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Why Prospects Don’t Tell You the Truth

August 9, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

A short time ago, I was training an agency on Spark (how to generate more leads and win more new business), and we were discussing the importance of asking good questions. The agency owner stated, “What difference does it make what questions we ask? The prospect isn’t going to tell us the truth anyway.”

Ask the right question

There is an art to asking questions, and learning this critical skill is the key to unlocking many prospects.

Great point. Too bad so many marketing firms seem to agree! Asking poor questions (or no questions at all) just keeps perpetuating the perception that marketing firms are idiots! So many ad agencies, design firms, PR firms, etc. have given up on learning how to ask great questions.

Undoubtedly, some prospects will not tell you the truth during a discovery conversation. However, I strongly believe that this is caused by an untrained agency person’s actions or behavior.

Here’s why…

Prospects are inundated by marketing firms trying to win their business. Marketing firms of all types, from brand consultancies to print shops to “two guys and a Mac” are all vying for their limited marketing budget. And most are saying the same damn thing, “Hire us! We’re creative, smart, and give great service!” Ugh. Then, perhaps in a moment of weakness the poor prospect gives an agency a chance, “Go ahead, I’ll let you come in for a visit!”

With this golden opportunity most marketing firms then go on to ask questions that either could have been answered by a quick visit to the prospect’s website or by doing a few minutes of research. Or, they ask self-serving and useless questions such as:

  • “What do you know about our company?”
  • “Can I tell you about…?”
  • “If I could show you how you will (save money, increase sales, etc.) would you be interested?”
  • “What will it take to earn your business?”

In today’s business climate, the people you’re trying to sell are incredibly busy.

They don’t have time to waste on frivolous conversations. They expect you to do some research BEFORE you contact them so that you can get to the point and offer something that will help them improve their overall business results.

Too many marketing firms still follow the French Poodle approach to new business: they believe that telling is selling. If they actually ask questions, they either ask the wrong questions or they ask them at the wrong time. Or, they ask questions that are designed to get a buying commitment from the prospect.

Here’s the simple truth…

  • The main reason prospects don’t tell you the truth is because they don’t trust you.
  • If you want prospects to open up and tell you the truth, you need to create an environment of trust.
  • This means using the right tone and manner during your conversation– whether it’s on the telephone or during a face-to-face meeting.
  • It means asking tough, penetrating questions that cause your prospect to sit and up and think.
  • It means resisting the temptation to pitch your agency until you have an accurate understanding of how you will actually help the prospect you’re talking to.
  • It means putting your agenda on the side-burner and focusing 100 percent of your attention on your prospect’s problem, concern or situation instead of thinking of how you will try to close the business.
  • It means learning how to conduct a powerful First Visit!

If you can achieve this then it is more likely your prospect will be straight-forward with you, and you will no longer have to worry about them skirting the truth with you.

This is what being a great Spark is all about.

The Spark program is a distinctive European way of doing new business. Agencies overseas typically put more effort into building relationships as a proper way into the account, rather than ambulance-chasing that typifies much American new business activities.

Photo by Eibo-Jeddah

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Using Good-To-Great to Brand Your Agency

May 1, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

“We’re a locally-owned, full-service, fully-integrated, media-neutral, discipline -agnostic advertising agency, and our creative is world-class.”

For those of you who have worked with us in the past you know we like to hammer the idea that you need a strong agency brand to compete in today’s market.

A Clear Agency Brand Provides Focus for New Business

It answers how to describe your firm and tells you what services to offer. If you know what you stand for you can match up your prospects and target them. Perhaps more importantly a strong brand can help answer which prospects to pass on.
Many marketing firms are afraid to stand for anything. Mostly out of fear of losing a potential prospect. However if you are clear in what you stand for it shows your view of what’s important. This lets a prospect know quickly whether or not you are in step with their view of the way things work – you stand out to THAT prospect. The one you are really looking for. Other agencies, who try to stand for anything and everything, really project “gray” don’t match up well with a firm clearly branded.
The runaway bestseller Good To Great/Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t provides insight into how to brand your firm.

