The New Business Team Is All Here-Not Always A Good Thing 

 I had a question from an agency principal recently about first meetings with prospects. 

This principal typically went into first meetings via referral, so more of a comfort feel walking in versus a meeting resulting from pure prospecting. 

Similarly, in terms of pitching, the same principal who can crush a pitch presentation often finds a first meeting with an unknown prospect daunting. 

One aspect we discussed was a phone versus face-to-face meeting, or in today’s world, Teams, Zoom, or similar platforms. 

This principal recounted what we’ve heard before from agencies, that a phone meeting is okay but face-to-face is imminently better. 

I said I generally agreed, as that face-to-face communication is powerful, but also replied that it can be a mistake not to take that first phone meeting if the prospect asks for it that way. 

Especially with some prospects not really partial to video calls- 

Always ask what they prefer

As we continued the conversation, this principal went on to describe the main reason he preferred face-to-face. 

It wasn’t because he didn’t believe in first meetings via phone, quite the contrary, but he said they really never had any luck with them. 

I went on to find out the reason why: he was a big believer in the team approach to agency new business, and that apparently included those first meetings. 

At any given first-meeting, face-to-face, conference or video call, 

He might have as many as 5 people in that initial meeting.  Piece of advice-don’t do this.  

What makes sense in the pitch with your team doesn’t necessarily work in a first meeting. 

This may seem like common sense, as we’ve all been on conference or video calls where you’re tripping over each other. 

With too many people on an initial call, things can go south quickly. 

So before you take that first call, video or otherwise, remember, it’s not a rumble-bring no more than 2 key people along unless there is a specific reason you need more. 

The new business director position at an agency: tough to hire for and tough to do-it is sales after all, and we know it as well as anyone after 17 years of helping agencies drive new business. 

From our 2021 Agency New Business Report: hiring for the new business director position at agencies is down, and tenure remains unchanged for roughly the last decade, yet agencies report their last new business hire as relatively successful.

I’ll start with an initial stat:

Only 32% of agencies hired a new business director in the past 3 years. 

That’s the lowest level since we started this survey in 2010.

COVID invariably plays a part in this result.

Over the past year and a half, agencies were either scrapping to stay afloat or slammed with work – both not conducive to hiring for the new business position.

And it’s been harder to hire across the board in this market as well. 

Let’s keep going, and throw out our next stat:

The average tenure of an agency new business director: 22% said less than a year, and 52% said 1-2 years. 

As COVID hit, we quickly, and unfortunately, saw many new business directors at agencies lose their positions. 

These were individuals who found success through in-person networking, conferences, and local/regional outside selling.

When everything shut down and these individuals could no longer rely on their network, or in–person selling, it became evident that inside sales was not their strong suit. 

But let’s throw a wrinkle into this with a third stat:

60% of agencies report their last new business hire was very to somewhat successful. 

It’s strange that a fair number of agencies report success with their new business director, yet only see them stick around for a year or two, or less. 

We’ve found that new business director hires that are successful tend to jump around, unfortunately, which partly accounts for the 18-month decade–long tenure average. 

What else accounts for it? 

Agencies tend to hire for the wrong reasons, for a network that gets tapped out, they hire cheap, they’ll “figure it out”, or “we can train them” (which is rare, or at best, haphazard).  

Through the last couple of years, we’ve spoken with agencies who came through the pandemic with the understanding that a new business hire had to have a more balanced skill set, which included strong inside selling skills.

With new business apparently being easier to come by in 2021 (per our report) via existing clients, agencies are not pressed to hire for the new business director role.

But, as we mention in our report, one thing that can always be counted on in our industry is change and the cyclical nature of the industry as a whole.

Agencies should be prepared, as they head into 2022, for organic growth to settle, and for hiring to normalize, and make plans for pursuing new business, however it’s done, whether through hiring internally or outsourcing it to a firm like RSW or others out there.

Update:

Darren Magarro, President and Founder of DSM, was kind enough to comment on my LinkedIn post of this blog, and I wanted to share our initial back and forth-solid points:

When agencies are considering our services, one of the first questions I typically ask is how they’ve handled new business and acquiring prospect meetings in the past, and are currently handling it.

One response I often get when an agency is considering a change, in regards to past performance: “we had someone internally but the prospect meetings didn’t go anywhere.”

If this describes your current new business program, you need to think about what that really means, because there are several, brief stages of analysis you should subject your current meetings to.

Obviously if you feel the meetings from your new business program, whoever is handling it-you, a new business director, a team, etc, “aren’t going anywhere”, a change needs to be made.

But that change can take a few different paths, and could be a simple tweak, or a sizeable change.

The first place to start, perhaps unsurprisingly, is asking,

Why you think prospect meetings are going nowhere

While new business, as in life, is rarely black and white, sometimes it is, and in certain scenarios, you need to make a clean break.

That clean break may be:

–Changing your new business director: they’re too junior, don’t know how to sell marketing services, aren’t the right fit or aren’t representing you the way he/she should be

–Dissolving the internal new business team: In our experience, rarely does a new business team work.  There are exceptions of course, and ideally the whole agency contributes to new business in some way, but there’s a reason for the expression, “too many cooks in the kitchen.”

–Taking the responsibility off the agency principal in charge of new business: This scenario, again, can work, but it’s extremely difficult with everything else she/he has to do.

There’s the black and white, but in most situations, there will be grayer shades, and before you discount the meetings coming in, you have to ask these questions:

 1) Are your prospects the right fit?

I mean in terms of geography, size (revenue), sector and title.

If not, you need to reevaluate who you’re going after.

 2) Who’s taking that first prospect meeting?

Whoever it is-you, a new business director, team member-are they the right person?

For example, are they asking questions relative to the prospect’s business?

3) What are your expectations and are they realistic?

Presupposing your prospects are the right fit, what are you expecting out of a first meeting?

Here’s a baseline I’d suggest, unless something else has specifically been put on the agenda: they have a high level of interest in who you are and how you can help them and they want to talk.

Anything more from a first meeting and you need to recalibrate expectations.

Neither you or anyone else can manufacture an opportunity, timing truly is everything.

Which goes hand-in-hand with. . .

4) Are you following up?

This is the new business “classic,” if you will.

I’ve heard it many times-a meeting actually goes pretty well, but according to the agency “it went nowhere” because the prospect never got back to them.

I leave you with three words:

That’s your job.