A new business director for an ad agency is a unique breed of person. They are responsible for the activities that most agency principals, creatives and even account service execs hate, selling the agency. This lack of internal expertise and passion has fueled a growing trend of outsourcing new business development, particularly among smaller to midsize ad agencies. Below is an outsourcing article that is worthy of discussion.
“Outsourcing New Business Development The invisible trend”, By Matt Duffy Editor, DailyVista.
According to Duffy, outsourcing may be the biggest trend in ad agency business development that no one’stalking. European agencies have been increasingly outsourcing their sales departments for the last decade, and a few American firms are now offering the service.
“The problem with employing someone in house to do the outreach is that their cost, plus the costs of data, plus the license to use trackable email soon escalates to the point where it is more cost effective to use an external consultancy … An external consultancy also has more ‘ears to the ground’ than an internal source.” – Adam Whittaker, RSW
The combination of financial savings plus business intelligence and expertise makes for outsourcing an appealing option for small-to midsize agencies.
Thanks For share this
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I agree,outsourcing new biz is a very viable solution to create a pipeline of leads. It’s often short money, very little exposure and great ROI, if it generates even a few opportunities. However, I’d recommend that the agency have someone internally capable of not only managing and directing the vendor, but also has the leverage to get cooperation from internal resources to provide content, leads, and the right people to meet with prospects and manage those relationships going forward. The length of the sales cycle requires a longer term commitment to succeed and the vendor can’t and shouldn’t be relied on to fill that responsibility.
David,
Thanks for taking the time to add the additional insights. This post was one of the first that I wrote when I started my blog. It’s amazing that it still generates traffic and comments. I hope all is well at Mullen. From what I’m hearing this is a great year for new business for you.