Archives for May 2011

Executing Your Agency’s New Business Strategy Requires a System

A plan is just a plan, wishful thinking, until it is executed.

How many annual planning meetings has your agency gone through the motions of creating a strategic new business plan only to have it fail in its implementation? Maybe next year, instead of focusing so much attention on the plan, use annual planning to create dynamic processes for execution.

“Execution, more so than planning, is the battleground that determines success and failure.”

Experience has taught me that successfully executing a new business strategy requires a system, not a series of diverse projects performed by different parts of the agency.… Continue reading

Use Social Media to Build Relationships Before the Pitch for Ad Agency New Business

Social media allows you to achieve a high level of familiarity and validation before your agency’s next new business pitch.

Prospective clients are looking for chemistry and likability in their ad agency partners as part of the pitch process. Chemistry doesn’t have to be a crap shoot.

One of the great things about the internet is that you can develop relationships with people without ever meeting them. Use this to your agency’s advantage to build relationships prior to your new business pitch.Continue reading

10 Tips For Creating a Game Plan For Ad Agency New Business

10 tips for ad agency new business

 

It is absolutely essential that agencies have a plan for their new business development initiatives.

I recently spoke to a group of ad agency owners. I was amazed to learn that none of them had a written new business plan. That’s inconceivable to me. If you have no plan you can’t measure what you’re doing, there’s no real strategy behind your new business activities, no focus or direction.

“He who fails to plan, is planning to fail”  – Winston Churchill

If you want to build a consistent pipeline for lead generation and new business opportunities for your agency you must have a game plan in place.… Continue reading

7 Ways to Stay Connected for Ad Agency New Business

 

Some simple tips to stay connected and be available for prospects while you are traveling. 

Many agency CEOs and those charged with agency new business are traveling a lot these days. I just returned from an overseas trip and it was important for me to stay connected to my own social media new business network.

My on-the-road my basic equipment consists of:

  • A MacBook 13″, easier to use at airports and lunch counters. I prefer using my Mac when I write even when traveling.
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Social Media Has Changed My Life and Ad Agency New Business

The single greatest impact upon my life professionally has been social media. It has changed the way I conduct my day, it has changed my perspective, it has impacted my intellectual outlook and it has become the best new business tool that I’ve ever had as a business development professional.

I’m writing this post from my hotel room in London, England reflecting on how far I’ve come since I was introduced to social media over four years ago when I started my consultancy.… Continue reading

10 Advantages When Ad Agencies Focus New Business Efforts on Their “Sweet Spot”

New business targeting is about finding an agency’s sweet spot. Deciding on the most fruitful audience that match your agency’s core competencies and wastes the least amount of your agency’s energy and resources to win.

The sweet spot is that part of the club, bat, tennis racket, etc. that wastes the least amount of energy when it collides with the ball.

Too many agencies fall into the trap of pursuing any prospective client with a budget.… Continue reading