Retention: How to Prioritize Clients

October 2, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

The temptation is to treat all clients casually, with no planned approach.

Running a marketing firm of any size is a juggling act. Not only are you working on several different client/agency initiatives at any given time, but you’ve got projects from several different clients as well.

Often competing client conflicts will drive staff and leadership crazy. Starting a new project vs. finishing another, what comes first? The clients all the while breathing down your neck claiming “I need it yesterday!” All this and more adds to the already chaotic work environment and makes organizational planning a difficult task.

Prioritizing your clients may help you and your team to keep focused on the most important work at hand; keeping the clients you truly need happy and growing the ones that you can.

Suns

Definition: Sun clients are essential to the agency. Without these clients, the agency might cease to exist. Sun clients provide warmth, nourishment and energy to the agency. Sun clients allow the agency to do good work and take chances. Organic growth oportunities exist, staff relationships are good, and projects more often end up on time and on budget. Sun clients are to be retained and protected.

Planets

Definition: Planet clients should be very profitable to the agency. These clients should operate with very little support from agency senior management and should sustain life pretty much on their own. Planet clients should be protected but may not be essential to the agency’s existence. Planets by definition have little opportunity for real growth and cannot ever be Suns in the opinion of agency management. Planet clients should be worked with minimal agency investment in resources and must have limited impact on senior management time.

Black Holes

Definition: Black Hole clients suck up a lot of agency energy and give little in return. These types of clients often overuse creative services and account management time without fair compensation. Management often thinks they help cover operational cost, keeping the lights on so to speak. They miss the impact on staff morale. Black Hole clients should be dropped by the agency at the first opportunity. Black Hole clients often represent lost causes. Their impact on the agency should be minimized.

Shooting Stars

Definition: Shooting Stars are unknowns to the agency. Their path is not clear. Shooting Star clients could be Suns, Planets or Black Holes. It is the responsibility of the agency to ensure a Shooting Star client is transformed into either a Planet or a Sun. If this client cannot be transformed into a Sun or Planet, then that client is a Black Hole the agency should plan to eventually drop. Shooting Stars are most often new clients moving through the agency. Their long-term trajectory has not been established. Shooting Stars need more management time and require more agency resources if they are going to become Suns and Planets. Shooting Stars take up a lot of agency effort and must be watched closely.

Prioritizing Leads To Organic Growth

What clients want from agencies are ideas to make their businesses grow. What agencies want from clients are opportunities to do great work and be fairly paid for their contribution to clients’ businesses.

It is impossible for either of these to happen without “chemistry” among both parties. In order to obtain chemistry, an environment must be created that will breed success. It is the responsibility of agencies to create this environment.

Great chemistry helps make things happen and will create a more positive reaction to your ideas. A well trained account service person should always be prepared with relevant topics, points of view and issues that flatter the client and demonstrate interest and imagination. In advance prepare some BBIs, VABs, or VASs. Get ready to introduce these to stimulate the conversation. Organic growth works best when relevant to their consumers, their industry or their operations, not just selling in more of your services.

The purpose of our High Gear Training is to help agencies create this environment to keep clients and do great work.

Filed Under: Client Retention Tagged With: Account Executive Training, Account Management Training, Account Manager, Client Bonding, client retention, Client Retention Strategy, Client Retention Tips, Client Service Training, How To Keep Clients, Improve Client Service, Keep Clients, Keep Clients Forever, Negotiation, operations

Winning: Client Presentation Check List

September 25, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

More often than not, great communication concepts get rejected by clients, not because the idea or execution was wrong, but because the work wasn’t properly presented.

In this business, it’s difficult to represent the same idea a second time using better presentation techniques. It’s usually one strike and you’re out. Firms have to get it right the first time. If marketing communication companies put more care into presenting their recommendations, more work would probably be approved by clients. Clients expect agencies to be masters at presenting work. Poor presentations skills bring into doubt the firm’s overall competency.

A. Before Presenting

Understand what you are presenting. Really know what you are taking in. Consider making a logic trail of how your team arrived at the recommended suggestion.
Get help before you go. Discuss with a planner or an expert the target audience you are going after. Look for supporting facts and market truths that will help your presentation.
Assemble your team. Consider holding a stake-holder meeting with everyone involved with the recommendation before you go. Seek suggestions and recommendations on ways to help the client better understand the recommendation.
Go in a great recommendation. Make sure you and everyone else on your team believes you are moving forward with a great idea or strong recommendation to the client.
Pre-sell the client. Use a phone call or e-mail to create enthusiasm for what you are bring over. Tantalize in advance without giving too much away. Use members of your team to call and add their support.
Plan the presentation. Know who says what and when. Go in with a presentation plan and then stick to the plan.

