I was at a meeting yesterday with a really interesting agency (genuinely imaginative, innovative and pioneering; they’ll know who they are if they’re reading this) and one of the most common objections for outsourcing business development to an agency like Alchemis came up.

The objection is similar to the emotional response of passing over your child to someone else (something most parents experience when their child first goes to a childminder or to school). Most of our clients are small-medium sized agencies and are owned and run by a founding partner, therefore handing over responsibility for contacting prospects and articulating their proposition on their behalf can initially prove unsettling. How can I entrust my child to another person? How will they able to put across my offer to prospects when they haven’t grown up with it? See how easily the experiences can get blurred…

The rational response to this is that someone from the outside can add great value to your business/child. We all fondly remember a teacher who made a difference to our lives by pointing us in a direction we hadn’t previously considered or opening our eyes to an author we hadn’t previously read. Run with the analogy and you’ll rationally understand that an outsider (with 23 years experience in this market) can add enormous value to your business, helping to refine your proposition to work in this current marketplace for example.

However, it’s the emotional objection that is the most difficult to overcome, which is why we always insist on our prospective clients meeting our team of New Business Managers prior to appointing us – the only way they will ever truly feel comfortable with handing over their child is by spending time with the childminder.

Ask any agency owner or business development professional and they will say that new business is a tough challenge. Calls, meetings, follow up calls, emails, more follow up calls etc. Time is scarce, resource is stretched low and keeping the pipeline full of fresh opportunities as well as nurturing current prospects is frankly, bloody hard work. This is old news.

However, all of this MUST be done and one of the real benefits of working with a new business agency such as Alchemis has been highlighted starkly over the past few days. As an agency, Alchemis lose very few New Business Managers (NBMs). We, along with our clients provide a stimulating and enjoyable place to work (or we think we do!), but we are just about to lose our first sales team member for over 13 months. Anyone involved in a sales organisation will tell you that this is a very low turnover.

The benefit of using Alchemis and having a stable New Business Manager is the continuity it provides. That New Business Manager knows exactly what is going on, who they should be calling and when.

However, we do lose NBMs from time to time, and we have the systems and processes in place to ensure that there’s no break in momentum and that all important continuity.

As a company owner, you want to feel that the service you provide is as good as it can be, and most importantly in our industry, your people are the best in the market. I can honestly say that this has hit home over the past two weeks. We are very sad to see this particular New Business Manage leave. He has been a great team member and achieved some fantastic results for his clients. However, he is leaving and we have robust processes in place to ensure that accounts are handed over to new callers seamlessly, but these processes are nothing without the input of the outgoing NBM.

The key is an effective, well run internal briefing for each client. I have sat in a few of these briefings over the past week or so and it has become apparent that the outgoing NBM has a real passion for their clients and genuinely cares about the new caller taking on the mantle effectively, not missing any current leads and continuing to do a good job. This infectious enthusiasm for their clients clearly rubs off on the new Account Manager. I can genuinely say that seeing this first hand has instilled pride in myself at the company I co-own, the quality of the people we have employed and the commitment that they have to their clients’ businesses.

From a client perspective, there is no break in momentum. Versus an internal resource, there is no reluctant notice period, no break in activity whilst a replacement is found (we know from experience that quality sales people who work well with agency propositions are few and far between), no recruitment fee, no training or build up whilst the new person gets to know the systems and tries to decipher someone else’s notes and leads. At the end of the day, we don’t miss any opportunities on behalf of our clients if someone leaves.

I can understand if you think this sounds a little self congratulatory, but there are times when things happen within your business when you should take a step back and be proud in your achievements. Working with the other owners of Achemis in selecting and developing our current team is one of those times.

Alchemis has set you a really good quality meeting and now it’s up to you to maximise the opportunity.

Here are our top 5 tips for making sure you achieve your first meeting objective of securing a second meeting.

1. Research the prospect, their marketplace and their competitors with the aim of developing opinions, observations and insights – these insights show you’ve done your research, that you’re capable of independent thought and also allow you to bridge the gap between the social niceties and the business end of the meeting

2. Always set the scene – signpost the journey and state the desired destination up front. Pre-closing makes the end of the meeting more relaxed for everyone

3. Do NOT bore the prospect with a Powerpoint presentation – take sharp tools (aka case studies) and leave your comfort blanket at home

4. Prepare and ask a series of planned and considered questions, giving you the information you want from the meeting – focus on their challenges and priorities

5. Pre-empt the prospect’s likely objectives to using you; putting objections on the table allows you to deal with them or at the very least, lets you know why they won’t be using you