Category: C-Suite
Why Agencies Win Pitches
Why Agencies Win Pitches: How to Increase Your Agency’s Win Rate New business is the engine that drives agency growth and frequently the difference between winning a pitch and coming in “second” is very small. Having a few new tools in your new business toolbox can be just what is... read more »
Managing Presentation Nerves
Managing Nerves during Presentations, Pitches & Q&A Nervous reactions can sabotage even the most highly skilled presenter. The result can be career limiting, since clients often get the impression that the presenter is either not smart, is under prepared or lacks knowledge - which couldn’t be further from the truth.... read more »
The Secrets to Keeping Clients Longer
Someone once said, “The only sure thing in our business is that you’ll lose business.” The cruel fact is that eventually all your current clients will go away. Client departures often disrupt an agency and frequently force it to lay off talented staff. Sometimes the event even forces the agency... read more »
The Agency Website: What Prospects Look For
The agency website is a prospect’s first impression of your agency. 100% of prospects check out the web sites of the agencies they’re considering before they contact the agency. If your site isn't presenting the agency effectively, you can expect the agency to be crossed off the consideration list. The... read more »
How To Evaluate Creative Ideas and Make Them Better with Tracy Wong
We’re in a business driven by creative ideas. And we succeed and fail based on the quality of those ideas. But has anyone ever told you how to evaluate an idea? Or explained to you what makes a good one, what makes a bad one, and how to tell the... read more »
A Successful Succession: An Agency Guide For Getting Ready
Have you discussed with your senior managers options and requirements for transitioning your “small to midsize” independent agency to new leadership and ownership? Do you want to learn more about the current Merger and Acquisition landscape, employee purchase plans and how to determine the value of your agency? Per Harry... read more »
With Clients, Everything is a Negotiation
Negotiation is a part of any agency staff’s daily experience. Whether we are talking about timelines, logo size, strategic ideas, internal resources, media spends…everything is negotiable. The challenge is that these negotiations, whether with colleagues or clients, happen so frequently that often our first impulse is to resolve them... read more »
17 New Business Mistakes Agencies Make; And How To Avoid Them
Nearly all agencies approach new business development the same way . . . the way they’ve always done it. As a result they have fallen victim to mistaken beliefs like: We don’t need a prospect list; we get referrals Prospecting is just about “cold calling” so why bother You have... read more »
Turning Customer and Consumer Insights into New Business Gold
67% of CEOs and Client Decision Makers say that unearthing and leveraging genuine consumer and customer insights is one of top three challenges in their job. Sadly, those same Decision Makers also say that while they want and expect their agencies to provide these insights – they usually cannot. This... read more »
Developing & Training The Next Generation of Account Management
Take a couple of minutes and think about the current state of your agency’s account management department. How are they being mentored and coached? How are you instilling in them the courage and resourcefulness to adapt to changing conditions and capitalize on emerging industry trends? What are you doing to... read more »
Why You Lost the Pitch – What Prospects are Not Telling You About Your Presentation
You did your homework, created a deck, rehearsed, pitched only to get the dreaded “You came in second place” phone call. As we all know, by some mystery of math…everyone came in second place. When it comes down to it, the prospect has two goals for that phone call. First,... read more »
How to Convert More New Business with Better Storytelling
When it comes to an important new business pitch or meeting, agencies tend to pull out all the stops; agencies do research, bring target audience insights to life and develop and deliver killer creative campaigns and programs in the hopes of winning the business. What we tend to forget is how... read more »
The Art of Prospecting for New Business
The Most Common Agency New Business Strategy: “Lying in the middle of the road and waiting to get run over.” Why prospecting is an insurance policy for a healthy agency. Almost all agencies occasionally send out examples of their work or promotional emails explaining how amazing they are to a... read more »
Getting to Great: Leading vs. Managing
Managing is all about getting things done; leading is making sure agency teams are getting the right things done. Exceptional agency leaders don’t just deliver great work. They rally their teams to develop new opportunities and improve the process. Vision plays a part, but more so, the ability to translate... read more »
Negotiating Budgets, Deadlines, Scopes and Other Tough Topics with Clients
In today’s fast-paced, project-based world when there’s no time for missteps or miscommunication with clients, account managers and team leads must know how to navigate potentially difficult conversations when discussing budgets, fees, deadlines, project deliverables, success metrics, etc. These skills become particularly important when your firm is one of several... read more »
Improve Your Agency Culture. Improve Your ROI. Believe It
Your agency’s culture may be one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools for greater productivity and higher profits. This webinar examines what a culture is and isn’t. It demonstrates how a carefully installed culture can actually increase productivity and profits. Everyone thinks their agency has a culture but few... read more »
