Most Effective Tools At Generating New Business
In our 2023 Agency New Business Report, we asked agencies what they considered to be the most effective tools at generating new business.
Continuing the trends from 2021 and 2022, new business to date in 2023 has come from referrals and existing clients.
Both of these sources should be part of your business development program, but more than in previous years, we’re seeing agencies report these as less reliable in 2023.
Referrals came in as the number one new business generator at 69%, with Business from existing clients at 50%, and Networking at 46%. For reference, in 2022, Referrals come in
at 64%, Business from existing clients at 59%, and Networking at 46%.
So the actual percentage on referrals is higher this year by 5 points, which is interesting, given what agencies have already reported more than once, some version of referrals
starting to dry up in 2023 versus past years.
Most Effective Tools At Generating New Business: Referrals Win Again
Referrals came in as the number one new business generator at 69%, with Business from existing clients at 50%, and Networking at 46%. For reference, in 2022, Referrals come in
at 64%, Business from existing clients at 59%, and Networking at 46%.
So the actual percentage on referrals is higher this year by 5 points, which is interesting, given what agencies have already reported more than once, some version of referrals
starting to dry up in 2023 versus past years.
And as far as existing business, quotes like the following from a previous question should raise some concern:
It is difficult to motivate employees to do consistent follow up with prospects.
Quotes like these, to be fair, are not widespread, but if you find yourself in this situation, it needs to be addressed, and treating new business as agency-wide is the first
step.
When it comes to tools, focus is all-important.
Your firm doesn’t need all the tools, and especially for small and mid-sized firms, there’s not enough time to use them all.
Typically you have a great majority of the core tools already in place: phone, email, social, for example.
Beyond that, an email delivery tool, some form of tracking for those emails (and ideally on your site) and then potentially a CRM, which you ultimately will need for any serious business development effort.
Tools like ChatGPT, which we discuss further in our report, should certainly be on your radar, for your agency and your clients, and could be very helpful to your overall effort.
And as a side note, the majority of numbers in this question stayed relatively the same compared to last year’s report with one exception:
Conferences as a tool to drive new business came in at 15% in 2022, versus this year at 28%-quite a jump!
Anecdotally, we can convey conversations with agencies, client and non-client, who report finding conferences coming back post-covid in a meaningful way.
The key is zeroing in on a tight group, and having a plan in place pre-conference, and most importantly, post-conference for prospecting.
