Are you struggling to find an effective new business strategy that builds your pipeline every day? Are you not even sure what you can do to win more business for your agency?
With Marketing Directors getting on average 21 approaches every single day from agencies, (*as per the What Clients Think Report), agencies need to do more to stand out.
Many agency owners don't really know where to start though. Perhaps you have tried hiring an expensive new business director with little success, maybe you then appointed a lead generation agency who managed to arrange a load of meetings which didn't convert. You aren't alone, agency new business is tough!
However you don't need a massive new business and marketing budget, you just need the right approach. You need to know how to sum up your agency offer in one simple sentence, who your target audience actually are and what challenges they face and how to approach them and keep track of the relationships you are building.
To make things easier for you, I've pulled together my complete Guide to Agency New Business. Bookmark this page, work through each chapter and come back to it when you are stuck.
From learning how to cut through the noise with a killer proposition that stands out, to understanding how to position yourself and your agency as THE authority through to identifying your target audience and communicating to them in a way that will grab their attention. This guide has everything you need to know to get your agency a steady stream of new business opportunities.
To put it simply:
Know your audience, speak to your audience & develop relationships with them
The Ultimate Guide to Agency New Business
- Your Killer Proposition
- Your Laser Targeted Sales Strategy
- Selling without Being Spammy
- The Goldmine is in The Pipeline
- Creating Your New Biz Culture
- Agency Predictions for 2021
1
YOUR KILLER PROPOSITION
One of the biggest challenges agencies face is being able to describe what they do in one simple sentence in a way that is going to spark an interest, stand out from the competition and be easy to understand.
Too many agency propositions contain fluff, hype and jargon. CEOs and Marketing Directors are busy people, they want to understand quickly what it is that you do and how you can help them. Here are some links to some great articles on agency positioning including a free Positioning Template to help you get started:
- FREE agency positioning Template (and much more!)
- How to perfect your agency positioning
- 7 secrets to perfect agency Positioning
- The "Storybrand Framework"
- How to position an agency
2
YOUR LASER TARGETED SALES STRATEGY
One of the most common things I hear time and time again is that Agency owners hate selling! It sets the fear of god into them, they feel like they are harassing people and they fear rejection. Agency New Business is not so much about selling but all about building relationships.
Your strategy should be focused, "laser-targeted". It's much better to focus on building relationships with a core group of around 20 prospects than to have a scattergun approach chasing business all over the place. You can then research their challenges and business objectives and make your pitch all about them and how you can HELP THEM.
Check out some of the links below to help you focus and become more laser-targeted in your approach:
3
SELLING WITHOUT BEING SPAMMY
Just be natural, be yourself! When crafting email copy or thinking about your pitch on the phone, make it sound natural, be YOU. Use the kind of language and tone and you usually use, make sure you sound authentic. Most importantly add real value and insight to your message.
Think about possible objections and also most importantly what questions you can ask to help build a rapport.
The resources listed below will help you sell more effectively:
- Face the fear of prospecting
- Podcast: How to prospect for agency new business
- What you need to know about cold calling
- Building your email list
- How to prospect on social media
- Sales calls - 10 amazing pips
- How to write an email that won't get deleted
- Ever been ghosted by a prospect? How to win them back!
4
THE GOLDMINE IS IS IN THE PIPELINE
So even though you will be developing relationships across a small number of prospects, I urge you to set up a Cloud based database.
In here you can not only have your top key prospects and any ad-hoc, reactive leads but also current clients, past clients, press contacts and agency friends and advocates. Make sure your database is categorized and coded so that you can easily segment it and pull off lists for mailing.
Here are some of my favourite database software and most are free or very cheap:
Check out these blog post for some helpful tips for using a database effectively:
How agency Zeeland uses Pipedrive for agency new business
5
CREATING YOUR NEW BUSINESS CULTURE
So often I work with agencies where the new business function pretty much works in silo from the rest of the agency, and then the MD gets frustrated when there’s a lack of results from the new business person or when the new biz person moves on.
New business is tough! It gets harder each year with companies blocking phone calls and email servers rejecting emails.
Please don’t just employ a new biz person or consultancy and expect them to be able to work miracles.
The new business side of agency burnout
How to create a thriving new business culture
6.
AGENCY PREDICTIONS FOR 2021
Are agency predictions even worth reading anymore??? Who would have thought that at the start of January 2020 we were facing 18 months of barely any travel, partially closed boarders, closed schools and closed hospitality!
Looking ahead what can we expect this year, 2021? We can finally see the end in site and what are the opportunities for agency new business?
Have a read of these articles for the latest predictions:
Four trends that will shape agency business in 2021
Agency new business takeaways from the latest SoDA report