The Characteristics That Cause the Jump From Good to Great

1. Level 5 Leadership

  • Think Lincoln, not Patton
  • Quiet, reflective, curious, compassionate, tough management style (Headline Logo)

2. Right People on the Bus

  • People are not your agency’s most important asset. The right people are the most important asset in the agency
  • Job #1: get the right people

3. Confront the Brutal Facts About Your Business/Industry

  • Advertising is now viewed as a commodity
  • Too many agencies still around, even after the biggest shakeout in history
  • Most agencies now treated as vendors
  • Clients see few differences in agencies
  • Client confidence in advertising is declining
  • Clients view marketing as tactical and that means advertising is viewed as very tactical
  • Marketing communications often delegated down to lower-level staffers
  • Strategic high ground is now owned by consultants who have the ear of the corporate CEO
  • Consulting is a bigger business than all marketing communications
  • Consulting is growing much faster than marketing communications
  • These trends wouldn’t change or improve for our industry in foreseeable future

4. Adopt a Culture of Discipline

  • Manage to standards
  • Drive out complexity with better management
  • Understand that discipline brings efficiency
  • Know that agency structure has biggest impact on agency efficiency
  • Focus on productivity and seek a 25% improvement in productivity which doubles margins

5. Use Carefully Selected Technology to Accelerate Performance

6. Adopt the Fly Wheel as Your Model for Growth

  • Series of small steps gets the fly wheel turning
  • Use each win to increase performance
  • Increased performance speeds up wins

Stand Out!

A strong brand stands out, and in this complex hypermarket we operate in that’s vital for survival.

Using Good To Great to Brand Your Marketing Firm

  • Determine what are your Good To Great circles
  • Find your Sweet Spot.
  • Shape that into a Hedgehog Concept that’ll work in your market
  • Dream big and express your Hedgehog Concept in a BHAG
  • Find your best growth opportunities and stick to those only
  • Build your brand so you maximize those opportunities
  • Set up your new business program to support the brand
  • Integrate your brand into everything you do and live the brand
  • Get set to move from good to great
  • Take the credit. You did it.
We’ve helped many marketing firms with their brand by understanding our industry, the market, and having experience with thousands of similar firms. Mostly we know what works, and what doesn’t. Often times a one-day session with us provides you with the creative fodder to remove any logjams in deciding which way to go. Free of the “unknown” most marketing firms are then successful in launching a new brand.
If you are thinking about your agency brand, give us a call – it could save you from making a costly mistake.
Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

New Business in Tough Times: 5 Ideas for Growth

July 13, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

A recent B-to-B Magazine headline shouted, “Desperate ad agencies scramble for business.” There is no disputing that the current climate is the most challenging our industry has experienced in memory.

Fishing in Troubled Waters

Doing new business now is like fishing in troubled water. Only the professionals head out.

The traditional advertising agency model is under attack from all sides. From the strategic side agencies are being pushed out with the increasing impact of consultants; search, procurement, brand, marketing, and of course, the big fish, management consultants. On the tactical side agencies have to compete with all types; design, internet, database management, media buying, promotion, direct, special events, sports marketing firms, corporate identity houses, two guys and a Mac, and more. This is troubled water.

A recent poll among advertisers indicates the current tenure for a marketing manager is only 18 months. These new Marcom Managers are younger, have less experience in advertising, are more focused on tactical issues, and recognize that they are only there for the short term. At the same time they have a wider span of control over marketing and budgets, and they want their own suppliers – people who think and look like them. Not surprisingly they don’t take advice very well from traditional agency staff that often comes across as patronizing. More troubled water.

Client turnover is among the more serious challenges within our industry. Some recent studies show that for smaller accounts the churn, or client turnover, can be as fast as every two years, while larger accounts have gone from seven years to three. Clients, these new Marcom Managers, are growing more and more impatient and are quick to question the effectiveness of their current agency. The growing percentage of project-based work has made it easier to change – click to what’s next. Yet more troubled water.