Innovation: Recasting your Agency’s Future
Who doesn’t love that Eureka moment when a flash of insight inspires us to shift our creative development process? Who equally hates the heartache of losing accounts because we don’t have the optimum account management process? And who is tired of managing the challenges of decreasing recurring revenue with the... read more »
How to Raise Your Agency’s Visibility Through Agency PR: Creating And Navigating An Effective Agency PR Strategy
As the media landscape has changed, so have the opportunities to earn press coverage for an advertising agency, no matter what its size. Investing in and devoting time to Agency PR is important for reaching clients, getting into pitches, and recruiting and retaining employees, yet it’s hard to allocate the... read more »
Employee Onboarding: Design and personalize an onboarding process that helps new employees succeed
22% of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of new employment. As HR professionals and managers, it is important to set new employees up for success. By giving new employees an engaging, thorough and consistent on-boarding experience, they will become immersed in the company culture and loyal from... read more »
Confessions of a Hypercritical Client: What Your Clients Don’t Say, But Should
Clients can be frustrating with unreal expectations, last minute rushes, endless direction changes and redo’s. But too often, they feel pushback and wonder if their agency partner really gets it. Agency says “We’ll think about it,” clients hear “Not doing it.” Agency says “We’re working on it,” clients hear “Not... read more »
Engaging Procurement and Revamping the Agency-Client Compensation Dialogue
The significant involvement of the procurement function in shaping the business relationship between clients and their marketing service providers is a relatively recent phenomenon, emerging as a common factor in marketing service negotiations in just the last twenty years. Today’s agencies typically face imposing challenges and questions in understanding the... read more »
Writing an Annual Plan for New Business: Why It’s Important, Where to Start and What to Include
"You can't manage what you can't measure.”--Peter Drucker The new business function at many ad agencies is more about blocking and tackling than thoughtful planning. But by taking the time to create a plan that sets expectations for your new business team (as well as the agency as a whole), you’ll shift... read more »
Using Metrics to Win - and Keep – Clients: Applying Metrics to Your Advantage
Digital Marketing has added new layers of complexity, an explosion of data, AND new ways to track and measure success to the marketing strategies of every agency’s clients. Yet most agencies are afraid to track and review key metrics with clients despite clear demand in the marketplace for ROI driven... read more »
How Are Your Agency’s Economic Vital Signs? Keys to Developing an Agency Financial Health Self-Assessment
Responsible agency leaders are typically very conscious of the quality of their new business development efforts, client service skills, and the comparative strengths and weaknesses of their work product. Those are appropriate focal points of agency management teams and are certainly critical to continued growth and success. Often times, however,... read more »
The Secrets to Creating a Motivational Work Environment: How to Keep Agency Employees Engaged
One of the hardest parts of being a manager is to keep employees engaged and motivated. Different things motivate every individual. How can you discover what motivates your employees and keep employees happy and satisfied in their jobs for the long run? Join Denise Rosenblum, President, Dynamic Development, as she... read more »
Negotiating Agency-Client Contracts from a Position of Strength
You’ve just gotten the call from the client and it’s good news. After weeks (or months) of hard work, long hours, and sacrifice, your agency has won the business. It’s time to celebrate – almost. No deal is done until the contract is signed. Unfortunately, a lot of agencies rush... read more »
Social and Content, Done Right: The Legal Tools Every Agency Needs
The legal heat has been turned up significantly on marketers using social media and content marketing and, more recently, native advertising tactics. New FTC guidelines and increased regulatory enforcement have raised stakes for both brands AND agencies. And in addition to the regulatory hurdles, marketers need to be knowledgeable about... read more »
Get Past the RFP! Success Strategies for Winning Proposals
Responding to RFPs is time consuming and risky. Skilled new business practitioners can sometimes circumvent them altogether, but for most ad agencies they are an unavoidable first step in winning a new account or assignment. This webinar will show you not only how to mitigate the risk and manage the... read more »
40 Lessons Learned In 40 Years
40 Lessons Learned In 40 Years: Best Practices for Navigating Your Career and Running a Successful Agency Ad agency veteran Pat Doody has been in advertising for what he describes as ”forty breathless years”. He has worked for agencies in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle – from big to... read more »
The Art of Executive Presence
THE ART OF EXECUTIVE PRESENCE: How To Stand Out, Speak Up and Impress VIPs and Peers In business, certain people just seem to have it. They don’t wait to be offered a seat at the table or asked for their opinion--people with executive presence join right in no matter who’s... read more »