
Whether you believe that the end of the recession is in sight or it is a dead cat bounce, being able to add new clients and fees is crucial for any agencies success.
I got an email from new business agency Rainmaker a few weeks ago pushing the results of the annual Rainmaker survey which highlights what clients like, and don’t like about how agencies approach and sell to them.
It is well worth a read. Three points in particular stood out for me:
1. Overall, the general impression is that the economic situation has increased the quantity of approaches decision-makers are receiving from agencies, in many cases at the expense of quality.
2. 71% of the respondents felt that agencies do oversell to them, and that it has a negative effect on that agency’s chances of working with them. A further 10% agreed that agencies oversell, but were more forgiving of why they do it – ‘a necessary evil’.
3. When asked specifically about pet hates, we received a variety of responses. The most common response was when they are approached by people who haven’t done their homework, or demonstrate a lack of understanding of the business – 30% of respondents mentioned this.
All good reminders on what we need to avoid when approaching prospective clients. But it seems that we maybe missing a trick. Surely the best recommendation is a personal one, rather than trying to differentiate your agency from the UK’s 3000 PR agencies through a cold call.
During the summer and with my PRCA hat on I had lunch with Anthony Wreford, Deputy Chairman of Omnicom Europe. When asked which agencies he thought were going to be successful during the economic downturn he suggested that it was those with two key differentiators.
Firstly, winning agencies will have a proposition that is clearly defined, well packaged and most importantly differentiated. I’m not convinced that all of us would be able to answer yes if asked whether our proposition truly differentiated our agency from competitors, big or small.
Secondly, he felt that it was those agencies that had a real network of contacts to sell the proposition to that would benefit fastest from any uplift in the economy. Again how many of us can honestly say that we have an active networking programme in place that is effective and consistent? If the answer is no then it seems that now is time to start to get your senior team members to get out there and make contacts.
So good advice from Rainmaker and Anthony Wreford, and something I am sure that we would recommend to our clients.