Blog

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2009

2006

New Business: If not now, when?

Published: Thursday 8th November 2012
It took me a little while to catch up but I have now been truly swept up by Olympics fever and the successes of Team GB. The tipping point for me was watching Nick Skelton – a man of 54, with a broken body (back injuries and a hip replacement) and Peter Charles, 52, also plagued by career-threatening injuries, leading the show jumping team to victory. Skelton was competing at his sixth Olympics and was quoted afterwards as saying “I’ve been to a lot of Games and made a lot of mistakes but I’ve finally got there”.  Everyone has had their heroes in these Games and the Channel 4 trailer for the Paralympics shows better than anything why we should be in awe. But what is it that makes these athletes successful? More than anything, they have the driving force and determination to succeed. We have heard about the setbacks, personal sacrifices and support from coaches and families – sometimes great personal sacrifices have been made. In addition, there appears to be some sort of inner force that has kept these athletes going, as they accepted defeats and failures as yet more reason to carry on and pursue their ultimate…
Read More

Is Inbound Marketing the future of New Business?

Published: Thursday 8th November 2012
jfdi® believes that inbound marketing is the future of agency New Business lead generation. It is based on earning the attention of prospects by making your agency easy to get found online and then engaging prospects with high-value content. As traditional “push” forms of marketing, such as cold calling and email have become less effective, inbound marketing offers a better way for agencies to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise to prospective clients whilst measurably nurturing them through their buying decision process. So where do you start? A good place to begin is your blog. You need relevant and interesting content that also has gravitas so that prospects are drawn to your agency and want to download your blog, link to it, have conversations about it and share the content with others via social media networks. This should be your “hub”. Therefore you need to think about your prospective audience and what they want to talk about and hear about. You also need to examine where they can be found online and how they interact with their networks. In an ideal world, you should aim to write around 300-500 words and try to do this a minimum of twice a week.…
Read More

Leadership may come from the top, but it has to be a skill of everyone on a pitch-winning team

Published: Thursday 8th November 2012
So, you’re pitching. You’ve analysed your chances of winning, you know you want it, you’ve jumped expertly through the required hoops and you’ve made it onto the final pitch list. Congratulations! Now, for that final, crucial hurdle: winning… Pitch-winning teams have at least one thing in common: leadership. This doesn’t mean one person making all the decisions or taking all the responsibility. It means a team of people who understand their roles, lead their individual teams, take responsibility for their decisions and have the discipline and drive it takes to win. Pitch teams that demonstrate strong leadership skills exude it in all their behaviour as individuals and as a team, both internally and externally. They commit fully to the pitch – everything else comes second. They are brave and confident in their work and ability, unafraid to push for better. They are strong communicators, motivate and empower their juniors and support their peers. They are decisive and take responsibility for those decisions. They do not give up. They go above and beyond in delivering, both for their team and for the client. These skills are applied at every stage of the pitch, from the first client contact to the post-pitch…
Read More

Client Relationships – The Most Valuable Asset of All

Published: Thursday 8th November 2012
Every day we build relationship equity with our clients. For the Client Team it’s the most important part of their job. If we build equity, we build value. If we build value, we can get a return on it. Typically that return is the form of additional business. Winning new business from existing clients is always going to be more profitable growth than winning new business from new clients. Moreover you’re 5x more likely to win from your existing clients. Even so, there are many reasons why Client Teams often fail to realise these relatively ‘easy-win’ revenue opportunities.   One common reason is that we can all be a bit “English” about New Business, thinking that selling is a dirty word and we don’t want to rock the boat – head down and just deliver the project.  It is actually both professional and expected in some cases, to ask a client for more business. One thing you can be sure of is that if you’re not asking for it, then another agency will be. In our experience, Client Teams already have a good working knowledge of where more business can be extracted from their clients. However, if this isn’t written…
Read More

New Business – is it really everyone’s business?

Published: Thursday 8th November 2012
jfdi has met with several agencies recently that share a similar problem: they have one individual tasked with generating new business opportunities. Regardless of the size or stature of the agency, this is some responsibility, especially given the current market. Whilst pitching takes a huge amount of effort and time from everyone (not to mention the cost), an opportunity to win a new client also inspires and motivates teams, builds relationships and, if the agency wins, improves morale, confidence and in turn, future success. This is a big ask from just one or two individuals. Another trend we’ve noticed is agencies handing the task of new business to a senior client service employee who understands client related issues. If this same client service person has little or no recent new business experience, then their task just got even more difficult. Effective new business isn’t rocket science. If anything it’s an art. But it does require a lot of effort. An agency definitely needs someone to lead New Business, to have an eye on the long game, to be the first port of call for potential clients and generally keep the marketing wheels in motion. But the responsibility for generating real…
Read More