What would I do if I were not in new business?

One of my good friends asked me this the other day. What would you be doing if you weren’t working at a new business agency? What would your job be?

Firstly, I asked him why he was asking me a question which these days seems only to be reserved for footballers. Was he implying that I had one skill and lucky to have made it in new business? I don’t know, as he just laughed and told me to answer the question.

I really struggled for an answer.  I thought about it for probably too long and he told me to forget it. But I haven’t been able to since then.

I studied accountancy at university, but didn’t fancy that route. I really like mathematics but chose the wrong area to go into – my fault entirely. But maybe I could have been the next Carol Vorderman or Marcus du Suatoy if I had chosen Maths as a subject.

What else do I like? Music.  I played in Glasgow’s only funk band for 10 years and has reasonable success.  Perhaps that should have been my route but I moved to London to work in new business so perhaps it wasn’t.

Anyway, after a few more drinks with my friend that evening, I stumbled across the answer – a football commentator. I love sport. I love football.  I even sometime do commentary when watching (please don’t ask why).  I’ve always been erudite and pleasant. Some may say the Glaswegian accent isn’t so, but I disagree.  So there you have it. The next Jonathan Pearson. Or John Motson. I’ve already got the sheepskin coat.

3 things people never talk about in sales training

  1. Buying/Selling something is about the future, but most people exist in the present.  Most people, when you speak to them, spend most of their time dealing with and thinking about the stuff they’ve got going on just now and in the near future – 1 month, 3 months…whereas the problems solved, advantages gained and money made from B2B products and services tends to be felt further off in the future – and often needs some planning to implement.  Sometimes it helps to bear this in mind when speaking to potential buyers – it helps to get them to think about the long term impact of doing something/not doing something now.
  2. Imagination –buying is an exercise in imagining.  Some people imagine with facts and figures, some with pictures, some in other ways – a person buying something imagines what the experience of it will be like for them.   If you are buying your wife a piece of jewellery you imagine how pleased she will be.  If you’re buying pair of jeans you might imagine how you’ll look in them, or how fashionable they make you look.  It’s the same with selling a B2B product or service – the buyer imagines how their marketing campaign will sell more product, or they imagine how their life will be much easier with a more efficient solution.  If you can paint a clear and compelling picture, you will help your buyer imagine well and if it’s a good picture they’ll buy…
  3. Human interaction – one of our clients’ proposition is based on the premise that human brains are wired to engage with stories, that because we as a species have passed on knowledge using stories as a medium for generation after generation, we are pre-disposed to respond to information presented in the form of stories than dryer methods of communication.  This reminds me of a trick my uncle used to do when I was a kid – he could memorise a deck of playing cards – usually took him about 45 minutes to an hour but to me it was amazing. Years later, he told me how he did it – he basically invented a story with each of the cards as a character.  This applies in sales too – telling to stories of your case studies has a much higher impact than the dry facts and the human side of the story – what it meant for the client, what they experience was, the challenge, how it was heroically overcome – this stuff is what brings a story to life.

What type of new business person are you?

Consider these three statements:

  • I’d like to go and see people who need a digital agency.
  • I’d like to go and see people who are right for us so that when they need a digital agency they call us.
  • I’d like to go and see people who have a problem and convince them that we can help them solve it (they may not be aware of the problem).

What type of new business person are you?Which one applies to you?  All of them – or perhaps none.

We’ve worked with lots and lots of clients over the years (all at Icebreaker) but 4 or 5 clients stand out as the guys/girls who would win everything – we’d send them to a meeting, and sooner or later they’d get business out of that client.  The rest – yes they win, but they’re not prolific in the way that just a handful of clients have been.

So what do these guys have that the rest don’t?

