This post is written by our guest blogger Elizabeth Chapman…
Connecting with prospects and winning new business is hard work. And with competition at an all-time high, agencies simply can’t afford to make costly mistakes, especially ones that can be avoided. Below is a little insight into the Top 5 agency prospecting gaffes, as inflicted on the client side marketing professional:
1. Cold Calling as a First Approach
Probably the oldest method of engaging with a new business prospect, so what’s the problem? Put simply, very few client side marketing professionals actually appreciate this approach; it’s about as welcome as the proverbial ‘fart in a spacesuit’.
Prospects can be wily creatures when it comes to avoiding unsolicited phone calls. Even the most good-natured Marketing Director will suddenly turn into Mr Elusive at the slightest whiff of an ‘exciting opportunity’ call from an unfamiliar source. That’s if you even make it past the receptionist, – chances are he / she will have an arsenal of rebuttal lines, ready to deploy at the first opportunity.
Some would argue that ‘cold calling’ is integral to the acquisition of new clients, but for the majority of targets it remains an unpopular and unwelcome approach. Research into prospecting practice carried out by Acquire reveals that of the seventy client side marketing professionals interviewed, 70% were sceptical of cold telephone approaches, with a further 21% expressing a positively hostile attitude.
It is without doubt that an agency needs to be able to communicate in an effective and convincing manner over the telephone, but this should come once a relationship has already been established, not as a quick hard-sell that demands immediate commitment on the part of the receiver.
Alternative channels of approach such as direct mail and email are often favoured by marketing professionals as the most effective way for agencies to make initial contact. Indeed, the recent study by Acquire highlights direct mail as one of the more successful introductory methods, especially pieces that are quirky and eye-catching. With so many agencies fighting for the same prospect’s attention, a bland or impersonal mail piece risks being lost in an ocean of monotony..so keep it interesting!! And above all, make it relevant. Sending a pair of underpants branded with your agency’s logo (or worse) through the post will earn you a few giggles but the chances of it enticing a new client to your books are doubtful.
2. Not Knowing One’s Onions
One of the biggest mistakes an agency can make when looking for new business is failing to fully research a prospect. A snazzy suit and industry-savvy patter is all very well but a lack of understanding for the potential client’s business will fast-track any advances to the ‘no chance’ pile. All too often there are instances where agencies fail to look at a prospect’s competitive situation, their culture and crucially the types of projects that would be appropriate for a company of their particular size and standing. The old adage states, ‘time is money’; and when it comes to choosing a creative agency to work with, clients are deterred by the thought of having to explain in great detail their status, the nature of their business and their needs. As stated by a participant in Acquire’s recent study “the greatest challenge when changing agencies is the education process, you have to invest so much time in helping them to understand your business and its customers before you get anything back”. So the message here is simple, failure to put in the groundwork can result in failure to attract new business.
3. A Perfect Mismatch
Impressive ROI stats, soaring pitch-wins and a glowing reputation are all great boasting points but an agency that fails to show category experience has about as much chance of winning over their prospect as Burger King would have at appointing Morrissey as their new figurehead. The demonstration of relevant experience is a crucial factor for agencies to consider when approaching client side marketing professionals. Whilst the view from Mount Ego may be a pretty one, potential clients are unlikely to want to join the expedition unless they can see exactly how an agency has developed a company similar to theirs. Recounting his own experiences of misplaced prospecting, a respondent to Acquire’s research said “we work in the B2B space and everyone knows that, so it makes me despair when we get approached by agencies who name drop and tell me they did great work on the KitKat brand, but have no B2B experience at all”.
4. Scraping the ideas barrel
A lack of creativity is another frustrating blunder in the art of prospecting. Time and time again agencies approach their target clients with the same old hackneyed propositions, prettied-up and re-packaged as their latest ‘new biz strategy’. A futile exercise, given that most clients are looking for daring concepts and innovative uses of new media; the things that will put them one step ahead of their competitors.
Ok, so creative flare alone won’t guarantee success, but it’ll certainly increase your chances. 29% of the marketing professionals interviewed by Acquire flagged “innovative and interesting content” as an important factor when being approached by agencies. As one respondent said, “most of the approaches I receive aren’t memorable in any way, but every once in a while I get something that’s really interesting or shows that the agency is innovative and makes them stand out from the crowd. In cases like these I’ll keep the information on file for future reference”.
5. Not Seeing the Wood for the Trees
In the frenzied hunt for prospects and new business, many agencies make the ‘epic fail’ of overlooking what’s right under their noses: existing clients. With many marketing professionals preferring to choose a creative agency on recommendation from their peers, it makes sound business sense for agencies to invest more of their energy in developing relationships with contacts that are already on their radar. By nurturing these connections and becoming a valuable asset, agencies will be able to give current clients the trust required to make a recommendation to anybody able to benefit from the services offered.
We’ve written a white paper which expands on the themes discussed above, if you’d like a copy, please email stefan@acquirenewbusiness.co.uk for more details
There’s a lot that is true here, except for point number one. To say that cold calling is a complete waste of time is downright wrong. Let me state that if you polled a group of office managers they would say they hate cold calls, yet they change suppliers as a result of cold calls and if you asked IT professionals, they would say the same thing. Point is most people don’t welcome cold-calling, but it is a proven way of creating opportunities. It strikes me that this piece was written by someone who has never sold and certainly not been properly trained how to sell. This is indicated by the line “It is without doubt that an agency needs to be able to communicate in an effective and convincing manner over the telephone, but this should come once a relationship has already been established, not as a quick hard-sell that demands immediate commitment on the part of the receiver”. Anyone who knows anything about professional selling will tell you that cold-calling and hard selling (pressurising a prospect to make an immediate commitment and refusing to take no for an answer) are two entirely different things. A good cold call is NOT about an immediate decision. It is about introducing oneself and establishing enough interest from the client to get them to agree to a meeting. That’s it. You ring up the client and you get them to agree to see you. At the meeting is when you sell (but that’s another story). So there are two things:
1) Cold calling is fantastic way of generating new business opportunities, but it must be done consistently and in a focused fashion and
2) As with most things, direct selling is a skill (the Xerox training course takes two weeks and even then nearly 50% fail the exam at the end). It needs to be done by trained and motivated people who understand how to get past the gatekeeper, how to introduce themselves and establish interest and how to close effectively for a qualified meeting. Even with all of this it is ultimately a numbers game, but any agency that has a good person prepared to put the hours in and who is properly trained in how to sell consultatively, will reap the benefits.
And finally, valid as all the other points are, businesses need to have people within their ranks who have been trained to sell. By that I mean people who understand how to identify needs and requirements and how to sell value against those needs.