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Agency principals…hold off buying that new boat.

June 18, 2013

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Don’t expect business to just roll in this year. And we are sure you won’t. The economy is still in the tank for most of us and we can’t point to anything that indicates vast improvement in the next twelve months.

But, this is not the end of the world for small to mid-sized ad agencies and PR firms. It could play in our favor. Why? Well…there is business out there and we have all redesigned ourselves for more efficiency and lowered overhead – all we need to do is go get what there is to get, work it really smart and well, and reasonable profitability could be ours in 2013.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Don’t kid yourself. It will take determination and a good new business plan.

Here’s the plan part. The determination is up to you.

An effective new business program is one that has a daily, weekly, monthly and yes, quarterly action plan. Now, you’ll quickly say: “I don’t have that kind of time.” Of course you do if the action plan is built for you and your firm. And, if business is slow, make time.

For years, we’ve been promoting a plan called: “New business so easy, even an agency principal could do it.” And many have done it successfully. The first thing one needs to understand, is that you only need ten perfect clients:

1. Perfect being they fit your core competency or specialty, (you will also need to know what your core competency is).
2. They are qualified to do business with you (they need what you are selling).
3. They look really good on the roster so the folks in your agency get excited about working with them and finally…
4. Each one is equal to or larger than your current largest client. Without this, the plan does not work.

Also, when you are only chasing ten prospects, you will have the time to really get to know your prospects – where they are, what they do, their dog’s name. We have a page of eleven questions that must be answered in order to have the prospect truly qualified. If you email us at info@brandestablishment.com we’ll share them. And, BTW, an intern can do all the sleuthing for you.

Now, outbound marketing is not the approach of the twenty-first century. So once you have your list, don’t call them and say: “We’re going to be in you area on Thursday at 1:00 PM, can we stop by?” Start by sending them something they could use. For instance, let’s say you are a specialist in healthcare and your prospect is a hospital. The same intern snoop who did the qualifying for you could also be scouring the Internet for health care related news and information that you could repurpose. Add your take to it and provide good, insightful information. That prospect suddenly has a resource for valuable materials. And, if you write a blog utilizing the same info, you could be the trusted storehouse for vital data. And, again, if you organize the communication with these ten prospects and have an organized calendar of mailings or emails along with consistent follow-ups, you should spend all of about twenty minutes per day doing really successful business development.

Now there are a lot of moving parts to a good business development program, like the look of the information you are sending out, some good PR support, etc.

But, the most important component to any new business program is you and an organized, smart and tenacious new business program.

Good luck.

-The Brand Establishment