“Botanophobic landscape gardener – seeks similar”. Ok so admittedly, not all of us are going to find our perfect match, but if you’re willing to get yourself out there, a happy relationship awaits.

What am I waffling on about? Let me explain. I’ve worked in sales since I was a fresh-faced 17-year-old lad – hard-nosed, relentless, soul destroying sales. Working as a New Business Manager for marketing agencies is a different kettle of fish all together.

I could probably best relate the process, and the feeling I get when my clients win new business to that of a “Love Advisor” (or whatever they call themselves in the dating game). The satisfaction they must feel when Jim the botanophobe calls to thank them profusely for finally finding him love.

My clients come to me with a list of qualification criteria, thankfully not quite as specific as Jim’s, but criteria that I will work very tightly with to source them the best opportunities to win new business.

The process is much the same as the dating game (in a way).

The Introduction (The Call):

So I have the criteria, let’s say retail brands, budget over £50k, based in the South East, and an agency user? Check! Now to start building the relationship. My job is to ensure they are the right kind of prospect, and by the end of my call have a healthy interest in my client, enough to meet and get acquainted.

Now maybe they are already in relationship but they like you enough to meet you don’t they?

The Big First Date (The New Business Meeting):

My place or yours? (well, usually their place). I have qualified this meeting enough for us to know that they fit my client’s criteria, and they have a genuine interest in the offer. Here’s where the client comes in to see if there is chemistry. What do you have in common? Now it’s not as simple as “No way! Your favourite colour is red!? Mine too! Garçon! Bill please!” It takes a little work. These prospects don’t jump into bed with just anyone you know.

At the end of the date, it would be great if you came away with a new business brief. If not don’t be shy, they have trusted in you, maybe told you their problems so be brave enough to ask them for a second date.

The Proposal (The Proposal!):

Let’s say it was love at first sight, and things are moving fast. You have the brief, and you’re considering your proposal (It doesn’t need to take place at the top of the Eiffel Tower, their offices will do).

You swoop in suited and booted, romance them with your flashy power point presentation proposal. They say yes! All of your hard work (and mine) has paid off! Let the relationship begin.

And all of this from a well-targeted, new business cold call. Doesn’t it just make you want to weep?

When helping our marketing communications clients develop their new business strategy they often ask me whether they should offer an integrated service or develop a specialism. The simple answer is probably both!

There are clear advantages and disadvantage to both. With an integrated offer we have the opportunity to probe and get to the root of the prospect’s pain and consequently match the most appropriate part of our client’s offer to that pain. On the down side, you can be seen as a generalist jack of all trades rather than a specialist capable of solving a specific problem.

With the ‘single/specialist’ offer, there is more cut-through and you can make more specific statements focusing on your capabilities to solve specific problems/issues or meet a particular requirement/brief. However, you can box yourself into a corner using this approach and can sometimes find yourself having to backtrack if the problem/need identified turns out to be one that you could solve, but which you hadn’t referred to in your specific proposition.

As consultative salespeople here at Alchemis, our inclination is to start the telephone call with a broad offer and identify the specific need through intelligent questioning and probing so we can ‘match’ our clients’ creative and/or strategic skills with the prospect’s needs.

The exceptions to this approach are when our clients have developed a bespoke solution to a specific problem that a market is facing. The most successful campaigns tend to be those where we have used a combination approach.

Maximise your new business appointments with our top 10 new business presentation tips to ensure you make the most of any opportunities

1. Prepare, practise and perfect!
2. Start by considering the following:
   • What are your objectives?
   • What conclusions do you want the presentation to draw/come to?
   • What recommendations do you want your client/prospect to take on board?
   • What are the next steps?
   • What does your client/prospect want from the presentation?
   • What is the desired outcome?
   • If you don’t know any or all of these, then ask!
3. Once you have established all of the above, develop a clear structure that will help you answer the questions, possibly in order of priority. Your structure must follow the core principles of beginning, middle and end! Sounds obvious I know, but you’d be amazed at how many presentations I’ve seen during my 30 plus years in business that don’t adhere to these basic principles! What tends to be missing in my experience is a clear opening, including scene setting and signposting and a clear summary and conclusion (which, by the way, are two different things!!).
4. Research and develop your content to ensure that it delivers against the objectives and fits into your structure. Brain dump all your content before applying the MUST, SHOULD, COULD rule to determine what to include in the physical presentation and what to include in the leave behind.
5. You’re now ready to prepare both documents, bearing in mind they need to fulfil different objectives (for example, the actual presentation must be short and sweet and contain lots of white space, whereas your leave behind can contain all manner of company information, back up data, additional case studies etc). It is also important at this stage to decide how you’re going to present – slides, boards, props etc.
6. Always find out what the physical environment is going to be like a few days prior to the presentation: How big is the room? What’s the layout like? What technical facilities do they have?
7. Research your audience: Who’s going to be there and why? What’s the pecking order? Who are the key influencers? A top tip is to speak to the main decision maker prior to the presentation and either pick their brains on a topic or ask their advice and check out that your proposed solution is going in the right direction.
8. Select the right team based on your content and not on their availability – if the presentation is important enough to do then it’s important enough for the right people to be there. Ensure that everyone plays an equal role and that everyone knows the roles they’re supposed to play.
9. Practice, rehearse and practice again – I recommend you ask an independent observer to sit in on the early practice runs as they can point out the obvious (wood for trees!).
10. Get an independent specialist to get post presentation feedback, both positive and negative, whether you’ve won or lost.

Anyone with any other tips?

Also have a look at our Top 10 Tips for Generating New Business.