Climbing the Prospect Follow-Up Hill
One big business development challenge for ad agencies: Climbing the Prospect Follow-Up Hill
We’re an outsourced ad agency business development firm that works specifically with ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms to find better qualified new business opportunities and get you closer to close.
RSW/US is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, with experts in lead generation, targeted prospect list building, and content creation driving our ad agency business development programs.
More about our advertising agency new business strategy and outsourced business development programs here.
Be sure to visit our YouTube channel and Agency New Business Blog for further insights.
Download this one-pager at the bottom of this post.
We created an eBook called RSW Tune-ups, a visual guide to driving more new business in 2022.
We’ll ultimately release it in full, but we’re starting by releasing individual one-pagers, designed to cover different business development challenges advertising agencies are faced with.
Download the first, Building Awareness here, the second, Targeting The Right Prospects, here, the third, Executing An Ad Agency New Business Refresh, here, and the fourth, Pushing Through The Intro Email Dead End here.
Far too often, we see agencies build a solid connection for a productive first meeting, and then… nothing. Here’s some pointers on making sure you don’t get ghosted climbing the prospect follow-up hill.
01. Remind them why they took the first meeting with you
The prospects you are pursing are busy people. If they took even 30 minutes of their time to meet with you, they have a need or they saw some sort of value in talking to you. Your primary goal in that
first meeting should be to determine why they decided to take the meeting.
Maybe they are struggling to find a partner who understands their business. Perhaps their current agency is underperforming.
Or maybe they are interested in implementing a strategy that aligns with your specific strengths.
In any case, your follow-up should help to re-establish their motivation for speaking to you in the first place.
02. Provide insight on something discussed in the first meeting
Your introductory meetings should always serve as a way to learn about the prospect and his/her business.
After that first meeting, you should have some sense of the prospect’s pain-points and you should have some understanding of their past strategies.
As you prepare to follow-up with the prospect, find ways to offer valuable perspective around something you learned in that first meeting.
Find a 3rd party news item or blog post relevant to your initial discussion. Show the prospect that you understand what they told you and demonstrate your resourcefulness.
03. Share your experience solving problems like theirs
Your follow-up should include examples of work you’ve done for clients in the same (or similar) industry as the prospect’s.
This helps to alleviate any potential concerns the prospect may have about your ability to understand his/her business.
When possible, the work examples should demonstrate ways in which you’ve solved similar challenges the prospect is facing.
Your goal is to establish credibility, provide value, and show the prospect that you are eager to help achieve his/her goals.
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If you’re looking for a more effective business development strategy, email Lee McKnight Jr., VP of Sales at RSW/US at lee@rswus.com.
Learn more about our outsourced business development programs here.
Learn more about our process here.
