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The Three "C's" to Successful Pipeline Building
October 01, 2008
Is it just my agency?
By Mark Sneider
Too many agencies prospect in fits and spurts. Too many agencies are terrible at marketing themselves. And too many agencies don't take the time to build an organized new business process. So, in other words, it's not just your agency.
In a recent survey conducted by business development consultancy Reardon Smith Whittaker (www.rswus.com/surveys), 150 agency principals highlighted the consistency of the pain many are feeling in today's market, stressing the need to be better stewards of pipeline management. According to the survey, close to 60% of those responding state that their business is flat to declining versus a year ago. And 51% of agency principals state that winning new business is "harder" or "a lot harder" than it was three years ago, as compared to only 40% agreeing with the statement in last year’s survey.
What Could Be the Root Cause?
When asked, 37% of principals seem convinced that the top reason for the slowdown is that there are fewer opportunities to be had, as a result of company consolidations and lower levels of spending, and that it is increasingly harder to break through to prospects (44%).
With the economy placing ever-increasing pressure on the advertiser's financial performance (see RSW's "A Client's Perspective on Economic Conditions"), there seems to be ever-increasing pressure on a marketer's time. Company cut-backs result in less time to talk to agencies, and with less time and fewer dollars to be spent on marketing, advertisers are more hesitant to give that time to those that "just want to talk." Reach out needs to be compelling, relevant, consistent and on-going. Fresh thinking, best practices or anything that can add value to the prospect's world will only improve your chances of penetrating and getting on the radar screen.
Are We Doing Something Wrong?
Interestingly, agencies are still relying heavily on referrals and networking as a resource for new business. What agencies aren't doing a lot of—or maybe not doing effectively—is prospecting. Only 16% of new business came in via prospecting in 2007 and 2008. This could be a result of the fact that fewer new business managers are being brought on board—only 36% of recipients state they hired a new business manager in the 2008 survey as compared with 48% in the 2007 survey. Another contributing factor is that new business managers being brought on board continue to under-perform, with 58% of principals stating that they have replaced their new business managers at least once in the past three years.
The lower success rates associated with new management personnel is driven by the fact that new business managers overwhelmingly aren't squarely-focused on the job of reaching out and prospecting, but are occupied with lots of other activities, which is a recipe for disaster. The less a manager is focused on the core activity of consistently reaching out; the more likely they are to be met with less-than-optimal success. Research found that while 90% of principals state that their managers are responsible for setting meetings and cold calling, 60-70% of managers state that they are also responsible for presenting to prospects, managing mailings and creating presentations.
So What Are We to Do? Use the Three C's
Putting an on-again/off-again effort to outreach, or letting your managers do a lot more than they should be doing to generate opportunities, isn't going to help you get your foot in the doors that are getting consistently harder and harder to open.
Winning new business starts with building a solid pipeline of potential opportunities. And that starts with developing and maintaining the three "C's" of business development:
• Consistency of Outreach is potentially the most important element. It requires being there for your clients as much as you can, as often as you can. After all, the "game" is a bit of an aperture marketing game. Today your prospect is fine, but tomorrow they may have their boss breathing down their neck or a new initiative demands a new look and fresh ideas. Being there when they are ready to make a move means always being on the radar, not just when you can make the time.
• Consistency of Messaging must be used when reaching out to prospects and current customers. Just like an advertiser's brand, your brand needs to define itself as compelling and as unique a way it can. Given at the end of the day, all agencies deliver the same "stuff"—the reasons the prospects need to believe your agency is able to deliver viable solutions. Show them you understand their situation, bridge their situation back to your work and then make a compelling case for why your way is better than the next agency on the block.
• Consistency of Methodology must also be used in your outreach. You can have the most outgoing salesperson in the world working on your behalf, but if he isn't organized in his approach and doesn't have the right tools to support and develop lists and message reporting, the program will eventually fall short.
Following the three "C's" is particularly important in today's economy. 'With fewer opportunities and more agencies knocking on the same door, selling the way you always have it isn't going to win the big contract. At the end of the day, you didn't get into the advertising, sales, PR or design business to be an expert in lead generation. You got into the business to be expert an communicator and idea generator. In these tough times, it may make more sense to keep overhead low, focus on your current clients and use your new business energies to win prospects handed over to you.
Mark Sneider opened RSW's U.S. office in 2005. Prior to RSW, Mark spent ten years working for two top tier packaged goods companies, and ten years on the marketing services side of the business. He started his career at DDB Needham in Chicago. Mark is a graduate of Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Business with a major in Marketing and Economics.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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