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ALL OUR EVENTS FOR 2014

Published: Tuesday 17th December 2013

IPA/ISBA 6 MEDIA PITCH PRINCIPLES

Published: Wednesday 20th November 2013

IPA and ISBA publish six key principles for media pitches The IPA and ISBA have produced six media pitch principles to help ensure a more efficient, cohesive and cost effective media pitch process for both clients and agencies. This latest guidance has been created by the IPA and ISBA as a follow up to its existing six pitch principles, and acknowledges the evolving remit of media agencies and the rise of e-auctions in the pitching process. These principles are shared below: 1. Respect Treat pitching with the respect it deserves. Ensure senior involvement from day one so that agencies are judged fairly.Have the process clearly mapped out from the outset in terms of numbers, timings, people involvement and locations. Pitches and particularly negotiations can often go on too long – set a timescale and stick to it.For fairness, transparency and consistency, all agencies should be briefed on the pitch at the same time and place. Make yourself available to meet with the pitching agencies individually and answer their questions in a timely manner. Treat all pitching agencies as if they were the incumbent.Eliminate agencies, including the incumbent, along the way if they really don’t have a chance. 2. Use IPA/ISBA…

BATTING ORDER IN PITCHES – DOES IT MATTER?

Published: Monday 21st October 2013

Does the order in which an agency presents have a significant effect on their success or failure in a pitch?Most agencies don’t give it a second thought:“It’s client-determined – their prerogative”.“Pre-ordained”. “The luck of the draw”. However, a small percentage of agencies think it is very important. They are almost superstitious about it. So, is there any logical reason why going 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. would matter? We don’t have access to enough pitch data to be able to conclusively prove an advantage or disadvantage either way. One of the intermediaries might have done the analysis, but would only create problems for themselves if they were to tell everyone, as agencies tried to manage themselves into the more favourable positions. However, we can identify some potential positional advantages:Going First & LastPsychologists would recommend going first, as this distinguishes us from previous activities as important and may be transferred to long-term memory by the time of recall. However, they would also say that if you go last then your presentation is still in short-term memory at the time of recall! What else do we need to consider? 1. Going First (Primacy Effect)Whilst being first gives an Agency a chance to…

HOW TO POSITION YOUR AGENCY TO ATTRACT NEW BUSINESS PROSPECTS

Published: Monday 7th October 2013

What is the best approach to take when differentiating your offering from the competition? You could segment your integrated offering into specialist areas and compete on the same terms as these niche competitors. PR agencies do this exceptionally well. You could take the high ground and argue that a single-minded over-arching strategy, and therefore approach, is more effective for brands in an increasingly fragmented communications environment. You may need to take time to develop a few proprietary tools that underpin your claims to be able to ‘integrate’ more effectively than your direct competitors but this certainly works for many larger,multi-national agencies. However, in my experience, there’s only one real long term solution you should be pursuing and that lies in the development of a clearer, more focused positioning for your agency’s particular offering – I’m afraid a ‘well known integrated/creative/ effective agency’ is not going to be compelling enough for most potential clients in the over supplied agency market. You need to gain senior Agency management consensus…and definitely passion for…a really compelling reason why prospective clients should choose to work with your agency out of the 1000’s that they have to choose from. This is your spear-point into the market.…

CREDIT FOR YOUR CREDENTIALS

Published: Monday 30th September 2013

If you were given the chance to put your agency credentials in front some of the industry’s most senior marketers, from brands such as Virgin, P&G, Land Rover, BT and Sainsbury’s, we bet you’d jump at the chance. Well, the latest industry awards give you just that opportunity. For those agencies who are registered with Oystercatchers, their award scheme has just announced its call for entries and it provides agencies with a fantastic opportunity. There are four categories: Best RFI; Best Agency Credentials; Best Agency Website; and Best Agency Film. What is especially interesting is the judging criteria. It shouldn’t be a surprise that “creativity” features heavily, and yet how many agencies really factor in creativity when filling in an RFI? Other criteria include “clarity of message” – another crucial consideration when writing credentials, and RFI or the script for your agency film. “Reader engagement” is also considered for the awards, something that a great credentials document should have in spades. The criteria act as a checklist for creating a best-in-class document or film and those who win should congratulate themselves on achieving something that most agencies strive for but few really achieve. If you think you have something that…

Walking the Right Side of Stalking?

