New Business Hawk

Ad Agency Growth: Training vs. Consulting

Our most valuable assets walk out the door at five o’clock

American corporations dole out an estimated 15 billion dollars per year on training and consulting for up-and-coming mangers and leaders. Sadly, most marketing firms spend very little on developing their staff. It’s the one thing most leaders tell me is on their yearly goals, and yet somehow it always fades by the wayside.

However, a few highly successful firms target high performers and potential leaders within their organization and work with them to develop their skills. These are the firms that make up most of our clients.

We have been arguing and writing about the science and practice of new business since the early 1980’s all in an effort to demystify this critical element of agency operations.

Our experience as managers, leaders, and consultants, both nationally and internationally, have helped us to understand the nature of that work, and the science behind it. Over the past several years we’ve seen the growth of many new business consultants. However we do see a unique difference between most of them and Sanders Consulting: few if any offer detailed training programs.

In this latest economic downturn marketing firms are asking their leaders to take new business seriously – a critical success factor to organizational growth. Learning leads to more effective action and, therefore, improved performance – and is no longer an option. More and more of the firms we interact with are recognizing that the roles of new business and agency leadership are different, and the skills required to be a great agency leader do not necessarily transition into the world of new business.

What To Do?

Invest in your staff. Your leaders. Yourself. Your agency.

Photo By woodleywonderworks

How can a small agency compete in new business?

Many smaller firms we’ve worked with over the past few years have won going up against some of the giants in our industry, and even more now consider themselves to be in competition with larger agencies. And sometimes the giants like JWT, Y&R, or just the large regional down the street feel the need to reach down and pick up a smaller account forcing you to compete with them.

So how do you compete against a larger agency? Do you pack your bags and go home, lie about your actual size, or disparage the behemoth?

Fortunately, there are more positive alternatives. You just need to explain why smaller is better. What follows are some points/arguments you can make to convince a prospect not only that size doesn’t matter when it comes to capability, but that large size can actually be a disadvantage in meeting his or her needs.

• The client is always dealing with the principal when he or she is dealing with your firm. You are the relationship manager. There is no junior partner to whom responsibility will be transferred. There is no decreased accountability, no “handoff” to a less-informed colleague. If the prospect’s interests are at stake continually, shouldn’t the client reasonably expect the principal’s continual involvement?
• You provide resources on a “just-in-time” basis. That is, your agency does not have to cover excessive overhead, such as multiple offices, large administrative backup, recruiting, partner perks, and so on. You are organized to efficiently provide everything the prospect needs but nothing more than that.
• There is greater likelihood of observing privacy and confidentiality with fewer people working on the project. In addition, the fewer people working on an account, the fewer “filters” there are to go through. Larger agencies sometimes have a problem dealing with a number of revolving staff’s differing perceptions or interpretations of information, and this can stall results. You (and the few people you might also involve) are constant, removing the need to sift through dozens of differing perceptions.
• You’re faster. You can respond to requests quickly and return all calls within two hours. (If you can’t, then you’re not taking advantage of your smaller size.) Your client needn’t worry about a bureaucracy, delays, and unfamiliar people answering their calls.
• Since you handle fewer concurrent projects than larger agencies, your attention is relatively undiverted. The client doesn’t have to “compete” with another dozen or so of your clients, some of which may be larger or more time-demanding. You structure your work so that every client receives maximum attention.
• Inevitably, you are less expensive. (Note that this is way down here in the list, because you shouldn’t be that much less expensive!). There are economies to using someone who can base their fees on each situation and not on a predetermined rate or their need for reaching a holding company goal.

Add your own reasons to these, and have them handy anytime you know that a prospect is considering other, larger agencies. Don’t be rocked back on your heels, defensively trying to explain why you can do the same things with fewer resources. Defense might win football games, but it doesn’t accomplish a thing in the new business process. Take the offensive, and explain why smaller is better for this client’s particular needs. Don’t disparage the competition; simply point out your superiority.