Design studios and other low-cost providers have seen revenues increase as their agency brethren have suffered. These creative firms are organized and operate tactically. They are taking business away from traditional agencies on account of price, speed and timely delivery. Many other specialty shops who often work faster, are more focused on results, and offer tangible benefits to clients are also seeing an upswing in new business. Clients are questioning the value of all the layers at the agency; account service, traffic, and all the administration. Further troubled water.

The Changing New Business Landscape

There is a renewed focus on new business, but most agencies have no system for sustained business development and few staff skilled in new business. What was done 3 years ago no longer works. The troubled water is changing everything. You have probably been frustrated by first-hand experience with all of these changes; but opportunities for new business are abundant for advertising agencies that are prepared.

We believe there is no better time to do new business than times like these; when clients are changing how they spend, when your competition is worrying about staying in business, when companies are changing agencies at an unprecedented rate, and when prospects want to make decisions that enable them to solve immediate challenges. Doing new business now is like fishing in troubled water. Most people don’t even go out – but that’s also when the pros know fishing is best. While others stay home, the smart ones go fishing.

What steps can you take to grow in times like these?

Here are 5 strategies we recommend:

1. Make sure your firm is properly branded.

Check to see if you are caught up in alphabet soup with a brand that doesn’t say anything. Clients who are looking for a new agency don’t want a “we-are-whatever-you-need” advertising firm. In fact, that turns them off and harms trust. At a recent new business conference hosted by the AAAA, every client and search consultant said “stand for something.” You have to know who you are and why you should be considered. Otherwise, you risk fading into the fog of marketing services lingo. It is better to stand for something and not be considered for one account then to stand for nothing and not be considered for any accounts.

2. Focus on generating leads.

That means increasing the number of opportunities to go visit good prospects. Too many agencies only focus on winning pitches, not working to get into more pitches. Beware of the “we’ll win the next pitch” red herring. This is where an agency is busy pitching but not focused on creating awareness and relationships. Unless you are a recognized agency brand (and there are only about 10 in the US), counting on referrals and word of mouth is not a new business program. Many agencies have attempted to flip a new business switch – “we need some new business NOW! Let’s form a committee!” Few are finding success.

3. Sell smarter.

Focus on the overt benefits you offer. Make it clear what you do why and how it gets results. Successful agencies do this face-to-face, not by clicking PowerPoint slides at a prospect with lots of case histories and marketing babble. Stop doing capability presentations! Instead show them how you work, specifically with their brand, and how you will impact their business. This means that you have to work hard and listen to understand their problem. This sounds simple, yet it is one of the most common problems in all client/agency relationships.

4. Think about growing the old fashioned way – buy growth.

A cross-town merger with another firm in your market can create a wealth of opportunities. There are some good opportunities in every market. You can gain efficiencies and add new services and resources, and create more awareness for your brand.

5. Go after the consultants and the strategic high ground.

Transform how you think about marketing and offer consulting services of your own. This requires a separate brand that is not linked to advertising or marketing. Too many agencies forget that if you’re an agency, and try to add consulting to your brand, you are still only an advertising agency –Where are my ads! However, if you are a consulting firm, then you can work at the strategic “C” level, and open up a sizable new revenue stream. This provides more opportunities for the agency side to follow once the consulting assignment is completed.

Search consultants are saying new business is slow. They’re wrong. Their business is slow. New business is heating up. The competitive landscape for agencies has been forever changed. As the economy recovers and picks up speed, you will need to adapt to win today and change to succeed in the future.

As you evaluate opportunities and challenges at your agency, never hesitate to give us a call or send us a new business question to info@sandersconsulting.com

 

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Business: Five Warning Signs of a Nightmare Prospect

June 16, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk
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.
New Business: Five Warning Signs of a Nightmare Prospect

Understanding the warning signs is key to avoiding a nightmare 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. Sanders Consulting Group 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.