Well, there are a few things – and I could go on all day about this but we don’t have space, so here’s a few…

  • First – they share a mindset.  That mindset is that all of the above are worth it.
  • But it’s more than that – they create opportunities.  They also instinctively adapt their game plan to fit where the prospect is in the buying cycle.  When the prospect says ‘I’m not looking for somebody right now’, their heart doesn’t sink and their face say “oh you mean you don’t have any money, then why am I here?”, but instead spend time learning about the client’s challenges, targets problems, etc.  If a problem or challenge that can’t be solved comes to light then great – an opportunity create, one that wasn’t there when they walked in, and a good deal of rapport and trust built.
  • You are not the only agency in the world!  Somebody told me last week that there are 17,000 agencies in the UK now!  17,000!  Imagine that?  If even 10% of them are actively doing outbound new business then it’s a very noisy room.  Telephone sales people cannot provide nicely wrapped briefs every week.  Sorry – but the world doesn’t work that way.    These guys know that they need to get out and see people,  they know that they need to make a big impact when they do.  Not going to see people who are not immediately looking is wasting 30-50% of your new business activity.
  • Keeping in touch – In all likelihood there will be an opp within 12 months, even if it’s a pitch against an incumbent – but if you don’t keep in touch…”now who was that agency I met last year again?  Oh never mind, that guy who called 5 minutes ago…”.  The first meeting is where you make friends, but you’ve got to keep in touch if you want them to remember you.
  • New business comes first.  Of course it’s inevitable you will one day have to move a meeting.  Do it regularly and you are throwing away the money and effort you are making.  Outbound new business is labour intensive with low conversion rates (80 calls/day leads to 2-3 ‘warms’ and maybe one meeting).  If you cancel then you’ll demotivate your salesperson and probably lose the opportunity.
  • Accept some failures.  It’s a cost of doing new business – 30% % of meetings will lead nowhere.  If you don’t handle them correctly, 70% will!  It’s a fact.  This was the case during the .com boom, during the mid-90s, during the late 80s (although that’s second hand), it’s a fact today – for mobile agencies in a rapidly growing market, for digital agencies, for design agencies.

So – my observations.  You might disagree, maybe you agree, but that’s my thoughts…comments welcome as always!

Unless it’s Peter Reid at the helm, don’t sack the manager

Lord Sugar pleaseThe sacking of Reading’s Brian McDermott this week is yet another example of the short termism that is rife in the game of football and a decision which is unlikely to save the club from relegation. The success of Everton, Man U and Arsenal is chiefly down to the fact that their managers have been at their respective clubs long enough to develop long term strategies and put into place a philosophy that works – Arsenal fans might point to a 8 year hiatus but I’d remind them almost automatic inclusion in the Champions League is something some fans would make love to Arsene Wenger to achieve for their clubs. And he’s quite pointy.

As a long suffering Coventry fan I can tell you the benefits of swapping your manager every season (or as soon as things start looking iffy) – sweet F.A. if you’ll excuse the pun.  A club that punched above its weight is now in League One having been through a revolving door of managers from the obscure to the just poor (and I do mean Peter Reid). In fact when Cov got an overachieving manager in Mark Robins Coventry’s board had a cheek to question his morality when he left– after all their loyalty to the last 11 guys at the helm has counted for nothing.

Same applies for new business. Every time we get asked to meet an agency who have a retained new business operation in place I worry about the motivation. Fair enough sometimes the fit just isn’t right (again Peter Reid) but other times heads get turned because of a string of mediocre results in what is a very competitive league. New business is tougher than it ever has been and if you’re not throwing your resources behind it – and that means more than having some pretty collateral these days – then maybe it isn’t just the fault of the guys at the coalface.

Alongside meaningful social media activity and the commitment to generate the right messaging to keep those keep in touch prospects looking at your website and reading your mailers you need to have a core message which resonates. We now say to our potential partners you need two core sales messages – why talk to us on the phone, but also why bother meeting an agency in the first place.