Don, over at Marketing Thought Leader has added more good ideas with his post Going Head-to-Head With the Big Guys. A good read and I highly suggest you head over all read his take.

Chemistry Wins New Business

Chemistry is that funny stuff in the space between people.

It’s not about you or me but what’s between us. That space is called Chemistry and it’s a driving force in new business. Chemistry is rarely talked about. Firms don’t like to say “we just didn’t like you” when explaining to an agency why they weren’t hired. Strategic direction, better fit, outstanding idea are all better reasons to go with another firm. Perhaps it would help if we called it “Likeability” as in “I like one firm more than another.” But Chemistry is more than that. Good Chemistry has more to do with meeting expectations, as in “I think we could work with these people best.”

Losing the Chemistry Battle

Here’s why it’s so important: We tend to like people better who best meet our expectations. Who seem like us. We understand them easier. We don’t get surprised. In short, we want to work with them. Hence we hire them.

In many searches, the search consultants or the key client-side decisions makers will realize that “any of these agencies can do the job.” The search process then becomes about which one firm do “we want to work with.” That’s Chemistry.

New Business & Client Service: Keys to Successful Negotiation

Every person in advertising, like every fisherman, has a story about “the one that got away,” the perfect client that was a great fit, or the one that was “this close.”

Many times, great clients are lost due to blunders in negotiating. But there are negotiating tools and techniques that can help you land prize clients. Or keep key clients longer.

Although negotiation is a natural part of human interaction, it also makes many people uncomfortable. Lots of us, for example, are conflict averse: When it comes to “fight or flight,” we’d rather fly every time. Others see negotiation as an exercise in deception and manipulation, in which we hide our true intent, try to intimidate or outwit our “opponent,” or try to “wait them out” by sitting silently as they present options.

Many books and articles on the subject present negotiation as a set of “tips and tricks” designed to make the other person squirm. Negotiation, like office politics, is an unavoidable part of business life that’s gotten a bad rap because of the way it’s practiced by some agencies and consultants.

One of the first steps in successful negotiations is assessing your client’s style or profile accurately, and responding to their negotiating style in the way best suited to them. There are four client profiles, based on how they work and respond, whether they are more task oriented or people oriented, and whether they are high or low assertive. For instance, someone considered a “Headline", high assertive and low response, is focused on “now” and “results”, and wants “options” presented so that they are in control of the decisions. Others, like “Body Copy", are more interested in “how” and “process” and respond better to fully-presented information as they check off all the pieces they want to consider. Other profiles include the "Logo" and the "Illustration"

Client relationships tend to evolve, initially being based more on learning about each other, then on tasks and getting the work done after trust has been established. However, tension from something gone wrong can swing that relationship upside down, and until the relationship is healed, work essentially needs to, or will, come to a stop.

Negotiations are not always about the money, but can include a number of other items, such as turnaround speed, payment terms, licensing agreements, or limits to the approval process.

The negotiation triangle is a balance between finding out what the client wants and make them feel heard, with knowing exactly what your agency wants, and then suggesting action in such a way the client can accept, always looking for a win/win resolution.

Common errors in negotiation include misunderstanding what the negotiations are actually concerned with (someone’s job may literally be on the line, so budget is not as key as a client feeling confident that an agency can successfully solve the client’s business challenge). Or the agency team may not have clear goals going into negotiations, or not have a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities for the negotiating team members.

There are eight phases of negotiation we teach in our High Gear program for Account Service:

1. Preparing: Collecting information about the client, their profile, background, and more.
2. Setting Objectives: Making sure all your objectives are on the agenda, how to counter other issues that might be raised.
3. Identifying Positions: Setting your “ideal”, “realistic” and “fallback” positions, or even your BATNA – “Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement.”
4. Opening: Open well away from where you want to settle, never accept an opening offer, and never negotiate with yourself, making concessions to the other party before you meet because “I know they wouldn’t accept that.”
5. Checking and Testing: Know the power of silence, and don’t accept “no” at face value, try rephrasing, look for non-verbal signs.
6. Getting Movement: “If you... then we” style of introducing some early concessions.
7. Giving Concessions: Consider when to give, how much, and what are you getting in return.
8. Finalizing and Agreeing: Recognize when you are at the agreeing stage. Look for signals such as repeated “no’s”, concessions getting smaller or resistant body language.

