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How to Lead and Grow your Clients

Published: Friday 20th November 2020
The most effective path to growth is through client development. Now more than ever, keeping and growing the clients you have is essential for sustainable growth.  Your agency is at least 5 times more likely to win new business from your existing clients than new clients. And yet, most agencies fail to approach this significant area of potential growth with the same rigour and vigour as a new client opportunity. Moreover, it’s not a choice – given the first 6-12 months of any new client revenue will be offset against the cost of winning it, you will only achieve profitable growth if you can successfully grow your new business wins into established, long-term, growing clients. So given its importance, here are some tips if you want to engage your Client Leaders / Account Directors in growing your Agency’s existing clients:   1 Help them recognise the importance of New Business to the Agency. Tell them if they have any aspirations to lead an agency one day, they will need to be able to grow one! It is definitely in their interest to develop these skills. 2 You need to give your client teams insights into the New Business marketplace so they…
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Post Pitch Feedback

Published: Monday 4th May 2020
Some do it, some don’t, but every Agency should. It can be sensitive to manage and communicate, it can be painful, but post pitch feedback is the medicine that can help an Agency heal following the emotional pain of discovering that you have lost a pitch. In short, it can make you better. And isn’t that what we all want, to improve our performance both as individuals and as a team? After all, pitching presents us with a unique opportunity to showcase just what we’ve got – our thinking, our powers of persuasion, our creativity, our ability to connect at a deep emotional and intellectual level with the client.  Pitching allows us to grow professionally, and demonstrate that we can win. Win a lot – and certainly far more often than we lose. If we don’t have the driving ambition to win, well maybe we’re in the wrong job. Pitching devours resource, time and money, so when we lose, we need to recoup some of that loss if not in financial terms, in some other less immediately tangible way. That way has to be by applying the lessons we’ve learnt from our losing experience when we next enter the fray.…
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The Law of Reciprocity

Published: Tuesday 25th February 2020
In Robert Cialdini’s highly acclaimed best seller, “Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion”, he identifies reciprocity as one of six principles for getting others to say “yes”.  And getting others to say “yes” is a pivotal new business skill. Stephen Covey describes the Law Of Reciprocity in his book “The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People” and likens it to an “Emotional Bank Account”.   It is just that.  As humans, hardwired within us at a deep emotional level, is the idea that one good act deserves another.  It can be described as a value exchange, and as such comes with the expectation that something of value will be given in return. Reciprocity is a powerful new business tool, and now more than ever.  Not only does it yield results, it’s actually rather a pleasant way to do business. Let’s take networking, which you may be born to or which may instead fill you with dread.  If you feel that the sole objective of entering a room largely comprised of strangers, is to exit with a client brief as demanded by your agency chief, you’re hardly going to enjoy the situation and are most likely to be met with disappointment. Look at…
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