Executing Your Agency’s New Business Strategy Requires a System

May 26, 2011

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

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

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

Experience has taught me that successfully executing a new business strategy requires a system, not a series of diverse projects performed by different parts of the agency. Here are some practical tips for creating a system for new business for your agency:

  • One person responsible: You will not only need the right person in place to oversee the process, someone who has focus, determination and consistency, the qualities are required for success.
  • Convert your strategic plan into a game plan that includes Milestone Dates, To Do List, Resources, Assignments, etc.
  • Set goals that stretch your agency but that are reasonably attainable and measurable.
  • Determine what is needed to achieve your priorities: People, funding, equipment, space, training/development, etc.
  • Get organized: Use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive online project management tool to help in the implementation process.
  • Just start: A lot of time can be wasted if you don’t start somewhere. Identify and focus on the first step. Once you get going, it’s much easier to keep going. Also remember, don’t over think things, keep it simple.
  • Based on your tasks create a “must work week” schedule. Arrange your work week priorities ahead of time. “If you don’t know and control your schedule, someone else will.” 
  • Be prepared to make changes. This is not an exercise in perfection –  Plans give you a road map to our goals, but you have to be ready to make adjustments, based on your experience in execution. Every plan I have ever seen has obstacles. Don’t abandon your strategy at the first obstacle, create “work-arounds”, solutions, even temporary ones that will allow you to keep the process moving. Don’t let anything stop implementation.
  • Make assignments: clear communications with those who must help with implementation of the various projects is a must. Who is doing what and when. Make sure they know their assignment, due dates and be prepared to prod, poke and push for completion.
  • Close out completed projects.
  • Monitor and report progress: Unless there is an ongoing process for evaluating execution, making decisions about it, and closing the loop with the original strategy, the effort fails. Note: I’ve worked with agencies that are bombarded with internal meetings, communications and reports. Keep this part simple, a monthly one-page executive summary of progress and a brief monthly meeting with only the persons that are necessary to review and make changes, will usually suffice.
  • Periodically highlight successes and celebrate new business acquisitions: This will reward participants and create excitement within the agency.
  • Incorporate “lessons learned” from accessing your accomplishments into the next year plan.

Please feel free to share additional tips and ideas for creating a system for agency new business in the comment section below

Additional articles that may be of interest:

1 Comment | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

May 20, 2011

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

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

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

You can get on a prospective client’s radar by commenting thoughtfully on their posts, retweeting and replying to them on Twitter, and submitting helpful tips to them for articles that have nothing to do with your agency.

Don’t promote, engage by being client centric in your conversations. Focus your attention on them, not your agency. well in advance of the pitch.

Here are some 10 quick tips to implement prior to your agency’s next pitch opportunity:

  1. Ask for a list of the pitch attendees from the client’s side, along with their titles.
  2. Do some intel ahead of the pitch on the various pitch participants and make a list of each person’s social media accounts in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, 4 Square, etc. and engage them.
  3. LinkedIn: look for connections from the client side with your agency’s pitch team such as previous employment, college, friends that are in their network. Your searching for the kind of information that will help build chemistry.
  4. Twitter: follow and engage each person who has an account. Let them know you look forward to meeting them. Tweet the kind of content that would be of interest to the prospective client.
  5. Monitor the Twitter hashtags within their community.
  6. Facebook: You could Friend select members from the client side’s personal accounts and ‘Like’ their companies Facebook page.
  7. Blog: If the company or individual members of their pitch review team has a blog, subscribe to its RSS feed for regular updates to keep up with what is being shared.
  8. Read and research before you pitch. Conduct a search for any writing, press releases or other intelligence their team members may have shared through online publications.
  9. Be sure to share intelligence with other members of your pitch team and help them form relationships with the client’s agency review team prior to the pitch.
  10. Focus on benefits. Your audience only care about how your service will improve their lives. Make the connection for your prospective clients. Don’t leave it to your audience to figure it out for themselves.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

7 Comments | Pitches, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

May 18, 2011

It is absolutely essential that every ad agency have a plan for their new business development initiatives.

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

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

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

Here are my 10 tips for creating a game plan for your agency’s new business:

  1. It might be a helpful exercise to create a SWOT analysis of your agency: it’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
  2. Set realistic new business goals. I can’t tell you how often I hear “our goal is to take the agency to the next level,” but they have no clue what that level is or what it looks like. In my opinion new business goals should be obtainable.
  3. If your goal is to double your RFP responses or double your pitches, you also must have the processes in place to handle the additional workload if those things are to come to fruition.
  4. Identify your top category and audience you are going to target. You must have an identifiable target.
  5. Know who is your primary competition and create a strong point of differentiation from them.
  6. Follow the KISS method. Keep everything simple as possible including the plan. A one page plan can easily suffice.
  7. Outline the new business plan through specific strategies: Public Relations, Social Media, Direct Mail, Digital, etc.
  8. Establish benchmarks for the things you can measure. Have a review, update, make changes and refocus your efforts once a month.
  9. Use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive online tool to help implement your plan. Set milestone dates, create an actionable To-Do List  for keeping track of who is doing, what, when, etc.
  10. The person charged with new business should be empowered to implement the plan as if this was one of your agency’s client accounts. The new business person must be like a rudder of a ship to keep the process moving in the same direction, no matter how the wind is blowing.