It’s important to remember that getting an agreement is the easy part. Keeping the agreement is often the hard part.

One key point - negotiations on client-agency relationships should be kept separate from those who will actually be working on the business, due to the potential for some bad feelings, no matter how good the intentions or how well negotiations proceed. It is critical that CEO’s in particular not lead negotiations as they are the ones who may, at some point, find it necessary to step in to resolve potential issues.

A New Business Fable

Once upon a time, there was a nice advertising agency in an important city far, far away. The agency had four key partners named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. The agency’s creative work was outstanding but the agency wasn’t growing.

It seemed when it came to new business, Everybody was sure Somebody was looking after it. Anybody could have done it easily but Nobody touched it.

Somebody got angry about the lack of new business growth because he thought Everybody was in charge of it. Everybody thought Anybody was looking after it. And Nobody did nothing.

The situation lasted for several years and the agency stopped growing. Some key people left for better opportunities at agencies that were growing rapidly. Then the agency’s best accounts left because of company buyouts and changes in client management.

The agency spiraled downward because there were no new clients to replace the ones who left. In desperation, the partners sold their firm to a large agency holding company who had to rebuild the entire operation. The partners’ buyout turned to peanuts.

To this day, Everybody blamed Somebody for the lack of new business success when Nobody did what Anybody could easily have done. And that was to fix new business forever.

I'll Win That New Business Pitch! Missing the Forest

We’ve found that most presidents of firms in the marketing communications industry don’t really understand new business. And they don’t like it. They solve this problem by spending their time working in the firm as some type of technical expert. And they delegate the new business function to others who may not understand it either.

For the most part, all marketing firms love the chase, the thrill of being in the hunt, late nights and cold pizza, and then having the opportunity to stand up in front of a prospect and deliver the winning pitch. If I had a nickel for every agency president who told me “just get me in front of em, I’ll do the rest.”

But that’s missing the forest for all the trees. The key to getting “in front of em” and winning is building a relationship with them. Long term nurturing of prospects is NOT something most agency leaders think about. As a result most agencies end up pitching to prospects that are already deep into the review, with little time to build a relationship, much less better understand all the nuances of the brand. And they are now involved in a heavily contested review where up to 20 other marketing firms are all scrambling to make the cut.

What most agency presidents fail to understand is that prospects end up holding reviews because nobody was in there early in the process showing the prospect another way. By the time the prospect is ready to buy, there is no relationship-based agency friend from which he would like to buy.

I mean lets face it; the formal review process needs to change. If more marketing firms took the lead in developing their relationship building skills we would not be subjected to the pain and suffering of giving away ideas for free. All on the whim of a prospect you may have a 1 in 20 chance of winning. In addition, formal reviews can be too expensive for clients. It takes time, management commitment, and in the US, heavy fees for search consultants.

While one of the goals of relationship building is to improve your chances of winning formal reviews, there are additional benefits to nurturing prospects you are interesting in working with. The longer you work to build a relationship, the greater chance you have of closing the business with a fast close. You just need the skills and training needed to recognize where the prospects are in the review, and an understanding of how to move quickly and aggressively to preempt the process. Use that insight you’ve gained from understanding the prospect and building the relationship over time to win quickly, saving the prospect from the long drawn out formal review process.

Agencies are full of winners. The type bred for the hunt, the closers, the hawks. But who on your staff holds the responsibility for being the relationship builder? Who has training on how to cultivate and build relationships with a large number of prospects over time? The farmer of leads? This sacred role is the secret to many new business wins over time. Some of the largest account swings in history have been the result of an agency well versed in relationship building and understanding how to close. 

Most agencies ignore prospects that are not ready to buy now. Those that don’t ignore relationship building as a critical element of new business have to attempt to swoop in and  convince the prospect on the beauty of their idea, the desire they have to work with their brand, how much they looove them! This is a losing proposition if some other agency has put the time and effort into relationship building.