If you can get that proposition right you can have Darren Bent or even Andrew Johnson metaphorically up front and still get the results to get you into Europe. Your midfield general is your proposition, your wingers are your marketing and account teams and you yourself play up front. It’s you that has to score the goals and changing the team’s backroom staff midway through the season is not the way to achieve top table status. Seeing all the responsibility for your success and failure as down to your new business team (in house or outsourced) is a bit like sending on your head physio on the 85th minute and hoping he’ll score a hat- trick.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re in the business of winning new clients just as much as our partners and one way agencies get work is because a client is no longer happy with the incumbent. It’s happened to us and it’s probably happened at every organisation I’ve worked at. However like agency clients there’s a valuable lesson to be learnt in football – before you sack someone consider if it’s really worth the hassle of replacing them with Rafa Benitez. We also ask agencies what it is they’re not happy about with their existing supplier and have probably talked our competitors back into their client good books more often that we have helped to get them the boot. For the simple reason a lot of the time it’s how a team is playing that is often the reason for failing rather than who it is on the team sheet.

New business travels

This profession has taken me on many journeys – from Germany to the USA and Cheltenham to Dundee.  New business meetings occur everywhere, if you are looking for them.  If you aren’t doing any outbound new business then that is another matter that we need to discuss.

I love visiting new cities and finding out the nooks and crannies that business travel requires. Where are the toilets? What’s the best place to have lunch? Does it have free WiFi? When will I get an opportunity to recharge my phone (rotten phones; they always run out of battery when you’re out of the office and no plug sockets).

Then you have to think about your travel. What time does the train/plane leave? So what time to I need to get to the station/airport at?  Does that give me enough time for the meeting – and invariably to give yourself plenty of time the train/plane is booked so far away that you have hours to wait before you get anywhere near your method of transport.

However, that sounds negative and it’s not actually. Travelling allows you to see new places and faces.  To learn about a new city is always fascinating and to get your bearings and remember your way back can be very rewarding.

Meeting new people to discuss their challenges is also something I love – that’s the best part of it all.  If I were sitting in the office instead, would I be able to converse in the same way with this new person about something we feel so passionately about? I don’t think so.

Another funnier side to travelling this much is when you do it on a leisure basis. Going on holiday. Going away for a day trip with family.  The amount of times that I have been at an airport and switched into “work mode” – and found myself through security and heading to board the plane when my wife is still wondering where to check the luggage in.

Getting to see the world through work is a good thing for me. I enjoy the travelling and speaking to new people. I guess that must be why I got into working with a new business agency. The rewards can be so great in the end that you really feel that you have achieved something when sitting on the train back home, enjoying a glass of red wine – as I am doing now whilst writing this.

A new office for our new business agency

In an effort to keep you more updated with what is happening within our new business agency I thought I would let you all know that the London part of our operation has recently moved offices from Banner Street (near Old Street station) over to Saffron Hill which is just a stone’s throw from Farringdon station.

Here’s a map for you should you feel compelled to visit us!

We do love our new offices, but they are pretty sparsely decorated yet, so we will be making a big effort to make them nice over the coming weeks.

The team in the Edinburgh office are still all there and have no desire to move. The view from the office up there is quite dramatic. Walk for two minutes and it is possible to see the castle. It’s definitely worth a visit! Just remember, we are a new business agency and we want to talk to you…

Should agencies write blogs?

This is something I think about a lot of the time – what is the value in an agency having a blog? Does anyone read it? Do you ever win any new business through it?

I personally think it does a lot:

  • It gives you a voice
  • It gives the agency a personality
  • It can help position you in the marketplace
  • It can educate staff and help with internal communications
  • It provides a destination for your social media traffic
  • It will show passion if you get passionate employees to write posts
  • It’s great for SEO

So there you go, that’s just a short list of reasons as to why your agency should write a blog, and I bet you can think of more.  I would love to know if you disagree as well.

To answer my own questions above, I see only benefits of having an agency blog if you create great and compelling content.  Having that great content should answer the second question – people will read if it is interesting!  And thirdly, if people are reading it then the chances are you will get people approaching you about new business.

