Thunderclap

Hi. A couple of well-written stories came up recently in our industry’s leading trade book, Ad Age, that made me think a bit more about search consultants. I worry for their business. There are, after all, some good guys out there. So I wanted to write a few hundred words on what they could do. The first story was about search consultants whining about procurement in the most recent Mirren conference. The second story was about the changes taking place in agency compensation (and the rise in performance incentives.)

Oh, and in full disclosure… I also worry because some of these guys will begin to get into my business – giving paid advice to agencies and agencies alone. They become an ad agency new business consultant. It’s bad enough that some play both sides. Happy to accept checks from either clients or agencies. We don’t need any more of this monkey business. Papa’s got a mortgage to pay. But we digress…!

So, what’s a search consultant do to?! Here are some thought-starters:

Sharpen your own marketing and business development
The Ad Age article about agency compensation was based on a survey performed by a highly regarded and well known search consultant. Very, very smart. Naturally, I encourage you to take a look around this site for new business strategies. But   here’s another place to find some inspiration and innovation. This “place” lists a few non-agency resources for professional service business development. Having suggesting this, though, there are a couple of really easy things to consider:

• Develop win-win partnerships with other professional service offerings (law, accounting, etc.)
• Get published regularly. Very smart guys out there doing this right now. But there are many platforms still available.
• Re-engage with all your past clients. Odds are good they’ve moved on from the brand you served. I wonder if there isn’t some way you could keep in touch with your old clients each month with some valuable, helpful information.

Change up what you offer
Try to take a 30,000 foot view of what’s happening in the CMO suite. What are they looking for that you are not providing? Blow apart the Integrated Marketing Communications function. Find the areas in which your skill set has value. And yes, that’s a big, fat hint.

Specialize
Agencies are beginning to build practice areas and market their specific expertise in targets or categories. Is this something for you to consider?

Change your business card
Buy someone, join forces, or become part of a much larger firm. For instance, my experience has suggested that when a management consultant gets an agency search project, they bungle it. I wonder if there isn’t an opportunity there for you.

And these are just for starters. It’s not lost on the industry that the most successful search consultants are changing the way they do business. They have already employed one or more of the thoughts outlined above. YOU can do this, too!

Many search consultants are actually nice folks. Competent, fair, smart professionals that are industry experts. While I feel for you, we are at a point when change must be necessary to thrive. Don’t make me pull this car over!

Gentle reader, should you have any thoughts related to helping a search consultant out, feel free to share with the class.

Thanks!

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Here are just a few posts written about the consultant world on this blog:

The consultant world in ad agency new business

Do you need to know agency search consultants?

The 4as List of Search Consultants (and how to use it) 

The agency business is a cyclical business. Particularly in new business development. You’re up for awhile. And it feels awesome. You seem to win everything you win…you hire some terrific talent…your existing clients love you and reward you with incremental business…you are a press darling. You become one of those agencies people read about in Ad Age!

But then…bee-yoop. It all goes to crapola. A piece of business is lost. Some people leave. The press turns. Bloggers get downright mean. And you have a hard time attracting terrific talent without paying a premium.

What to do?!

The following are a few things to consider in your new business development efforts.

Take a look at your past
Audit yourself. Take a look the two most critical areas in new business development for your ad agency: prospecting and closing. By prospecting, we’re talking about all of the strategies and tactics you employ to increase the number of pitches your agency earns. “Closing” is referring to pitching. The stuff you do when you’re convincing a potential client that you are the right agency for them.

Take a look at your competition
When’s the last time you did some homework? The last time you checked out the agency space with a critical eye? Take a look at some of the agencies featured in the trades and industry blogs. Note the kinds of things they’re doing. How they position themselves and their professionals…their capabilities…their digital presence…and their new business activities. What’s different about their efforts? What do you like and not like? What might work at your agency?

Take a broader look, too. What’s the category doing? Why? What are the consultants saying in the space?

Take a new look at your target
With what you’ve seen at your agency, the competition and the category, let’s get some perspective from the people buying our services. CMOs, Vice Presidents of Marketing and agency decision-makers of all shapes and sizes. How might you describe them? What are their challenges? How do they think? What’s changed over the last three years for them?

These kinds of questions and many more like them will help you pull together a plan that you and your agency can execute to reverse a new business slump.

And while it’s awfully self-serving to suggest you should hire out an audit, it is entirely possible to do this yourself. (Though, naturally, there are some inherent benefits in hiring an experienced new business expert! But I digress.)

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Oh, by the way, here’s a different take on an audit. It’s from an customer experience perspective. And here’s a post that discusses common closing problems and a potential solution. And then, apparently another closing post was written that looks at zen, motorcycle maintenance and agency new business.

In case you missed it, both of these brands are losing their CMOs. Here’s the Ad Age story on T-Mobile. And for Best Buy. Both professionals have spent an above average length of time with their respective brands.