A New Business Must Call: Winning The Big Pitch

Over the years we’ve worked with thousands of ad agencies, design firms, creative marketing companies of shape and sizes, and they all share one thing in common – the need to win new business in a competitive review.

Winning the big pitch is something we love. And it just so happens we’re damn good. We usually get called in when it’s what we call a defining moment – a win here will re-define who your firm is because of the type of account and its importance to your firm’s future. Some people call it the pitch you have to win. We want to help you win that pitch.

There are typically 10 ways to know when you should call for help on a pitch:

1. It’s a defining moment, a chance to redefine who the agency is by winning a piece of business. It’s an opportunity to win you can’t miss. A win will redefine you for years to come.
2. Call us when you lost the last pitch. Let’s wipe the slate clean together, get the stench of the last loss out of the agency and replace it with a new win. We can help you do that.
3. Call us when you need to get into a pitch. You’re on the outside looking in. We can often help you get into a new business presentation if you call us.
4. Call us if you are a new agency or new to the category and need help in winning a pitch in a market or category you are weak in.
5. Call us when the deck is stacked against you. You are David going up against several goliaths. Most of our wins are in this category. Davids call us and we love to help them beat the bigger foes they are going up against. We really believe that the bigger they are the harder they fall. And we like knocking the big boys down.
6. You have to win. It’s a matter of survival. That’s not a nice time to have to pitch but in today’s economy if’s often winning or closing the doors. Call us if you are here.
7. You are still using the same approaches you used last time. You sense they are outdated, old, full of Powerpoint slides that are deadly. No drama. No visual impact. Call us if this is you.
8. Competition is especially strong. You are going up against a firm that wins most of the time. Call us if you have lost to a major competitor once or twice before. We need to change things to win.
9. You know you need to do something different. You can feel it in your bones. Listen to that quiet voice and call us for new techniques, new strategies, new ways to pitch and win.
10. You need to learn how to win. You know you need to get better at pitching so pitching for new business becomes a core skill set of your firm. If you don’t have that core skill set, call us.

Here’s a quick reminder. Call us early so we can impact your RFP, or enhance your chances of winning because the prospect likes your firm better, what we call chemistry. If we come in early, helping you win gets a lot easier.

Below you'll find a couple of videos that outline our process for winning.  The presentation is divided into five chapters to make it easy.

Chapter 1: A quick review of the advantages of winning and the advantages of make a superior effort to win.

Chapter 2: 10 ways to know you might need help on winning this pitch. Tips when you should call for help - I covered some of those above.

Chapter 3: Our approach, how we help our clients win the pitch, and here you’ll see we do much more than presentation coaching or pitch training. Winning a new business pitch is much bigger than that.

Chapter 4: Our compensation model which is very reasonable and puts our skin in the game.

Chapter 5: A quick review of the risk vs. the rewards of bringing in us or someone else in to help you win.

And Part 2:

New Business: Five Warning Signs of a Nightmare Prospect

New business sometimes lands you in strange places. This has never been truer than in challenging time like these. Winning is everyone’s objective, but every agency has a nightmare client that was once a promising prospect.

Our clients often ask if there is a way to assess in advance what prospects and accounts will drain profits and drive you to madness once they become clients. SCG advocates the use of an active outreach program for screening prospects. You need a clear understanding of the prospects personality, history, objectives, budget, and expectations for all prospects in your database.

Agencies don’t take on these clients willingly. Dysfunctional, destructive or disorganized prospects slip through the cracks all the time pulling you into lose-lose relationships that drain patience, time, resources and profits. The time to confirm and clarify a prospects “nightmare potential” is during the first visit. Doing so can keep you from investing time and energy into loser accounts.