Published: Monday 23rd September 2013

As marketing professionals we are all aware of the power of data and its potential when brands harness it effectively. As individuals, we show loyalty to brands who use our data to give us relevant, interesting, targeted content and find out more about us. Our human desire manifests itself when we want to know who has looked at our profile on LinkedIn and who are our newest followers on Twitter. When it comes to marketing and new business there are many things agencies can do to market themselves to the masses. But when it comes to targeting we can also use this plethora of online data to really learn about our prospects as professionals. Start by identifying the key decision makers at the brands and companies you want to work with and then build up a profile of their professional personality and use this to help you identify how best to get in touch when that moment arises. Follow them on Twitter (or, even better, if your CEO will let you have access to their Twitter feed, have your CEO follow them and you be the monitor – ultimately the new business conversation should come from your CEO, albeit masterminded…

Is Marketing the New Black?

Published: Monday 16th September 2013

I used to mentally separate New Business from Marketing – they were quite clearly different things. New Business was about getting time in Marketing Directors’ diaries via the intermediaries, prospecting and relationship building. It was about filling in RFI’s, working on credentials, getting to a pitch and then a win! Marketing was, for me, a “nice to have” extra … …some seminars, conferences and awards. But now it seems that the two have merged, or even that Marketing has the edge when it comes to filling the pipeline and when writing a New Business & Marketing strategy today, it really does need to be 360 degrees (sorry couldn’t resist using the 360/holistic words). If you really want to break in and win a new retail client, for example, here is how you might go about doing it: Work out the ideal clients you would like from that sector (assuming that they are a good fit for the agency as that is why they are on your ideal client list in the first place). Get an expert on the case, or charge someone internally with being the expert, and get some thought leadership pieces written which directly relate to the prospective…

Referrals as a Prospecting Strategy

Published: Monday 9th September 2013

Do you ask for referrals as a way of expanding your list of potential prospects? Referral marketing is a cheap, quick and effective way to widen your circle of potential clients. For example, according to Tom Hopkins in “Sales Prospecting for Dummies”, the closing ratio for non-qualified leads is 10%, vs 60% with referred leads. The referrer is giving you credibility which increases trust. You simply cannot beat a good referral! If it is so easy, why do so few businesses do it? Because it feels uncomfortable – there is a high-vested interest in asking for a referral, a massive fear of rejection and the implication that you then owe them something in return. To be successful, it needs a high-level of trust on both sides – a bit like asking for a job reference. Even if you get past this uncomfortable feeling, you may be asking the wrong type of client at the wrong time and this can be damaging. Most agencies don’t treat referral marketing with the same rigour as the rest of their marketing strategy so think about what percentage of your business you anticipate coming from referrals, how many clients you can ask and when you…

THE PERFECT NEW BUSINESS MEETING?

Published: Wednesday 28th August 2013

Just to get your New Business meeting into the diary in the first place will have involved weeks and months of hard work – getting your product offering right, writing case histories and gathering client testimonials. Then you will have spent time and energy marketing this to your audience, using as many different marketing channels as relevant and then either via a referral, word of mouth or via strategic prospecting you, at last (probably after a few cancellations), have that meeting in the diary. So, what can you do to ensure that not a single second of that hour is wasted? Firstly, you need to do your research – there is now a myriad of tools that you can use to gather information, unlike the good old days when you had to send off for annual reports and accounts! The obvious place to start is the company’s website but you can also find them on LinkedIn, Twitter and all the other social media platforms as well as reading any blogs. It is also a good idea to follow both the individual as well as the company to see what you can glean about the person you are meeting. For example,…

How to be great at presentations

Published: Monday 15th July 2013

It’s no real surprise that most people hate presentations – both those giving them and those on the receiving end. It feels like an artificial way to share information and is far too linear. Worst of all, the slide deck becomes a barrier to hide behind between the person presenting and their audience. Imagine if you were listening to a presentation from a care-home who wanted to convince you to put your ageing aunt into their care. What would you be interested in hearing? What would be important considerations for you and your family? It certainly wouldn’t be 10 minutes of hard-sell about the company and how great they were. Yet, that’s probably the first thing we start pitch presentations with – endless slides on the credentials of the agency. Of course, we are not suggesting that you completely abandon all of this information. But, is there a different and better way to get your point across? The secrets of a great presentation are:• Turn your presentation into a conversation• Ideally not using slides• Be really well prepared• Understand what your “audience” is looking for But if there is one thing to remember above all others it is – PUT…

Data is the New Oil? No…Data is the New Soil!

