Salutations, ardent ad agency new business admirer. Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “L” for yes, you guessed it, ladder. You can be more effective in new business pitching or prospecting by looking at something and asking a simple question.

“What does that mean?”

This can be done for practically anything related to agency new business. For instance, let’s just look at understanding the mindset and personality type of the prospective client. If you get the sense that your prospect is more of a Type A professional, ladder up to understand the implications of this personality type and what it can mean throughout both prospecting and pitching.

It ain’t rocket science. Type A people don’t have too much time and want to get right to the point. What does that mean in prospecting? Short, purposeful interactions would be a good start. A minimum of bullshit. What can it mean in pitching?  Well, for one, it can mean shorter presentations. Shorter introductory walk-ups to strategy or creative.

Another quick example: laddering up in its most basic form helps identify pitches, too. Let’s say you see recurring quarters of negative same-store sales. What does that mean? Again, no quadratic equation needed here. It suggests that change is in the air for this brand. And change could spell a new business opportunity for your agency!

There are lots of other ways laddering up can be used in new business:

• identify root brand challenges or opportunities
• help define pitch storytelling or presentation themes

Or, turn the ladder horizontal: talk about how your idea impacts the entire stakeholder chain (from company to sales force to distribution channels to end-use consumers).

As always, thanks for your attention. What that means for me is certainly available upon request! Happy pitching.

###