Winning new business has always been hard. Sometimes, you can do everything right and still not win the account. Anyone who has been involved in pursuing new business knows the feeling that your agency was perfect for the account and you just can’t imagine why you were not selected. Then there are those times that you think you blew it in some way yet still win the business.
It’s important to remember that those situations will still happen regardless of how well you plan or how well you execute your new business plan. But the one thing you can control is an understanding of your agency’s capabilities and the client’ needs. And in today’s digital world, the client’s needs have changed considerably. Hence the need to identify new rules for pitching and winning new business.
In a previous post and subsequent white paper, I identified the eight dumbest mistakes agencies make when planning and prospecting for new business. You can download a free copy of that white paper from my website at http://www.raindanceconsulting.com/ .
All of those mistakes can still ruin your chances of new business success, so they must be a part of your plan development process. But times have changed, and client attitudes and needs have changed. Here are nine new rules for new business success that take those changing attitudes and needs into account.
1. Project work is the name of the game. Most clients don’t want or feel they need an Agency of Record (AOR) relationship.
2. In today’s world of fragmented media and extreme audience segmentation, you must own a niche, or even a niche within a niche.
3. Creative expertise is yesterday’s discriminator. It’s still important, but ROI is the most desirable characteristic today.
4. Agencies need to build an ROI story into every case study.
5. Your website is the “front door to your brand”. Make sure it is tells a powerful brand story or prospects won’t even bother to knock.
6. Give them a new insight on their business that will grow their sales and profits.
7. Be very specific in building a prospect target list. You can’t afford to waste time, effort and dollars on long shots.
8. Look first at your current clients for new business opportunities and actively seek to build a more solid trust relationship.
9. The confusion and uncertainty of how to use social media and other digital marketing tools are a great opportunity for new business growth.
To say that the Internet has changed the way people interact and communicate with each other is only half of the story. It has profoundly influenced how brands go to market, and the effect can be overwhelming to marketers. As noted earlier, clients are looking for ideas and insights. An agency that can give information, understanding and guidance on how to use the new marketing tools presents a great opportunity for agency new business efforts.
The question for many advertisers is not just how to effectively use email, blogs, podcasts, mobile marketing, viral marketing, pay-per-click, user-generated content, Twitter, etc., but how to mix them with traditional media to create the most impact. The concept of “above the line” and “below the line” is no longer valid, if in fact it ever was. It’s all important. It’s all potentially valuable. And, most importantly, it’s a great opportunity for an agency to attract new customers. Or build a stronger relationship with your current clients.
In his best-selling book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott exposes the futility of continuing to embrace the old rules of marketing in an online world. The same conclusions can be drawn for agencies who want to survive and thrive in this new connected age we live in. Marketing has changed. Marketers have changed. Understand and adapting to these new rules can mean the difference between life and death for your new business efforts. And that can mean the difference in life and death for your agency!
Over the next nine days I will be posting an expanded discussion on each of these "new rules" and exploring how to use them most effectively. I hope you will join me for the ride.
Don