The Five Warning Signs of a Nightmare Prospect

  1. First In: You are their first agency. This is a red flag. Take a pass and allow another agency the frustration of training them
  2. Fuzzy Direction: The prospect is not clear about what he or she wants, but somehow expects your agency to produce it without detailed input
  3. Revolving Door: 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. Easy Peasy: 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. Cheapskate: 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 you decide to attempt to turn this prospect into a client, here are some steps that you can take to minimize the risk:

  • Document Major Concerns: In writing with a conference report following your first visit with the prospect. In your reports make sure to outline the framework for a successful relationship.
  • Over Communicate: Maintain constant communication becoming their best friend and confidant.We recommend you create a binder and number every conference report, and be over organized.
  • Don’t Let Problems Fester: They are much easier to solve when they are small problems. Keep the focus on relationships not issues
  • 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.

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

"By building a graceful exit into the process, you can protect your most important client - you." Bob Sanders President, Sanders Consulting Group

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. Communicating these success factors up front is the most effective use of your time early in a relationship. 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.

If you think you have a nightmare prospect, or you’re dealing with a nightmare client, give me a call and let’s talk about it! We can help. You can call me on my cell phone or reach me through the office number. Or email me directly.
  • Cell: 412/897.9329
  • Office: 800/899.1538
  • Canada and overseas call: 561/752-2977

 

21 ways to say “no” to a prospect or client:

Laura Spencer, a freelance writer from Texas, wrote up a great list that I have to mention here. I encourage you to head over and read her advice. http://freelancefolder.com/21-times-for-a-freelancer-to-say-no/

Kenny Nguyen adds his 2 cents here: Should You Ever Say “No” to a Potential Client?

 

 

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Are You Stuck in the Past? Check our list and see…

May 19, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

Is your marketing firm thriving in this new world? Or is it stuck in the past, trapped by old perceptions long out of date?

changing world, ad agency new business, new thinking, winning new businessIn this new world where clients are coming and going like snippy eaters at a food court, browsing, looking, and sampling, new business has to be a priority. Just like it is with design firms, promotion companies, and specialty suppliers where the rule of thumb is 10% of manpower has to be involved in new business. Most agencies are operating at a fraction of that. The pressure is on to make agencies perform as communication vendors, not long-term marketing partners. The agency-of-record designation is going the way of the dinosaur. Not extinct yet but bleeding badly and wobbling at the water hole.

Old Paradigm New Paradigm
Corporate CEOs
Want marketing partner
Want marketing off desk
Agency Contact w/ CEO
Frequent
Impossible
CEO’s trusted advisor
Agency president
Consultant
PR contact with CEO
Press releases
Possible strategic resource
Agency meets where?
Chairman’s boardroom
Marcom office
Client-side: CEO
“Help me market”
“Help me brand once”
Branding
It’s package design
It’s everything
Branding is for…
Big companies only
All companies
Marketing Dept
All the glamour
None of the glamour
Marketing objectives
Create big leaps forward
Sustain where we are
Marketing Dir.
A career
An 18-month stop
Marketing Dr. fun
Entertained by agency
Entertained by agency search
Marketing Dir. focus
Great ads to promote
Great results to promote
Ad manager’s focus
‘Atta boys for creative
‘Atta boys for budget
Delivery time
This month
This afternoon
Advertising
75% of Budget
25% of Budget
Account Service role
Manage the brand
Manage the project
PR’s role
Create news
Create brand energy
Below-the-line services
Agency disdain
Extend brand equity
Internet
Marketing curiosity
Major marketing weapon
Design Firms
Do collateral
Do agency’s job
Freelancers
Agency resources
Agency threat
Media Strategy
Too specialized for clients
Too specialized for agencies
Media Buying
Create highest impact
Buy cheapest rate
Agencies compete on
Creative
Price
Agency holding Co.
Buy agencies
Act as agencies
Industry’s new hurtle
Working with budget
Working with purchasing
Industry’s new threat
Clients invest in Macs
Clients invest in Lean 6Sigma
Ad Agencies say
“Call us”
“Call us something else”
Successful Firms
Most firms
Those in step

 

If you aren’t sure about your new business performance in this new world so very fast approaching, consider our DayOne program.