Published: Monday 8th July 2013

There are many different tools online to help you with your new business / marketing CRM. Some specialise in delivering insights, others focus on data and creating useful contact lists – some deliver a combination of both. Here are some pros and cons to help you choose which tools (if any) are right for you: Pros:– Products that focus on delivering contact data often have ready-made database functionality that allows you to search, manipulate and extract data (e.g. to build a contact list). Crucially, they also update the data, so you don’t have to!– Certain products give ‘value-add’ – for example, you can tell the provider which sectors or brands you are targeting and they will send you relevant update emails.– Some products can act as a one-stop-shop for the latest information on brands; press coverage, appointments, business results, new campaigns – saving you lots of time compared to a Google trawl. – Some have incumbent agency data as part of their offering. Not only can this give you information on their relationship (e.g. length, main contacts, remit) it can also provide another way in if your agency has something unique to offer that may complement what the incumbent is…

Not A Work Of Art

Published: Monday 1st July 2013

There are lots of statistics claiming to report how long people spend (on average) on a website, anything from 10 seconds to an hour and a half. One thing is for sure – the user does not have to tolerate a poorly designed website any longer. There will always be another to give them the same information, one that is better designed and easier to use. The same must be true of agency websites? With the sheer volume of agencies out there, why would a prospective client, or a prospective employee give their time to learning about your agency if your website is poor? They could just find another agency that has similar capabilities (let’s be honest, there will be one) and a better website and choose to give their time (and business) to them instead. Here are 5 things to remember when creating and maintaining a great agency website: 1. First impressions count An agency website says enormous amounts about you as a company. In lots of cases, it will form the first impression of your agency. Of course if your reputation precedes you then your website arguably takes a more backseat role, but if you’re…

DO WE REALLY NEED AGENCY CREDENTIALS?

Published: Tuesday 25th June 2013

It used to be the case that agencies would be asked to send their credentials at the start of the pitch process, usually to help the client to narrow down their initial selection. Today, as a good RFI is tailored and includes any relevant credentials that any potential client might want, the need for standard (read: generic) agency credentials has diminished. But what kind of agency doesn’t have credentials? And what do we present to new clients during their induction? And what about that random, slightly questionable opportunity that comes via the network? What will we send to them if we don’t have generic credentials? Clearly there is still a role, albeit a smaller one, for the agency credentials deck. Fundamentally, the role of agency credentials hasn’t changed: their purpose is to showcase the agency’s best work. They act as the hotel brochure for Marketing Directors looking for a break from their existing advertising. They have other audiences too, of course: potential employees perhaps? Partner agencies? The main thing to remember is that they should show your agency in its best possible light. So the first tip would be to get your Creative Director involved – so you might have…

What Makes People

Published: Tuesday 4th June 2013

A recent article in Marketing Week about post-pitch follow up made me think about why agencies win pitches, even though they might not necessarily have “performed” the best on the day. Paul Arnold has written a great summary of ‘Click – The Magic of Instant Connections’ by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman which describes just this phenomenon. In a nutshell, the book states that we are not drawn to people by rational assessment, but emotional factors. People who connect better tend to be more successful, have more friends and work in teams that are more productive. In a world where building the quality of relationships is critical, how can one improve one’s ability to build rapport? 5 accelerators are identified in the book: Vulnerability, Proximity, Resonance, Similarity, and Safety. 1. The power of “vulnerability”Revealing our inner fears, weaknesses, builds trust because we are putting ourselves at emotional, psychological or even physical risk (metaphorically exposing our neck to them). It’s when we start to talk about how we ‘feel’ about something that we really start to engage at a deeper level with other people. 2. The power of “proximity”The physically closer people are, the emotionally closer they are likely to become –…

Happy St Lubbock’s Day?

Published: Wednesday 22nd May 2013

Did you know these 3 facts about the Bank Holiday weekend? British Bank Holidays have been recognised as public holidays since 1871 when Liberal politician and banker St John Lubbock introduced the Bank Holidays Act. The English people were so thankful that some called the first Bank Holidays St Lubbock’s Days for a while. In 1971, the Whitsun Bank Holiday (Whit Monday) was formally replaced by a fixed spring holiday on the last Monday in May. All very interesting but all we probably really care about is that we get an extra day off! In fact, with lots of children then on school half-term holidays, many of us will extend this bank holiday and enjoy a few days off, hopefully relaxing and enjoying some long overdue sunshine. It has been a long and hard winter in the UK and Spring has been a bit slow to start, perhaps mirroring the economic climate. So, it will be a welcome chance for all of us to recharge our batteries and have some time for ourselves. But, then what? For those who recently came on our Just Focus and Do It course, perhaps it will be a chance to put our action-plans into…