B. During the Presentation

Bring the recommendation to life. Use a story or paint a picture of your recommended course of action to help sell in the client. Words have power. Picture words have more power.
Use a should board. List out what the recommendation should accomplish. And then show how your plan hits the “shoulds” dead on.
Show it, don’t tell it. When possible make your recommendation real by showing it in a newspaper, magazine or on the TV. People buy with their eyes. And then their heart. Use that to your advantage.
Read the room. If the idea wouldn’t fly, take it back and start over. Avoid committee solutions and Frankenads. Be prepared to take the loss and win another day.

C. After the Presentation

Help the client sell the idea up the organization. Work with the client to get the idea sold in and offer to help.
Thank the client. Win or lose. You asked your client to be open to new ideas and hear you out. If that’s what happened, then show how.
Do a post-mortem. Review the check list and be sure you followed the rules. Great teams get better by reviewing game film and correcting their mistakes.

D. Before the Next Presentation

Start winning the next presentation now. Get the client involved in looking at the creative landscape or reviewing the market place on a regular basis. Show the good, the bad and the ugly from what’s happening in the client’s space on a regular basis. That’ll probably make it easier to sell in your next suggestion.
Share great work. Even from competition. You can’t hide what the competition is doing and its better your client hears it from you than someone else. So talk about the business and what’s working and what’s not. You are a business partner with your clients and partners act like partners.
Build relationships. Everyone on the team should know and have a good relationship with your client. It’s more fun when more of your team members are personally involved with the client. And it helps during the tough times to have reinforcements who are up to speed on the client and on the market place.

Key Reminder:

Use Personality Profiling as a way to help you select your best presentation strategy. Strategy is the key to making a good presentation to a client. It’s all about the timing and what makes a client most comfortable. You are not presenting to a corporation; you are presenting to a person who has likes and dislikes on how he or she prefers to receive information and make decisions.

Agencies are never fired by the companies we serve. Agencies are fired by people at those companies who believe we don’t like them, can’t work with them the right way, and aren’t meeting their expectations in some way. We are fired by people with whom we don’t have good chemistry.

Photo Credit: Vicente Hraste

Filed Under: Client Retention Tagged With: Account Executive Training, Account Management Training, Account Manager, Client Bonding, Client Presentations, client retention, Client Retention Strategy, Client Retention Tips, Client Service Training, How To Keep Clients, Keep Clients Forever, operations, Presentation check list, Winning Presentations

Client Service: Tips for Unleashing Ideas

April 3, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

Clients place a premium on the creative work and strategic ideas coming from their agencies. A recent study found the No. 1 thing clients want from their marketing partners is effective campaigns, followed by outstanding ideas and implementation and strategic counsel and insights.

Clients have demonstrated that they are willing and even anxious to pay for smart people who are able to deliver a strategic impact on their business. More and more it’s about strategy. Brand strategy. Marketing strategy. Business strategy. Not award winning creative. Or better PR. Or great direct mail. It’s all that, and more. Firms that learn how to deliver a steady stream of Business Building Ideas will win. Win more new business, more organic growth, more client loyalty. We call these BBIs (Business Building Ideas).

How best to keep a steady stream of BBIs flowing at your firm?

You have to unplug ideas, let them roam free, and then put in the hours to bring them to life.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Create a Culture of Invention.

Business Building Ideas are not created in a confrontational environment.
The agency needs a culture that supports innovative thinking.

Speed Up.

Most processes and procedures are too slow for clients who demand great work fast.
Agencies need to restructure the way ideas are handled from top to bottom.

Think Strategic. Act Tactical.

Too many agencies think tactical and act tactical.
Think strategically and act tactically: Maintain focus on client objectives while continuously searching for alternative BBIs.

Push Back More.

Too many firms forget that their agency’s value to clients increases when agencies show proper discipline.
This means agencies need to know when to push back with a client and how to push back. Saying “no” can clear a lot of air.

Shift to “Creative” Thinking.

Be the outsider: Always creatively think about the client’s business.
Stop talking about ads, PR, direct, etc,
Focus on strategies that drive client business forward.
Transform the agency from a marketing communication vendor to a trusted advisor.

We recommend you maintain a steady stream of ideas to your clients; that means one good idea per month. Remember, it’s not important if the client buys into all the ideas. It’s that you are thinking about their business. All the time. Strategically.

Shift Into High Gear

Agency management needs its account teams to operate more efficiently in order to protect agency profitability. But most account teams are already struggling with the current account load, so the idea of working harder isn’t a realistic answer.

The solution for agencies is to train their account teams in new skills, showing them how to work smarter, not harder. And High Gear, a high-impact, one-day on-site learning experience for account management, is the best way to do that.

