New Business Hawk

Top 10 New Business Challenges

1. Challenge: You're the Best Kept Secret. No one knows you're around. You can do the work but you rarely get a chance to prove it. You answer the RFPs but nothing happens. You have revamped the agency and improved the talent, but no one calls. You worry your agency has a brand problem.

2. Challenge: Too Many Farmers. Not Enough Hunters. You're great at keeping accounts (farming) but you don't win any new business (hunting). Your agency senior staff won't make any new business calls. No one takes responsibility for new business. Little or no agency outreach is going on. You're surrounded by prospects, but how do you turn them into new business leads?

3. Challenge: Can't Get Invited to the Dance. There's a big review going on that would be perfect for you, but you're not invited in. A search consultant is running the review and you don't know how to get in. Can you really crash a review and still win? Are leads you see in the press really worth chasing?

4. Challenge: You Get the Cold Shoulder. There's an account you want, but they ignore you. How to make the first contact on a good prospect? How to build awareness that you're interested in their account? How to make cold calling pay off. How to start building relationships with great prospects.

5. Challenge: How to learn from Top New Business Pros. How do other agency leaders go after new business? What are your top competitors are doing that's different How do other firms build awareness and create relationships. What do the best search consultants say is the best way to reach out.

6. Challenge: It's Howdy Doody Time on First Visits. You make lots of calls (Howdy, I'm here) but you don't know Doody about how to close them. You never get any call backs after a good first visit. Prospects say they like your capabilities, but then they go quiet. What question should you always ask a good prospect? How to stop your good prospects from drifting into a formal review or hiring someone else?

7. Challenge: Always a Bridesmaid. Never a Bride in Pitching. Your agency is always presenting but never winning. You come in second on your pitches. The prospect always thanks you for the effort, but someone wins. Making presentations tears the agency apart. Isn't there a better way? How do you win major pitches? What's the secret?

8. Challenge: Dealing with Purchasing. What to do when Purchasing runs the review? What to change now that you have to go through Purchasing on all your work. Purchasing wants to bid everything out. Purchasing passes all your great suggestions out for everyone else to bid on. Your key contact is under pressure to use Purchasing. What do you say?

9. Challenge: Dead Man Walking. You're the Incumbent. You're the incumbent and now your client has initiated an agency review. You're invited to pitch to retain the business, do you? How want to keep the account but the formal review is starting because "it's company policy." You're doing great work for a client and now a new marketing director has been hired. Your client tells you the agency review is nothing to worry about but you do. Should you be?

10. Challenge: Understand The Art of Negotiating. What should be in every client contract? How to set yourself up to get more compensation for your firm. How to get paid for getting up to speed on a new account. What to do when a prospect won't sign a contract. What legal rights should you never give away.