However, you have to remember that your blog is a part of your overall inbound marketing strategy (which encompasses social media) which I’ll go into more detail soon…

What makes a good “proposition”?

Why is this important?  Simple – in order for a new business campaign to work sales people need a strong proposition to work with.  So, what do we mean by ‘strong’, and what do we mean by ‘proposition’.

You know what it’s like – you sell into a new sector, or you sell a new service (or start a new job) and you just don’t feel it – you know in your heart that what you’re saying isn’t impressing people.

Your proposition isn’t good enough, so before you start speaking to anybody it’s crucial that you sit down and beef up the proposition, because a crap product will not sell, no matter how good your sales people.

So without further ado, what do we think makes a good proposition?

-          Clarity – it needs to have clearly defined features and benefits.  What positive experience will result for the client

-          Communicability – if you can’t get the essence of it across quickly you’ve probably lost your chance.  Sales call recipients are even more demanding, so it’s gotta be easy to communicate quickly…

-          Believability – they’re only going to buy it if they believe it’ll work so you’ve got to be able to back it up, with statistics, case studies or other evidence.

-          Relevance – we believe a proposition should be defined in relation to the people you will pitch it to – that means industry sector, job function, job level, type of business.

-          Distinctiveness – it’s got to be unusual, different and better than your competition.

-          Wow Factor – if it doesn’t excite your sales person it’s not going to excite the people they sell it to.

It needs to score as high as possible in all of these areas, and if it falls down on one of them, you need to accept that it will mean poorer results.  If you don’t want to undermine the proposition, then it’s a good idea to carry the messages you come up with through to your websites, case studies and presentations too.  And don’t fall into the trap of thinking your services are your proposition – creativity and a holistic approach are a given (otherwise you’re in the wrong business).

stand out from the crowdYour proposition is the bit that sets you apart from all of the other calls that your potential clients receive.   It’s crucial.   Get it right and people will just say yes to meeting you and they’ll put you on that short-list because you offer something different.  Get it wrong and you’ll very quickly find your sales team demotivated and your pipeline dry.

The prospect is at an early stage in the buying process…

The path from first meeting to client won is a long one, and a crucial stage in the process is the first meeting.  As a Business Development Director, your success will be judged on how many pitches you get your agency into and how many clients you win.

If you use ‘cold’ outbound sales activity to win new clients then the more first meetings you can get to convert to pitches, the better your chances of success, and your game plan for that first meeting can be the difference between ‘thanks very much, keep in touch’ and ‘come back and present some ideas’.  And your game plan should be appropriate to the stage in the buying process that the buyer is at.

undecidedWhen the prospect has already decided what they want then the game plan is usually pretty clear.  Buyers at this stage will often have a very clear idea of the criteria directing their decision making. They will often have a budget in mind, and they will look for you to demonstrate that you meet their buying criteria.  Your job in the first meeting is to make sure you fully understand the thinking behind the brief, work out what their buying criteria are, and make sure you tick their boxes.

It’s more tricky when your first meeting with the prospect is earlier in their buying process.  They may have a problem, or a general interest in you or a service, but no clear idea of what they want to buy.  They probably don’t have a budget in mind, and because of this, it’s all too easy for the meeting just to turn into a chat that ends with promises to keep in touch that don’t come to anything.

However, there’s no reason why you can’t convert 1/3 to ½ of these to a return meeting to propose for actual work.  Generally, your game plan for these meetings should be:

1)      Don’t present!  If you have to, make it 6-8 slides maximum and limit it to 10 minutes.  This is a cardinal rule.

2)      60-70% of the meeting asking about their broader business, their future plans and the problems they face.  Your role is that of an expert consultant and by sharing your knowledge and talking through their aims and challenges you will start to build a partnership and establish trust.