High Gear shows account management professionals how to manage the client relationship better using personality profiling. Once the client’s personality and personal working style are identified, High Gear can show your team how to plan better, present better and negotiate better. This approach makes the client/agency relationship stronger and more profitable for your agency.

Also included in the program is an important skill-building session on how to manage the financial end of the relationship. Another component of High Gear is a special session on the importance of developing long-running programs as a way to improve both client retention and operating efficiency.

High Gear concludes by sharing skills that top-tier strategy consulting firms teach their new MBAs: the social Do’s and Don’ts of dealing with clients away from the office.

For more information on how High Gear can help your agency work smarter, not harder, contact Sanders Consulting Group.

Photo by *lieveheersbeestje

Filed Under: Client Retention Tagged With: Account Executive Training, Account Management Training, Account Manager, Client Bonding, Client Operations, client retention, Client Retention Strategy, Client Retention Tips, Client Service Training, How To Keep Clients, Improve Client Service, Keep Clients, Keep Clients Forever, Negotiation, operations

Account Service: Road Kill in a Fee-based, Project-based Economy

October 4, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

More and more agencies are finding that account management is misunderstood, under appreciated and maybe misbranded.

What is needed now is a sweeping transformation in account management... before it's too late!

Agencies have had to find new ways to cope with the demands of a new breed of clients who are younger, smarter, more aggressive, and more anxious than ever for results. These clients aren’t tied to the traditions of the past and your account management team will be judged to be either in step with them or out. What’s more these clients don’t want what they consider to be high-paid account management teams managing projects. They quickly see the inefficiency of this and resent paying higher fees for low-propriety work. This issue is has contributed to the erosion of confidence in many agency-client relationships.

At the other end of the spectrum, clients have demonstrated that they are willing and even anxious to pay for smart people who are able to deliver a strategic impact on their business. Age and seniority are no longer considered a requirement.

More and more it’s about strategy. Brand strategy. Marketing strategy. Business strategy. Online Strategy.

And while this is going on, many agencies are still in the past when talk about strategy only meant advertising strategy, which means getting the ad right. Ad strategy is of less interest to many new clients who are interested in new ways of looking at their problems.

As you consider where your current account management organization ranks in the eyes of your clients, we have prepared the following 10 points outlining how agencies can rethink account management and retool it for the future:

1 – Stop Treating Clients Like Clients

Put the emphasis on the people side of the business right in the beginning. Learn how to get in step with your clients by first identifying and then matching their expectations. The matching of expectations results in a much stronger working relationship with better long-term retention. Most client defections are caused, not by poor service, nor poor work practices, nor bad creative but by bad chemistry.

2 – Take Account Management off Life Support

Replace the account management function with project managers and account strategists, not planners. This new role of account strategist puts emphasis on moving the client’s business forward, not just getting the ads right, where most planners focus.The results of this dramatic shift can be quite positive including happier clients, more clearly defined roles, and a smoother-operating agency.

3 – Create a Culture of Invention

Business Building Ideas are not easily created in a confrontational environment. Account management teams often find themselves in the difficult role of both client and agency advocate. Account teams work best when their function is defined properly, the team is trained right and the culture supports an inventive work place where innovative thinking is fostered.

4 – Increase Your Service Level. Get out the SWAT Team.

Most agency processes and procedures are too slow for clients who demand great work fast. Agencies need to restructure the way clients are handled from top to bottom. A SWAT team concept that pulls the best and brightest for a given project has been proven to speed up the agency, make clients happier and help staff gain insight into solving the account management dilemma.

5 – Think Strategic. Act Tactical.

Too many account people think tactical and act tactical. By doing this they do their agency and their clients a disservice. Thinking strategically and acting tactically is accomplished by maintaining focus on client objectives while continuously searching for alternative ideas without overlooking the need for incremental delivery. Many professionals have interest and skill in one or the other, but few successfully balance the two for the betterment of the agency and client. Develop and train your staff in the art of strategic thinking.

6 – Let the Consultants Do the Heavy Lifting

Agencies serve the clients better by focusing on what they do best. Don’t get the account management staff and creative talent involved in big strategy decisions. More often than not, the project is questionably specified, unsolicited and, when delivered, is undervalued by the client. Progressive agencies are starting consulting firms/divisions to focus on the heavy lifting while your agency speeds up the execution. This way client gets the best of worlds including both solid strategic assistance and solid marketing communications.

7 – Money and Contracts. Contracts and Money

The two most important tools your agency can provide its account staff is a proper contract and instruction on how to set the budget for projects and jobs the agency is charged with completing. Don’t be caught committing to inaccurate budget estimates and engaging clients with a fuzzy contract that doesn’t protect the agency.

8 – Lead Clients Better By Pushing Back More

Too many account management teams forget that their agency’s value to clients increases when agencies help their clients show proper discipline. This means agencies need to know when to push back with a client and how to push back. Learning how to say “no” can clear a lot of air.

