Getting to Close – A Letter of Love from Mark

A letter of love…

Yell and tell and sell!

79% of marketers tell us in our surveys that agencies talk too much about themselves when they first meet with them.

And only 16% of agencies come into a first meeting knowing anything substantive about the marketing prospect.

Come on now!! Y’all can do better than that!

I tell our agency clients on the outsourced new business side of our business (RSW/US) and agencies involved in searches I’m running on the agency search side of our business (RSW/AgencySearch) that the way you look today to that marketer — in their eyes is the way you will likely operate tomorrow.

So it’s all about 110%

It’s hard to push yourself, but you have to if you’re going to win in this new, highly competitive world we’re all operating in.

That goes for new business prospecting and how you’re managing your existing client relationships.

The two reasons marketers come to me looking for a new firm is because they either feel like their agency isn’t keeping them ahead of the curve (they’re getting calls and emails from other agencies introducing them to new technology, processes, approaches).

Or they wake up one day and realize that they’re the ones bringing all the ideas to the table, asking for the agency’s POV, and it’s never the other way around.

The answer to all of these challenges is two-fold.

1. Add value

2. Make it all about them

Whether it’s an existing client or a marketing prospect, go beyond the ask or the expected…delight and surprise…show them you’re there to help beyond just doing great creative or communications work, but there to help their business grow.

And don’t make it about you – especially when prospecting. It’s what everybody else is doing.  Show that prospect you’re there for them and you’re thinking about them. And that starts the minute you reach out (or in our world, the agency’s New Business Director reaches out to prospects they’re interested in working with).  And it carries all the way through to the proposal, RFP, presentation/pitch.

Don’t let up!

We have a webinar we give to new clients called “Getting to Close” and it talks about all of these things – and more.

It’s always interesting – as many feel like they agree with the vast majority of what we say, but what often comes to light is agencies just aren’t taking the time to do it – or they aren’t putting the 110% against it.

So, help guide the perception that marketing client of yours or that prospect of yours has about you.

And never forget that how you look today is a direct reflection of how you might operate down the road.

Happy to talk about how we can help – by either coaching or supporting your effort.

Onwards and upwards!

Mark (mark@rswus.com)