Here are the five warning signs of a nightmare prospect:

1. You are their first agency. This is a red flag. Take a pass and allow another agency the frustration of training them.
2. The prospect is not clear about what he or she wants, but somehow expects your agency to produce it without detailed input.
3. The prospect reports having had a lot of problems with their previous agencies. A pattern of “problem” agencies could be a sign of a problem client.
4. The prospect is ignorant about marketing, advertising, or the creative process and has no competent staff. This prospect often expects you to wave a magic wand, with little understanding of the complexity or expense of developing and producing effective work.
5. The prospect makes it clear that they are looking for a bargain and focuses entirely on cost.

If you have found one or more of these signs, proceed with caution, if at all.

If you decide to attempt to turn this prospect into a client, here are some steps that you can take to minimize the risk.

1. Document major concerns in writing in a conference report following the first visit. In your reports make sure to outline the framework for a successful relationship.
2. Maintain constant communication becoming their best friend and confidant.We recommend you create a binder and number every conference report, and be over organized!
3. Don’t let problems fester. They are much easier to solve when they are small problems. Keep the focus on relationships not issues.
4. Educate them. Explain the impact of their behavior on schedules, budgets and deliverables.

Search consultants and Cattle Call RFP’s have made it more difficult to identify a nightmare prospect. Many agencies see only the revenue opportunity and overlook or ignore the signs.

To keep a prospect from becoming a nightmare client, you must be extremely clear on what you need from the prospect at each step. You must communicate as often and as tactfully as possible. Communicate these success factors up front is most effective.

It’s important to have a detailed contract covering issues that might lead to problems and exactly how payment will be handled if things do not work out.

By building a graceful exit into the process, you can protect your most important client - you.

Advertising New Business: The Pitch You Have To Win!

If you’re in the agency business, you quickly learn you have to be good at presenting. If you’re going to really grow your firm, you have to be especially good at presenting to win large accounts in what we call a “formal review” or the Pitch You Have To Win.

You know the review I’m talking about. It’s where the prospect has selected a number of agencies to present for their business. It usually starts with a “cattle call” for lots of agencies. Then this mob is whittled down into the “consideration set,” requiring jumping through some additional hoops at an intermediate stage in the selection process. And finally you get to the “presentation set:” those agencies chosen to finally present for the business.

Prospects love these formal reviews because they get all this advice and creative work – most of the time for free! And a group of very smart agency people are all lined up to tell them all about their markets, their business, their competition, and offer thoughtful recommendations on what they should be doing with their business. What’s not to like?

But on the agency side? Well, it’s a different story. Long hours, lots of pressure, changes made at the last minute. Presentation books to prepare and print. Lots of tension and patience is in short supply. You have probably been there before, so you know full well what I mean.

The agencies have to spend a lot of time and money on these formal pitches, knowing there will be only one winner and nothing for the agencies that lose (except maybe, and I really mean maybe, a thank you note from the prospect). But most times agencies hear nothing back after putting in all this effort. And the message is brutal: “Sorry guys, we’re going with someone else.” And the unstated message agencies hear is: “We’re going with someone we like a lot better than you. We’re going with someone who is so much better than you.” It’s crushing on agency spirit. And if the losses mount up, it kills an agency’s self image, an agency’s confidence.

Make your presentations pay off by winning more formal reviews. I mean win three, four or five presentations in a row. And many of our agency-clients win at this success rate. Then the effort you put into formal presentations isn’t a lost expense but an investment because your firm is winning more than its fair share.

Here’s how the process starts. First you need to get what we call a “Defining Moment.” That’s a big opportunity that will basically redefine who your firm is if you win the account. The win will reshape who your firm is because of the account’s size, its budget, the type of business it is, their reputation, their category, and their impact in the market place. All these can redefine an agency if they win such an account.

Getting a chunk of the Apple business is a defining moment for many national agencies. A nice bank can define a local agency. Winning a consumer product can reshape a B2B agency. Winning a nice technology account can redefine a retail agency. And moving into consumer advertising can redefine an internet agency. I think you know what I mean.

You want to look for a “Defining Moment” to win: a presentation that will have a big impact on your agency. You might have one right now on your hands. If you do, then this information will really help you.

