Marketing Mechanics - as seen in The Drum (5.6.09)
Is new business too much of a busman’s holiday?We’ve recently been tasked to find a Business Development Manager. Nothing too unusual about that and although scouting for this type of talent always brings with it certain challenges, I know from very personal experience that my finding the right person will prove a damn sight easier than the challenges facing the chosen individual when they start. My very first agency job was in business development and even promoting a genuinely talented agency carries its fair share of challenges (one of mine involved running through a forest with my hands tied together whilst being filmed Blair Witch styley on a handheld camcorder...but that’s a whole other story).
The first, and possibly most painful, challenge facing the ‘new biz’ person tends to be managing the expectations heaped on their shoulders. For some (though I stress not all) these are huge and highly unrealistic – increase agency revenue by 200% within 3 months, win the Global Adidas account, turn water into wine. Why do some agencies assume that just one person can answer all of their new business prayers?
Agencies take great care in ensuring that their clients know their own sales & marketing strategies must have more than one string to the bow so why do so many of them not apply the same thinking to their own agency development. I’m not saying that a strong Business Development Manager or Director isn’t worth their weight in gold but why do so many agencies get blind-sided into believing it’s all about finding a salesman, someone more sales savvy than marketing midas? It’s not surprising that the agencies experiencing consistent new client wins have a much broader approach and ironically are the ones much more likely to be applying their own marketing skills to their own development rather than having one poor soul spend hours on the telephone cold calling. After all, trying to open doors without any real insight into who’s behind them is just as unlikely to bear fruit as you trying to sell a product without any obviously recognisable benefit.
The challenges of bringing in new business have certainly changed over the past 10 – 15 years. There’s an increasingly complicated array of services to promote now with digital, search, social media, online PR and such like being every bit as prevalent today as the more traditional TTL agency mix was in yesteryear. There’s also the changes in technology itself that have affected not only how & what is presented to prospective new clients but also how agencies promote themselves to get in the frame in the first place. You only have to see how many agencies are now Twittering and Second Life'ing with the best of ‘em to see this in practise. These areas alone are challenge enough but there’s also a whole heap more agencies out there, all specialising in different fields, all finding more & more innovative ways to create their own theatre around their approaches & pitches, so much so that finding any new way to avoid being a ‘me-too’ proves increasingly difficult. And on top of all this there’s the clients themselves. Not only are there significantly more people to pitch too within an organisation, from the Online Marketing Director to the Head of CRM, but what they expect from their agencies has certainly moved on from the single minded ‘increase my sales’ to the ‘be my friend, adviser, confidant and agony aunt too’. Selling yourself in nowadays has more to do with chemistry than it has to do with your credentials.
But all of this aside, many of the fundamentals involved in new business success still remain. From improving your tender process to attending networking events, from entering awards to being listed on agency registers, it’s all part of the game of improving your odds. But why with so many agencies doing all of this, employing Business Developers & improving their pitch tactics, why do some agencies enjoy more success than others?
Flick through a few back copies of The Drum and you’re likely to see a lot of the same agency names being mentioned in client wins for two reasons. Firstly they’re bloody good at self-promotion and secondly they’ve developed a strong agency brand. Look at agencies like Love and Code Computerlove. They’re not the biggest agencies out there or the longest standing but they are very good at making themselves famous. Whether you love them or loathe them, do not forget that a great brand doesn’t have to be popular in the playground but it does need to stir up passions and is just as likely to alienate some people as it is to inspire unconditional love in others. There’s certainly no room for shrinking violets.
So what of your own agency brand, what does it stand for? What defines you? We spend our time promoting the image of other products & services but so many agencies do very little about their own. Do you want to be seen as intelligent or imaginative? Do you inspire clients to do great things or do they instead aspire to be on your client list? And what of your current client’s experience of your brand? Can you stand, hand on heart and state honestly that your customers believe & trust in you? Do they take shelter with you while everything around them changes? Do they believe no-one knows them better and do they think you can do what NO other could? If they do, shout it loudly from every rooftop until others come along to take advantage of your amazing skills too! (And if they don’t, then start to question why so you can do something about it).
Don’t get me wrong, I know this isn’t rocket science and I’m pretty much preaching to the converted but agencies all too often see promoting themselves as their last priority when things are busy and only top of the list when it’s probably already too late. If you’ve got the internal skill, talent & time to spend on this you’re sure to benefit but if you haven’t and you recognise the benefits to be gained then get help. We’ve just helped a hugely successful agency find a suitable PR partner. Not to work with their clients but to work purely for and on behalf of the agency; managing, protecting & promoting the agencies reputation and guiding them through highly beneficial but also potential minefields like online PR & social media. This isn’t an agency short on talent but they recognise that promoting themselves is every bit as important as promoting their clients and so don’t mind committing time & money to ensure it actually happens.
And finally, when it comes to strength in numbers do not underestimate the talent that lies within your own four walls. Does everyone in the agency know & share the same goals for making the agency famous? Its one thing for you to have a plan and to know where you’re headed but quite another if everyone else shares the same dream. Adding agency growth to everyone’s agenda isn’t about bullying tactics, it’s about making everyone proud of the successes, proud to be part of a ‘famous’ agency that’s constantly working on new pieces of business. Make business development more central to the agency rather than a separate silo and you’re much more likely to enjoy success.
Karen Staniland-Platt
Director
Marketing Scout
