The Team of Record approach in ad agency new business

June 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Hello there, agency new business development fans! Saw a good article in Ad Age recently that you should check out. It discusses four things to think about when you partner with other agencies. Marketing analytics smart Kenyon Blunt writes about something call the Team of Record approach. Meaning, sharing a piece of business with multiple agencies. He uses recent examples of large clients pulling together bits and pieces of agencies and stand-alone, one client, one team kind of approach. I like the branded moniker. And his suggestions.

But what’s missing is a small agency spin. No need for just the alphabet soup agencies to have all the fun. There’s also a missing reason for why an agency of any size should consider partnering with other firms: new business!

Here are five Thunderclap posts to get your head thinking about partnering with other firms:

True love vs. arranged marriage: agency partnership in new business 

True love, more on agency partnerships (part two) 

How to get three more meetings this quarter (part one)

How to get three more meetings this quarter (part two) More about suppliers than other agencies.

How to get more meetings (part three). Less about partnership, but more on relationships.

Hope this helps accelerate your agency new business development success!

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Filed Under: Agency Operations, New Business Lore, Planning, Prospecting, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How search consultants can survive in the ad agency new business world

May 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

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) 

 

Filed Under: Marcom Industry, Planning, Search Consultants, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

RFP how-to articles in ad agency new business

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Client News, Marcom Industry, Pitch Strategy, Search Consultants, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,