DayOne takes your senior management through a hard look at your agency’s current new business program and shows you how to grow your top line. Included are measures of success, growth objectives, lead generation, first visit performances, what the standards are and how to work with clients while avoiding vendor-type relationships. You’ll see what closing skills are needed and why agency targeting and agency branding are so vital. DayOne is conducted on site in one day by one of our senior new business consultants. It’s an action meeting that encourages senior management to make important decisions in a systematic way on a wide variety of choices and opportunities. The program even includes an important learning segment on how to use chemistry to win new business and keep existing clients.

For more information, schedules and costs on DayOne, contact Sanders Consulting Group at 800/899-1538. The agency world is changing fast. And smart agencies understand that new business priorities are changing even faster.

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , ,

Don’t Show Your Capability Presentation!

April 2, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

If you have a feeling that your capability presentation isn’t as strong as it needs to be, you’re right.

While your agency presents same-ol-same-ol the prospect tunes you out.

Capability presentations are for losers. In a typical agency capability presentation, your agency does 80% of the talking while the client talks for 20%. And that’s a big mistake 100% of the time.

Before prospective clients hire you, they want to know what you can do for them and how qualified you are to do it. Most agencies end up making a “presentation of your capabilities” to the prospect.

The problem is most marketing firms jump right to this solution, giving a capability presentation, AT THE FIRST VISIT!

We call this the Chinese Menu solution… throw everything you can do up on the wall and then stand back waiting for the prospect to solve their problems for you. “I’ll take one serving of direct, with a side of social, and let’s kick it all off with some fresh creative!”

You don’t know the prospect, they don’t know you, and here you are throwing everything you have at them. And then waiting, begging like a french poodle for the order. No solutions to their problems. No understanding of their needs. No trust built.

Eighty percent of an agency’s problem in getting new business revolves around not building trust. Most agencies fail to build trust by leading with the Capability Presentation. Losers.

By putting all your energy on leading with your capabilities presentation you put the spotlight on the wrong place. The really good agencies understand how to win early.

Visit Prospects The Right Way

At Torch (a content packed training session taught on-site at your agency) we’ll show you how to make a first visit on a prospect the right way. And that means giving the prospect a chance to talk. At Torch, you’ll learn how to find all the needs and the fevers prospects have hidden away that really control agency selection. The latest thinking on agency packaging and positioning is included along with valuable tips on how to control chemistry. You’ll learn how to discuss the agency selection process and what to do if you want the account. And because you know Torch, you can determine which fast-close process is best.

Redirect Your New Business Effort

After Torch, you’ll understand the true value of quiet visits on prospects. You’ll re-direct your new business efforts to where it should be, creating first visit opportunities for your agency. You’ll see the wisdom of avoiding the cattle calls and the RFPs that rarely lead anywhere. You’ll put your energy the most important part of new business, making a good first impression. You’ll want everyone who comes in contact with clients to know Torch. Agencies find the negotiation section on discovering the real budget helps with prospects and clients. We’ll show you how to probe to see if there is any money left on the table. Just understanding how to negotiate with prospects over budgets will give your agency pay back from your investment in the training ten times or more, often within the first four weeks of your Torch session.

If Torch Training sounds like something your agency can use, then call Sanders Consulting Group at 800/899-1538 or email us at info@sandersconsulting.com for cost and schedule availability. In new business, you only get one chance to make a great impression.

And if you really want to understand how to give a new business presentation that will WIN, then perhaps our Presenting to Win | Winning Formal Presentations training session is for you.

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,