Understand that any pitch you make will be made up of four elements – Style, Format, Content, and Chemistry. And most agencies mishandle these four elements completely by putting all their time and energy into Content, the least important part of the four. They practically ignore the power and account-winning pull of getting Style and Format right. And they spend NO time on thinking about how to win with Chemistry.

Prospects Have a Different View of Your Presentation Than You Do

Style

Style is how you present. How you own the room. What techniques you use to present. Are you locked into PowerPoint, which puts most prospects to sleep? Do you have walk-in music? Do you put out agendas? Do you bring in coffee and refreshments? Do you have a welcome video? Has your CEO learned to charm a room with a simple story from his childhood that he tells to set the stage? Are you using California Boards that make an impact in a room? Do you use reveals? Do you tantalize? In other words are you set to Make Your Presentation a Show?

Remember this is a fun school trip for prospects, and they want to be entertained. They want to fall in love with an agency. They want to be dazzled. They want to laugh and to enjoy the process. They don’t want to be bored. And they don’t want to be talked down to – talking down to a client means you know their business more than they do. That’s insulting. The agency’s role at this stage should be to offer the prospect something they want and need. So you have to get Style right and make a show by the smoothness of your presentation, your professional look, and the impact you create.

Format

The second element is Format. And that’s the structure and organization of your pitch and how you organize things. Basically, what format do you follow? For example, do you lead with a creative to grab their attention? Do you change the brief in some dramatic way? How do you structure what you present? Do you let one person dominate your presentation (which rarely works)? What’s your casting and do your people show well? How are they dressed? Do they look like dress casual gone wild?

Is your presentation logical? Have you dumbed it down so everyone can easily understand what you are saying? Do you make sense? Do you build from one key point to another? Does your presentation lead somewhere? This is all Format and you need to get it right.

Frankly, from what I’ve seen, and I see lots of agency presentations, most agencies seriously fall down in the Format stage. In fact, most agencies, and this is coming from the search consultants who sit in on agency pitches all the time, say prospects are most often seriously disappointed at the quality of the presentations they see. There is no Style. Format is weak. And Content, the third element of pitch, all looks and sounds the same from agency to agency.

Content

The third element is content. I've sat in day-long sessions where each word in a presentation is agonized over, discussed, argued and beat to a pulp. Hours wasted on reviewing the 120 slide pitch deck. Each slide is analyzed in isolation to the big picture. And while each slide is finally perfect, clear and perhaps even makes a great point, the overall message is lost in the clutter. A few key points when thinking about content:

• Brand your message
• Presentation built on one central theme
• Check, check, double check for mistakes/typos
• Avoid hyperbole
• Clearly demonstrate a clear path to success/results
• Less is more – remove all excess and put in the leave behind

Chemistry

The fourth and most important element of presentations is Chemistry. New business wins swing most often on which firm the prospect likes best. Every search consultant will tell you the work, strategy, and presentation are all important – but the number one reason a firm is hired is the client felt a connection with them. They liked them the most – not which firm does the best work. Once you understand this, you can see why new business is mainly about people and your firm’s likeability. Learn how to best match your people with prospects, so they like you better. Learn how to profile prospects before you even meet them.  

If you have a Defining Moment, call us. We have an excellent track record of helping agencies win pitches of all shapes and sizes. We can help, from large multinational wins to small local business wins. Whatever is a Defining Moment for your agency is a defining moment for Sanders Consulting Group to help you win and help you redefine who you are and what you stand for.

You’ll get the training and learn the processes that can keep you winning. I’ve seen defining moments change the direction of an agency for years to come just by winning one account. If you’re there, then call us.  

Top 10 Mistakes That KILL New Business Presentations

What are the main reasons people fail in New Business presentations? It’s because they make the same common mistakes over and over. In order for you to avoid completely flailing around in New Business and achieve success, it’s important for you to understand the most common presentation mistakes. And avoid them.