Another similarity: both technology companies now seem to be searching for replacements.

If you only knew of someone who could help you get up to speed on these companies or even put you in touch with a professional or two that would be an ideal candidate for these jobs! (Rest assured, new business fan, you do know someone. Should be interested in a backgrounder or some ideas on how to win this business through a connection or two, feel free to contact me.) Thanks!

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P.S. Here’s an entirely different way of looking at these marketplace changes. Hire one of these folks as a category ringer.

Hey there, Daddyo! Thanks for stopping by. I spoke with another agency new business development guru the other day and she reminded me to write a few hundred words on the value of having a brag file. Both for yourself and for your agency. In the continuing effort to be helpful, I thought there might be some value in sharing a couple if unique and interesting ways to use said file in smart career and business development for your ad agency.

But first, let’s define the term. A “brag file” is a collection of nice things people say about you. A part of your own permanent record. One of my first ones was mumble-something years ago when Dan Fox, Group Account Director at FCB wrote, “Nice job. Really!” on one of my Nielsen reports. It was routed through the Coors account team. But this is just one example. Letters of recommendation, voice-mails and emails are great things to have thrown in your file. And nowadays, you have a whole new source of things to add to the pile: tweets, LinkedIN recommendations, blog post comments and more. Of course, the higher the title from a recognizable source, the better. You could also collect other notable personal achievements.

From a career perspective, here are some more interesting things you might do with these kind of comments and positive juju:

• Work it into a page and add it when you are asked about references
• Sprinkle it in a resume
• Throw them on your LinkedIN profile or on a personal blog
• Share it with recruiters as you put your materials on file
• Take a look at it next time you have a crappy day
• Note why and how you received the accolades and make an adjustment or two

From an agency perspective, we’re really talking about a form of testimonials, right? With a little imagination, all of the above can apply to you. But here are some additional thoughts that might not immediately spring to mind:

• Use them throughout an RFP response (or to add color to a specific question)
• Create posters out of the comments and throw those on the walls between stop on an agency tour
• Make a coffee table book out of them and put it in your lobby
• Work them in in specific agent pitch videos

Anywho, hope this gets you thinking! Thanks.

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Hi, folks. Thought you might appreciate a heads up on some interesting articles related to agency RFPs and RFIs. In this post, you’ll learn some tips you can pass along to clients, as well as get a reminder where you can insert client benefit in your agency’s story. All of which will drive new business development for your ad agency.

Chris Shumaker wrote a bit in Ad Age that offers up some tips to clients on developing RFPs. I love what he has to say. Chris would definitely be one to know, by the way. He’s an experienced new business hand, having worked in “the bigs” for years. Personal experience suggests he’s a smart, nice guy.

By the way, one of the things Chris recommends clients use are the new 4As / ANA guidelines. Agreed. Find Thunderclap posts here and here on how this can be used in your agency’s new business efforts.

Avi Dan wrote a piece in Forbes CMO Network also aimed at clients. Avi’s a search consultant – one of the good ones, I understand. He writes a good post. And while his message is a little self serving (that clients should hire search consultants instead of working through procurement), get over that quickly. He’s got some suggestions in it that you should be aware of as an agency. Here’s a snippet of what he writes with regard to a good RFP…

“ a good RFP should provide information about how the agency differentiates itself; what is its business model, what is its vision. We want to know: have any of your ideas ever failed? What did you learn from that?”

He goes on:

“You are not hiring an agency’s past; you’re hiring its future. And that future, while somewhat informed by previous accomplishments like case studies and samples of creative work, is more likely to be a reflection of an agency’s culture and people, and its willingness to embrace what’s coming rather than preserve what’s been.”

Pretty damn inspiring stuff from an experienced pitch man.

From your perspective, these articles can mean a couple of things:

Understand the benefits your vision, business model and culture can deliver to your clients
This should kinda go without saying. But you’d be surprised how often agency RFP responses don’t call out the value of these things to readers. I see this a lot when past responses are used as source material. The readers of your document are looking for the WIFM – what’s in it for me. Spell it out.

Take part in the industry paradigm shift
Value yourself more. The Ad Age article suggests that the smarter agencies are also evaluating their client just as much as the client is eyeballing them. Your taste alone in new business blogs suggests you are smart! Avi’s wisdom suggests it’s OK to be yourself, relying less on the Jedi mind tricks of ad agency new business. Should you be looking for more ways your uniqueness is marketable, do a search for “authenticity” on this blog.

Anywho, hope this helps. If you’ve noticed any new RFP trends, feel free to share. Thanks!

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Almost forgot: if you are looking for FREE RFP Response How-To tips, sign up for the RSS feed or drop me a line. Happy to send some over to you in the form of a presentation I delivered to a group of 4As agencies.