As a co-owner of a new business agency it will come as no surprise that I am a great advocate of the effectiveness of cold calling/appointment setting, particularly in this current climate where there is a lot of interest from prospects in more innovative and/or cost effective ways of helping them solve their problems.

When I say cold calling I mean intelligent, well targeted approaches to prospective clients who meet all the agreed quality criteria of profile, budget, size, location etc rather than the ‘let’s hope some of it sticks’ scattergun approach.

In fact, a significant percentage of the calls we make are to cultivate existing contacts so are follow up calls rather than cold calls.

However, that’s only part of the picture and as an owner or partner of a creative/strategic/digital//communications/research agency you should never knowingly delegate new business entirely, either to an in-house person or to a specialist business development agency like Alchemis.

The most successful new business campaigns in our 23 years experience are those where the whole agency embraces the concept and practice of ongoing business development, from using your own personal contacts to keeping your eyes open for appropriate brands and companies for your agency to approach.

Here is a list of the ten activities that should form part of your longer term strategy (in no particular order) even if you only have the time or money to do only some of them now or at any given time:

1. Cold calling (always use an expert, don’t expect your creative team for example to either have the time or the inclination to do this!)

2. Always make time to treat all incoming enquiries with respect; a £5k brochure today could lead to a £250k account in 2 years time

3. Cultivate and proactively develop your referral base; find out where your current clients are going when they move and don’t be scared to contact them in their new role – they used you once for good reason and if you don’t ask…..

4. Make a wish list of brands/companies you would love to work with; be realistic and also think about why they would like to work with you

5. PR – this doesn’t need to be through a PR agency, if you’ve got something to say, make your own noise, pick up the phone and speak to that journalist at The Grocer  or whoever

6. If you’re an agency of a certain size or have a specialism, then the marriage brokers such as the AAR, Haystack or Oystercatchers can play an important role in recommending you to clients who register their briefs with them

7. Maximise the business networking sites such as LinkedIn; you would be surprised how small this world is and a referral or a personal contact can go a long way

8. Make sure your website is SEO friendly and that it reflects the core pillars of your offer; it’s not good if we’ve talked about some great work you’ve done to prospects on the phone if those case studies aren’t reflected on your website

9. Maximise your relationship and therefore the referral power of your business partners; we’ve had several referrals over the years from our IT support partner for example

10. Don’t forget your existing clients and always try to develop more business from them. Be careful that you’re not ‘put in a box’ and always treat all meetings with current clients as an opportunity to talk about other potential work

In summary, new business should be part of the fabric of your agency, it’s your lifeblood and frankly, it’s also very exciting when you win a new client!!

In the famous words of Forrest Gump, client briefings are like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get.

The shortest I have been involved in is 30 minutes and the longest 4.5 hours. The latter is nearer the mark, although on average, they take 2-3 hours.

The briefing meeting is crucial. Sometimes it surprises me that agencies are prepared to spend a significant amount of money with Alchemis but don’t take the time to brief us properly. This is rare as most agencies are as excited as we are to be starting the campaign, but these are our top 5 points in order to brief your agency properly.

1) Allocate enough time

Sounds simple, but we need to leave that meeting understanding enough about your business in order to:

a) represent you as you would like us to and

b) sell your agency effectively.

This takes time and half an hour is not enough. You know your business, but we don’t. Remember, your New Business Manager is calling as if they are in your office, so they really need to “get” the agency.

2) Be prepared to have a follow-up meeting

We know that 2-2.5 hours is the optimum for concentration. This should be enough time to give us the key background, facts and case histories.

However, if we feel that it would be useful to have a follow up meeting once all of that has been digested to develop things further or just to meet other key team members, that is what we will do.

3) Prepare in advance

Anything you can get to us in advance helps. We will always send an agenda and a list of guideline questions well in advance; it really is beneficial and helps streamline the meeting if you look at these and prepare answers prior to the briefing.

4) Don’t assume we know everything

You know your business back to front, but we don’t.

Often clients rattle through case studies and propositions as they have heard it/said it a million times in advance. I promise you, we find this interesting, so please take the time to go through things properly and methodically.

We really want to understand why you did what you did for any given project and often this understanding can provide key points of difference or angles to use on the phone.

5) Be enthusiastic

We know you are enthusiastic about your work, but we also know that you probably have a hundred other things on your mind.

However, I guarantee that your New Business Manager will feed off your passion for the work and this will be reflected in the results.

As my first full year as a New Business Manager at Alchemis draws to a close, I pause to reflect, assess and summarise what I have achieved in the last 12 months.

I am pleased with the number and quality of the meetings I have set for my clients, who offer a range of services from mobile apps to full service creative solutions.

However, let us not forget the sole reason that our clients embark on a proactive new business campaign with Alchemis – to win new business.

Whilst the temptation is always there to push for a speculative or credentials based meeting to hit targets, I have approached my calling with the knowledge that we are building a long term relationship with our clients, and that quality will always trump quantity. A client winning business and yielding a good ROI is a happy client, who are much easier to work with and converse with on a weekly basis. Furthermore, I have found that a by-product of clients winning business is that you also win their trust, which means they are willing to go on a few speculative meetings, which can be equally as fruitful, if approached in the right way.

As for 2011, our client base is growing and the marketplace is evolving with the technology available to us. These are exciting, albeit challenging times and I for one am looking forward to 2011 and building on the success of 2010.

Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to one and all!