Category: New Business
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 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 »
Crafting Killer Presentations: Bringing Agency Ideas To Life
In the agency world, there’s nothing worse than being trapped for hours in a conference room squinting at a wall or staring blankly at a handout crammed full of pie charts, spreadsheets and hundreds of words in 8-point font. There’s also nothing less motivating when the message gets lost in... 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 »
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 »
It’s Time to Give Your Approach to RFPs a Makeover! The systematic way to improve your agency’s answers and increase your win rate
You check your email and there it is. The promise of a great new client. A chance to do great work and increase your agency’s revenue. But first, you have to submit a successful RFP. If you are the CEO or a new business director of an agency, you know... 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »