It’s the old cliché of you get out what you put in, but it is all too true when working with almost any supplier, and this is amplified if you engage with a business development agency. You have budgeted for a significant amount of money and taken the bold step of handing over a core business activity to an outside company.

However, it is not that simple. We can’t conjure new business from thin air. Cold new business is a tough process and we, along with any other new business agency, are only as good as the effort both parties put in. There is no doubt that a collaborative approach works the best, not only in terms of results, but also as an enjoyable working experience. Communication and relationship are everything. After working with c.500 marketing agencies over 11 years, these are my top tips for maximising your new business agency:

1. Get off on the right foot:

Set the partnership up from day one. You will have shared some business objectives and goals before making your decision to use us, but be open with your designated New Business Manager. We are genuinely interested in how your business is structured, your core vision for the future and your objectives from the relationship. You would share this with an internal recruit, so why not your agency.

2. Invest time in the briefing process:

Inducting your New Business Manager into your agency is key. Take them around to meet and talk to key personnel as hearing about your company from a number of viewpoints gives a well-rounded picture. Your caller needs to feel part of the team and this undoubtedly helps.

Really take the time to give a full briefing on your company. We know you have been through it a thousand times before, but we haven’t. It is new and exciting and we want to hear about why you set the company up and the ethos and philosophy behind it. Often there are gems, which can work wonders on the phone. Give us as much as you can and we will take the relevant “sales” parts from it.

3. Case studies, case studies, case studies:

These are the most important sales tools we have. We will guide you as to the ideal format, and as always, quantifiable results are gold dust. It is well worth spending time in creating great looking case studies, which can be used as a sales tool for your caller and also by you in new business meetings.

4. Be passionate:

All our clients are passionate about their work and achievements and this really filters through to your New Business Manager. It is a requirement of both parties, but getting the enthusiasm you feel for your company and your work to manifest itself in your caller can only come from you. They need to leave that initial briefing feeling inspired to sell your business.

5. Communicate:

The briefing is the starting point. We will keep you updated of progress, but you need to commit to do the same. It is rare, but occasionally we have worked with agencies who have been “too busy” to take our calls for weeks on end. We can’t work effectively like that. We never lose sight of two things.

• You are paying us to do a good job
• We are taking responsibility for your business growth and frankly, personal success

6. Keep your agency updated:

It is the hardest thing to do. You have just finished a great project and moved onto the next. The former is confined to history. Take time to tell us about it and write up a case study. We love going back to prospects with something fresh to say and it gives your agency the air of vibrancy and success.

7. Feedback:

It is not always 100% positive, but we need to know in order to change or develop our approach. Once you have been on a meeting, let us know straight away if it was good, bad or ugly. Let us know why and let us know what the next step is. A good meeting needs to be followed up on and we need to agree when and by whom. That way we can drive the process.

More importantly, your New Business Manager likes a pat on the back for a job well done, so make sure you send that email or make that call after a great appointment.

8. Honesty:

We give you total permission to be honest with us (you are paying us after all), but we need the same. If you have concerns, we want to nip them in the bud. If something is not working on the phone, we want to let you know and agree a new strategy or direction. We don’t like surprises, so please tell us if something is keeping you awake at night.

We don’t always get it right first time, but if we don’t know, we can’t fix it.

9. Manners:

It costs nothing. Treat us, and your caller as you would treat your own staff. Rudeness and disrespectful behaviour will not get the results you are looking for. It adds an additional pressure that can only be detrimental. As previously mentioned, if things aren’t going as well as they might, one thing you can be assured of is that we will die trying to change that. Work collaboratively with us and we will both reap the rewards.

10. Enjoy it:

We create a fun and rewarding environment at Alchemis and a big part of that is the quality of the clients we work with. We enjoy working with a diverse range of interesting clients and we want you to enjoy working with us. If together we ensure all points above are covered, I assure you that will be the case.

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.

We know marketing departments are under enormous pressure to deliver better sales results with tighter resources. This often results in short-term price based promotional activity, or certainly activity where ROI can be truly measured (this has typically taken a digital route). However, the pressure that they are under inevitably feeds down to the marketing agencies they employ and feedback from our clients suggests that they have needed to compromise their pre-recession pricing or working practices in order to retain business and feel that a good pricing “offer” could be beneficial in attracting new business. These often revolve around payment on results, taking on initial projects at a loss on the basis of future potential or offering free audits as a way to get a foot in the door, but how much of a hook is it for prospective new clients?

No doubt, agencies need to adapt to their clients’ changing circumstances. Agencies that put the client first may experience more short-term pain but could potentially reap the rewards during and post this recession. With brands demanding more for their money, a well thought through and executed price or results based proposition may well help attract new business, but if positioned in the wrong way, could devalue the quality of your offer, people and brand. Stick to what you are good at. Many agencies see themselves as multi-faceted, but most still tend to have core strengths, be it in sector or discipline. There will always be a temptation to say “yes” to a client interested in a discipline outside of your agency’s core expertise. Whether you are trying to get a foot in the door through new business calling or at the point of working with a client, learning or developing a new skill at the expense of the client will almost certainly backfire and potentially damage your brand.

On both these points, your new business agency is key and needs to be properly briefed, with absolute clarity. The key is to work with your new business agency to identify your core proposition. Sounds obvious, but we want to be sending you in to meet people, where you can demonstrate knowledge, experience and discipline expertise, which is more likely to lead to business conversions.

Work with your agency to identify the prospects you would be prepared to make a price/working practice/free audit based offer to. You may find it is only a proportion of your target audience. This is something your new business agency should be able to help you with. If, during a conversation, it is a clear a prospect would not provide substantial, ongoing potential, why compromise for a one off project? Finally, and most importantly, agree how any offer will be conveyed. A good offer, put in the right way will come across as powerful and value added and can be dynamite for generating interest over the phone versus other agency approaches, but in the wrong way, there will be a danger of it devaluing your company and people. On all of this, your new business agency should be delivering meaningful feedback on any offer or proposition in order to hone your business development strategy and drive your company through the recession.

To agency owners, how are you responding to marketing departments putting pressure on you to deliver results?

To marketing decision makers, how are your agencies responding to your requests for measurable ROI?