Additional agency new business articles that may be of interest:

14 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, Promotion | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

7 Ways to Stay Connected for Ad Agency New Business

May 16, 2011

 

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

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

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

  • A MacBook 13″, easier to use at airports and lunch counters. I prefer using my Mac when I write even when traveling.
  • I have an iPad and iPhone (my iPhone is jailbroken which helps with overseas travels and allows me to use T-Mobile’s data and cell phone plan).
  • I own a T-Mobile aircard/laptop stick but I prefer the Verizon version, that seems to have a much better coverage area. Sometimes it has been helpful that your laptop stick be a different service than your cell phone, when one has weak coverage in a particular area the other may be stronger signal.

Here’s some connection tips that I thought would be helpful to share.

  1. I never know what kind of internet service I’m going to get from one airport, hotel or conference facility. I always carry my T-Mobile air card. I wouldn’t leave home without it.
  2. As a backup for my presentations and other travel information I use Dropbox. It is a free service and I’ve found it to be extremely useful to me when I travel. I can also post large files for others to easily review.
  3. I absolutely love Tripit. I still use its free version which does all that I need it to do. You can easily organize trip details into one master online itinerary. It also will post trip updates through your social networks. When I arrive at an airport, one of the first things that I do is open up Tripit, touch the number for my ground transportation connection and it will automatically make the call. To many other great benefits to list here. But to say the least Tripit is one of my most essential travel tools.
  4. I often have sought out tips from others who are traveling to some of the same parts of the U.S. or abroad for their suggestions. I reached out to Trey Pennington for example. Trey travels often to the UK and provided some great advice. Particularly helpful was his recommendation to add the iPad 3g International plan.  I purchased the 50 MB global plan for a recent overseas trip. I only used a small portion of the plan and could have gotten by easily with the 20 MB plan. You can preset the travel dates in advance and have your iPad connection ready to go as soon as you land.
  5. I often use Skype while traveling for video and conference calls. It is free to start using Skype – to speak, see and instant message other people on Skype for example. For very little costs subscribe or pay-as-you go for additional features like call phones, access WiFi or send texts.
  6. I use the Tru global phone service and app to make calls from my iPad to land line phones and to persons who don’t have Skype.  Call recipients tell me that the call clarity is great. This tool was great when I made calls from the UK to the US.
  7. I use Foursquare often. It lets others who follow me know when I’m in or near where they are located. For example, I was in Nashville, TN recently, checked into a location with Foursquare which led to an invitation for coffee, a lunch meeting and an offer to drop by one of the agencies for an impromptu meet-and-greet.

I now have This is nowhere near an exhaustive list of tools and tactics to stay connected while traveling. I’m sure others have some additional tools and tips to add to this list. Please feel free to do so in the comment section below.

Update: Shortly after writing this post, I now have the Personal Hotspot for iPhone 4. I dropped my T-Mobile air card  service. I upgraded my Verizon cell plan to include the Hotspot service for $20. I’m also able to connect my iPad through Personal Hotspot which allowed me to also cancel my AT&T iPad data plan.

2 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, Special Events, Time Management | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Social Media Has Changed My Life and Ad Agency New Business

May 9, 2011

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

I’m writing this post from my hotel room in London, England reflecting on how far I’ve come since I was introduced to social media over four years ago when I started my consultancy. I have worked with new clients all across the United States from Costa Mesa, CA to Port Clyde, Maine and now my first overseas client located in the UK.

From my home office located above my garage in Alabaster, Alabama, I have built a global awareness for my services and established an international network of prospective clients solely through social media.

Almost every new business opportunity has come about the same way. Usually a prospective client is introduced to my blog ‘Fuel Lines’ by searching for “ad agency new business” through Google or they will click on a link to one of over 600 articles that has been repurposed through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or through a bi-weekly email newsletter. A growing audience helps to make my content viral. Acting as your brand ambassadors they fan these articles through their personal networks.

After becoming a reader, when a prospective client has a need for my type of service, they initiate the contact. This is a new business person’s dream because you’re not having to constantly chase business. You merely read and write, providing helpful content to your audience.  The ones who are drawn to you will initiate the contact when they need help with their new business and social media efforts. I have yet to make a single cold call for any business since starting my consulting services.