3)      If there are areas you can help them with, offer to put something together that will provide them with value, and that you come back and present, and gain their commitment to meeting you again.  Don’t give too much away for free, but if you don’t offer to do something then there is no reason to move things along to the next stage.

We know there’s more to it than that but the key point here is that ‘solution’ meetings and ‘problem’ meetings should be handled differently.  ‘Problem’ meetings are not ‘bad’ meetings – they just need to be handled right.

As always, comments are welcome…

Last person standing – top tips to manning an exhibition stand

exhibition

Attending an exhibition as a delegate is for many people one of the highlights of their job – they get to network, investigate new technology and procedures and get spoilt by potential suppliers. Working an exhibition on the other hand is for many people an absolute nightmare. Your feet hurt, the air conditioning doesn’t work properly, you miss sunlight and you have to talk to some people who under normal circumstances you’d run a mile from (and that’s just your co-workers).

However working on a stand is an excellent way of building your interpersonal skills, learning how to push back and to refine your sales patter. Nobody likes it if you just push for an outcome face to face, and so you need to know your product, and more importantly find out what the visitor to your stand wants. Yes, there’s a chance they are crazy and deluded, but so is your boss. I have known a casual meeting at an exhibition turn into a client worth a million in revenue a year – so, get interested.

And, no, there is nothing to gain by being rude, even to a fellow exhibitor who might be trying to sell you something. One day that person might well be the decision maker on a contract, or even on the other side of the desk when you interview for a job – and trust me they will remember. Besides being rude is just plain unpleasant so learn some manners before you book your stand, please! And, yes, it is you I am referencing, marketing manager for an e commerce solutions agency based in Slough. Or at least you deserve to work in Slough.

So – here’s a few tips on surviving an exhibition

1)     Have a leads book – staple business cards or write down emails in an A4 pad, and make notes on your follow up actions – you will get mixed up otherwise

2)     Social media – let people know you’re going to be attending – your company and yourself – use Linkedin, and Twitter – and use it over the course of the day commenting on events and seminars and the day itself – other attendees with see this and respond – and come over!

3)     Prioritise your follow up actions – make sure you get back to your best leads within 72 hours – some of the others might just warrant a quick email and some credentials – but go to town with your top twenty

4)     The night before get a good night’s sleep – you’ll need it. If you’re away for a few days save the big night for the last night – believe me sweating it out all day under the heat of exhibition stand lighting really isn’t a good look and you’ll want to actually die by midday

5)     Drink plenty of water – your skin dries out and nobody wants to talk to a desiccated corpse

6)     Take breaks – you and your colleagues deserve it – it can be busy – lunchtimes especially – but around that take 50 minutes and get some fresh air and some decent fodder – don’t eat on your stand, that’s just wrong

7)     Smiling at everyone who looks over at the stand is actually a bit scary – look friendly by all means but grinning like a mad person makes you look like just that, a mad person

8)     Keep work politics at work – you’re at a show – park any issues with colleagues or bosses – a stand isn’t a good place for sulks or arguments – draw a line under things before or have a clear the air session – just don’t go there with a bag of gripes! Work as a team at shows and you’ll look better and feel better about being away

9)     Take your laptop – you might not get to use it but sometimes you will have a little hour or so and doing some work is a better look than reading the paper, plaiting your colleague’s hair, talking to your Mum on the phone, polishing your shoes or eating fried chicken – just some of the things I have seen exhibitors doing during a lull and thought better of talking to them

10)  Let colleagues and clients know you are at an event. Your email might not work and your phone could go on the blink so have someone else in the office to take urgent calls on your behalf.  Plus, you’re going to be busy you won’t have time to complete an RFI as well – exhibition time ought to be sacrosanct

11)  Enjoy yourself – people are actually friendly, most the time. Don’t just talk, listen. I’ve had a great time at shows and met some brilliant people and heard some really interesting stories. We don’t get to interact with our peers and customers one to one very often so make the most of it but please don’t try so hard.

And remember, it’s supposed to be fun.