3 ways agencies can succeed in social

Published: Monday 13th May 2013

Most marketing agencies have a social media profile or two. And most are active (although I found a few that are not so chatty!). The big question though is whether there is any point to social when it comes to agencies. Does social actually help with pitches, increase leads and RFP requests; or is it really all about company culture? Is social part of the business development mix. Given that studies show that almost 70% of a business purchase decision is made online before prospects talk to you, I would suggest that social has a bigger part to play than as a showcase for company culture. We know it generates leads. We know it supports pitches and RFPs. We track our social media all the way through. So we know it works. So how can agencies succeed with their own social profiles? 1. Cobble your own shoes It sounds obvious, but agencies need to know their audience in social. It is what we advise clients, but as always, cobbling one’s own shoes is often the last thing a shoemaker wants to do. So we spray our social posts out and hope that a prospect might engage. First off, you…

Pitch Like Pigs

Published: Monday 13th May 2013

We know we win the pitches we commit to. An intention to win is simply not enough. Pitching should be all or nothing. All in or fold. One pitch at 100% rather than two pitches at 50%. Clients want to know you want their business more than the other competing agencies. Saying it doesn’t cut it. You have to mean it. And that starts with you and your pitch team committing to winning it. Everyone wants to win but what does commitment look like? You may have heard the story before. A pig and a chicken were walking by a church where a gala charity event was taking place. Getting caught up in the spirit, the pig suggested to the chicken that they each make a contribution. “Great idea!” the chicken cried. “Let’s offer them ham and eggs?” “Not so fast,” said the pig testily. “For you, that’s a contribution. For me, it’s a total commitment.” So pitching is like ham & eggs, chickens are involved but the pigs are committed. That’s why we all need to pitch like pigs One smart agency we know ensures everyone is committed to winning by using a ‘triage’ system. The senior pitch leaders,…

Two Ears One Mouth Selling

Published: Wednesday 8th May 2013

What kind of personality do you think would be ideal for New Business? Would they have the kind of characteristics that you would associate with our classic stereotype of top salespeople – someone who is ebullient, larger-than-life, gregarious and talkative – just like Jerry Lundegaard in the Coen brothers’ 1996 film classic, Fargo? In fact, evidence compiled from interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople would suggest that modesty, conscientiousness, achievement orientation, curiosity, lack of self-consciousness, lack of discouragement and most surprisingly lack of gregariousness were the most common personality traits for successful salespeople. (Harvard Business Review Blog, Steve W. Martin, 2011) Indeed, newer models of sales and New Business would suggest that a more consultative approach to the client is best: using the power of listening and questioning to take the prospective client on a journey from just being aware of us as an agency, to believing in what we say and ultimately to a position of trusting us. By adding value and understanding our prospects better, we are ultimately moving away from the classic model of cold-calling and typical closed, transaction based selling techniques. Susan Cain, in her recent book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That…

New Business Challenges

Published: Tuesday 23rd April 2013

We recently presented at the AAR Masterclass on “Making New Business Everyone’s Business”. We took a straw poll on everyone that attended as to what was their biggest challenge in New Business in 2013. We had some interesting results: Having clear briefs on pitches Being selective in pitches Prioritising time Sharing new business internally – instilling a new business culture – support from wider team Problems with conflicting clients Level of detail required with ppqs Standing out from the crowd Lack of internal resource Converting from long list to short list We would be interested in opening this up to the wider New Business community to see how you would rank these in terms of importance to you. You can take part in this survey here. We’d also love to hear any other issues/feedback and you can always email one of the team.

I’m as busy as a dog with fleas!

Published: Monday 15th April 2013

Nicholas Bates book “How to be Brilliant” is, unsurprisingly, simply brilliant. A simple concept and design, but on reading the first page it immediately gives you a boost and you realise that being brilliant and achieving your goals is all about your own attitude. New Business people today have certainly hit a tipping point of being frantically busy. Whenever you ask people how they are don’t you always hear “busy, hectic, crazy.. it’s just mad”? But are we getting any more done then we used to and are we getting the important things done? Marketing budgets are more closely observed than ever and there are more agencies hungry for the prize with less headcount, but there is still £29.5bn being spent on marketing. It may not be easy, but a large number of companies are achieving strong growth and success. Productivity of employees must be a worry to management teams. There are so many potential distractions with email overload, Facebook and Twitter feeds to read, Linkedin messages to post, unnecessary meetings to go to… Social media is a vital tool to build profile, reputation and prospects but has to be used in a focused way. We can waste not just…

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