in rural Uganda become self sufficient, Thames Reach, a London- based charity helping homeless and vulnerable people to find decent homes, build supportive relationships and lead fulfilling lives and Children with Cystic Fibrosis Dream Holidays, who organise holidays and breaks for children with cystic fibrosis.

We will be running a number of events ourselves this year, mainly involving sporting based competitions amongst our team of Business Development Managers.

Are there any marketing or new business agencies out there who fancy taking us on (all in the aid of charity of course)? We’re confident enough in our overall sporting prowess to allow you to name the sport and we’ll happily put our money where our mouth is!