Here are the top 10 new business presentation mistakes:

1. Not Knowing the Difference between Advertising and New Business: The number one reason for presentation loss by most agencies is treating prospects like clients. They try to solve the client problem, or be too safe, or win with just creative. In any given presentation one of these can work, but over time you’ll lose more then you win. You have to treat prospects the opposite of clients and understand why if you’re going to win.
2. Waiting till the Last Minute: Many agencies get invited into a pitch, and due to workload or time or just through procrastination they don’t start thinking about the pitch until the last minute. If you are truly interested in winning start demonstrating this early in the process. Even before the prospect invites you in, until after the presentation, you have to be the most interested, excited, driven and informed agency in the pitch.  
3. Forgetting the Chemistry Rules: The most important part of new business is chemistry. All the agency search consultants agree. In the end, it’s not the creative or the smart planning or the cool interactive tactics that wins. It’s chemistry that wins in the end. That’s why it’s so important for your agency to learn how to use chemistry to win.
4. No Idea on How the Selection Will Be Made: If you’re not sure how the final selection will be made, do some research. Will it be a strong leader making the final selection, or a marketing board? Will some other group have a say? Many prospects use score cards: they’re simple, easy to create, and create an atmosphere of fairness. However, the second best agency often wins on points. Understand why and use this to your advantage.
5. Focus Too Much on Content: Agencies almost always focus exclusively on the content of their presentation – not thinking about the “how” and “who.” But prospects will remember long after the presentation how you looked, what you wore, how charming your presenters were with one another, how well prepared the entire show was, and whether or not you entertained them. Your perfect line, your break-through strategy recommendation, or the neat way you executed an interactive plan is usually forgotten within an hour. Never forget that the show (format and style) is just as important as content.
6. No Hero: In understanding new business presentations, most agencies forget that the work is only there to showcase the people. In other words, who among your staff is going to be the Hero? Sadly, many agency presidents view themselves as the hero. It’s difficult for an agency president to be the Hero when there is an agency to run. And the agency president may not be the best presenter. A Hero is believable, has the right chemistry, the right title, and the right look. Most importantly, the Hero has to have the agency’s respect (perceived) and lots of enthusiasm for the prospect. This can cover almost any weakness.
7. Not Investing Enough Time to Win: How many times have we seen an agency go into a presentation half-hearted? Too many other distractions get in the way and reflect in the presentation. Ask yourself: do you really want the account? Do you have the time to go after it? The desire and energy to overcome the obstacles? Most importantly do you have the discipline and staff to do it right?
8. No Outline or Presentation Flow: Most agencies start out by doing research and spending time on attempting to solve the problem. While this is important, it’s missing the bigger picture – winning the account. Overall time limit is set by prospect – you must treat the entire presentation as a series of acts in one play that fits within the established timing. Introduce each act with interest. Build to key points. And end each act strongly. Eliminate dull sections and put the information in the leave behind. This makes the leave behind more important, which is helpful.
9. Bad Presentation Skills: Watching an agency presentation is often like watching the Keystone Cops with people running around, props being misplaced, talking over one another, etc. It’s vital you understand the perception you are trying to create – quiet confidence, strength, and leadership. Someone the prospect can trust. Understand the rules and guidelines for great presentations and follow them.
10. Not Rehearsing Enough: A major presentation is worth 8 hours of rehearsal. If you don’t have time to do rehearsals, then don’t do the presentation. Go to the presentation city a day ahead to rehearse. Lay out a meeting room at a hotel in the shape of the presentation room with masking tape and go at it. You’ll be glad you made the effort. Rehearsing pays big dividends in winning presentations.

A winning agency understands these mistakes and works hard to avoid them. A small group of people, with practice, can become outstanding presenters. It’s a smart agency who uses the same people time and again to win key pieces of business. The teamwork shows through and this means a lot to prospects.

Make sure you avoid these common mistakes and understand the rules of giving outstanding presentations. Don’t give a prospect any reason to not award you the account.

When faced with a key presentation, or a Defining Moment, or if you want to learn more details on some of these techniques discussed here, call Sanders Consulting Group (800/899-1538) for a free, no-obligation conversation.