A prospect who initiates a call and talks to you as if they know you. That’s because they do! Social media has allowed them to get to know a great deal about you. In their own time frame, they check under the hood, kick the tires and check out the upholstery so to speak. Rather than going through the dating process you’ve moved directly to engagement shortening the purchasing cycle.

You need to look at social media as a savior not a nemesis, an asset rather than a liability and time saver rather than time killer for ad agency new business.

Agencies were reluctant to participate as social media was becoming mainstream because they saw it as a major commitment of their time without much value to show in return. Fortunately a  lot of negative perceptions of social media has been changed. But I don’t believe the majority of agencies have yet to appreciate the huge benefit that social media can actually make new business easier.

Most agencies generate new business through networks and referrals. Social media can greatly accelerates this process. It is networking on steroids. Taking its offline networking expertise online, an agency can now affordably create an international reach for its services.

“Kudos to all! Our social program is generating leads and business from around the world. Earlier this year got a client out of Australia and currently talking to a company in Japan that follows me on twitter” – John Sonnhalter, CEO, SONNHALTER

Utilizing social media can help you to be more consistent for new business. You can keep your prospective pipeline full even when your agency is busy with client work or you are away.

At the beginning of the summer, while my wife and I were vacationing in Key West, I wrote a post and published it along with a photo while on the beach. I wrote, “Vacationing with Social Media and Still Generating Ad Agency New Business,” to illustrate how social media can keep your new business pipeline full even when are away.

With very little effort I have created, maintained and am growing touch points through social media networks with my best prospective clients and all I’ve had to do is read and write.  

Click here to view some of my London trip photos I’ve shared on Facebook.

7 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

May 5, 2011

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

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

Too many agencies fall into the trap of pursuing any prospective client with a budget. Most are not a good fit for the agency.  I think that is the primary reason why 53% of advertisers are dissatisfied with their agencies and the average agency-client relationship is now two years.

If your agency will go after anything and everything you are playing a numbers game. You might get lucky and win a few but you wont be building your brand. Also, when it’s not a good match, you, your staff and most likely your new client are going to end up miserable.

Think about these 10 advantages for focusing new business on your agency’s sweet spot: 

  1. Properly brand/position your agency for success with surprisingly little effort. Most agencies are in a perpetual state of re-branding their agency and redesigning their agency’s website. They can’t ever turn the corner to get them done. Focusing on your sweet spot simplifies the process.
  2. You are able to clearly articulate how your agency is different from the rest. I recently asked agencies to share how they are different from the rest, from the 243 responses, I would say that this is a major problem for most agencies.
  3. More easily build awareness among the best prospects for your agency. Your agency is just a tiny dot in the ocean when you have no target audience. You wont be on anyone’s radar.
  4. With a narrower focus you have the ability to become a respected expert and thought leader in your field. There is no credibility when your agency claims expertise in dozens of industry verticals or disciplines.
  5. Acquire new business with the least amount of wasted agency energy and resources.You know where your agency needs to have a presence. What trade shows, conferences to attend, sponsor or speak at. Your new business budget becomes more strategic and you can better harness the creative prowess of your agency when it is needed.
  6. A much better defined set of criteria for identifying the right prospective clients. Creating a top 25 list of prospects is an easy thing to do and makes building relationships with those prospects easier.
  7. Less strike-outs and a stronger win ratio for new business, because your agency is matched up with its core strengths.
  8. A much broader geographical market area. Most small to midsize agencies have gained new business through referrals and personal networks. Focus on your agency’s sweet spot helps you to broaden your appeal. With the addition to social media, you can have a global reach. As an example, I am headed to London this week to meet with a new client that came about by way of my social media program.
  9. Fewer competitors, because there will be fewer agencies who do what you do. You can also know who your chief competitors are and better maximize hone positioning and appeal against theirs.
  10. As a specialist you can command premium pricing. The cost for seeing my family physician from the expense of my neurological specialist who performed a spinal fusion on my neck was a huge.  Lewis Communication’s, here in Birmingham, AL, commands premium pricing for its services to academic medical centers.

Instead of having a lukewarm appeal to a broad group of prospects, focusing on your agency’s sweet spot can generate a feverish appeal among prospects that are the best match for what your agency does best.

Here are a few examples of small to midsize agencies with a focus:

  • The Dudnyk agency, Philadelphia, PA, biotech brand specialists.They’ve even employed Dr. Chris Tobias, who has a PhD in neuroscience and directs new business development for their agency.
  • The SONNHALTER agency, Cleveland, OH, is being sought out by manufacturers who want to reach professional tradesmen.
  • Kleber & Associates, Atlanta, GA, focuses on brands that build a better home.
  • Levelwing, Charleston, SC, that are experts in data-driven marketing solutions, particularly in auto aftermarket companies.

12 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Positioning | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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