9 – Shift from Agency Centric to Client Centric

Move from the client conference room to the client boardroom by shifting the way your team thinks. Essentially this means that you stop worrying about ads to worrying about the client’s business. Stop talking about advertising and focus on talking about strategies that drive client business forward and increase clients’ long-term equity valuations. This shift transforms the agency from marketing communication vendor to trusted advisor with an honored place in the boardroom.

10 – Uh-Oh. The Problem Might Not Be Account Management.

Many agencies find themselves locked into providing poor service to clients, not because of a lack of effort, but because of the agency’s structure. Structure can be the enemy of good service. If you believe your agency can’t work any harder and service still suffers, you might have a structure problem that needs fixing first. Department silos, agencies within agencies and commanded teams all can cause serious problems in agency efficiency, productivity and level of service. Review your processes, proceedures, and structure in light of the sweeping changes in our industry.

These 10 points provide cursory insight into some best practices employed by leading agencies.

Sanders Consulting Group would welcome the opportunity to personally discuss your agency’s plans for the future and how they might relate to what we do. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Photo by Martin Gommel

Filed Under: Operations Tagged With: Account Executive Training, Account Management Training, Account Manager, account service, change management, changing roles, Client Bonding, Client Operations, client retention, Client Retention Strategy, Client Retention Tips, Client Service, Client Service Training, How To Keep Clients, Improve Client Service, Keep Clients, Keep Clients Forever, Negotiation, operations

Organic Growth: Create a Culture to Grow Clients

September 13, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

Organic Growth is the most misunderstood aspect of new business.

Organic Growth: Your Most Profitable Source of New Business.

Few agency leaders have had any training on the best way to grow existing business but it’s an important source of new revenue. Here are some rules to help you find more ways to grow your agency:

Organic growth is a game of singles and doubles. It’s small day-to-day wins and quick suggestions to changes in the market place that build the foundation for both retention and new organic growth.
Too many firms keep waiting for a big idea or homerun idea. They miss the point that singles and doubles are the foundation for home runs. Singles and doubles get the client in a receptive mood and help the client change perspectives about your value.
Singles and doubles provide important discipline. Organic growth requires a new discipline for the constant generating of suggestions for clients. And organic growth requires a discipline of flawless execution of the suggestions to clients.
Clients don’t measure how many suggestions they adopt. So don’t get caught up in worrying about whether or not your suggestions are being adopted. The client isn’t counting. They just want the suggestions to keep on coming.
Organic growth is everyone’s business. Just as it’s important for all hands to be involved in cost reduction, all hands should be charged with the responsibility of generating new growth ideas for existing clients.
Institutionalize organic growth. Build a measure into your evaluations on the number of organic growth ideas offered by each employee. And add in some bonus money for suggestions that were adopted and that added to the firm’s revenue. That will help make organic growth part of your DNA and that’s important.

Organic growth deserves a planned, organized approach at your firm. It really helps retention.

You must understanding how and when to use Value Added Services (VAS) to sell in other agency resources (too many agencies try too often). You know the deal… ”you like our PR you’ll love our direct!” This is both demeaning and irritating to good clients. We want you to discover the power of Value-Based Initiatives (VBIs) and how to find them, present them, and price them. See why clients want a continuing stream of Business Building Ideas (BBIs) coming their way and how only a few agencies understand this strong client desire. All the secrets of organic growth are covered in our HighGear session on taking your account service to the next level.

For more infomration please contact us!

Ad Agency Growth: Training vs. Consulting

June 27, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

Your best assets walk out of the door each evening. Make sure they come back the next morning!

Our most valuable assets walk out the door at five o’clock. Or so say’s the old adage. But why don’t agencies treat their employees as something of value? To be developed and encouraged to grow?

Ad agency clients 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 agency 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 and client retention 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 – something that will stick with your firm for years and become a handy reference for all employees. Many times we’ve walked into a firm only to discover a dog-eared manual of ours from 5, 10, 15 years ago. Still being used by that agency staff today!

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.

Sanders Consulting Group works with marketing firms of varying sizes in one-day training sessions, weekly assessments and monitoring, and long term on-site implementation programs. We have worked with over 2,500 advertising agencies, public relations firms, and sales promotion companies in over a dozen countries in over 25 years. Why not give us a call and we can help you develop a training program for your marketing firm.

Photo By woodleywonderworks

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: Ad Agency, Advertising, How To Keep Clients, How To Win Clients, Improve, leadership, New Business, Winning

The temptation is to treat all clients casually, with no planned approach. Running a marketing firm of any size is a juggling act. Not only are you working on several different client/agency initiatives at any given time, but you’ve got projects from several different clients as well.