The Essentials of Leadership in Your Agency’s New Business Process
The buying cycle. We all know it, right? It’s marketing 101. But how much do you think about it when trying to win business from a new client?
In general, I find agencies over-rely on prospecting for short-term leads and entering competitive pitches. I get it—those activities seem like the most obvious and direct solutions to the problem of generating revenue and making your numbers.
The unfortunate thing is, a lot of agency leaders are terrible at prospecting. They invest it with undue importance while at the same time they dread and avoid it. (It's why many agencies find outsourcing lead generation to firms so appealing.)
And pitching isn’t always treated as strategically as it could be. I see a lot of one-sided efforts that at worst look more like a beauty contest than a business transaction and at best cede control to the client unnecessarily and erode the agency’s authority as an expert.
And I could offer you a lot of advice on how to get better at pitching new business or prospecting for new clients (I certainly have in the past and no doubt will again in the future) but it’s still not addressing the bigger issue—how to be the steady hand that leads your prospect through the process.
I was working recently with a strategy and design consultancy that operates in a similar fashion to management consulting firms in that the managing directors share the responsibility for generating new business. The problem is, the talents of each managing director, while impressive, are not the same. Each MD finds some aspects of business development foreign and difficult and others easier and accessible.
As I was helping them shape their roles, I found myself sketching out a continuum like the one at the beginning of this article. We explored how different actions could be more effective at moving a prospect through different points in the buying cycle.
Of course, one type of activity doesn’t dominate to the exclusion of others. There are certainly a lot of blurred lines between, say, “interest” and “consideration”. But it presents opportunities for you and your team to lead by:
building stronger relationships with prospects
assuming more control over the process
leveraging your strengths
Awareness
This is your marketing stuff and usually takes the form of one-to-many communications—your website, SEO, PR and publicity, books and whitepapers, keynotes and podcasts. You have limited control over the individual who will engage with this type of communication. It might be someone in your network who already knows and loves you (in which case your marketing simply reinforces their opinion); it might be a wholly new contact who’s just discovered you by stumbling across an article or listening to your podcast.
These activities are well-suited to people who are natural communicators—big idea people who are adept at making a complex idea easily digestible. They’re masters of narrative and know what makes a good story and why the audience should care. They enjoy sharing their ideas with the world.
(Are you a communicator? Take the quiz and find out.)
What’s so great about awareness-building activities in a new business plan is that, if done well, they replace a lot of the stuff you may not like and aren’t very good at. Namely, prospecting for leads. More on that later.
Educating
Hosting a podcast is to awareness-building what a webinar series is to educating. It’s still one-to-many, but not quite as many. An educating role may not be as important for an agency that offers services familiar to its target audience. In other words, brand strategy isn’t a new or foreign concept to an experienced marketer who has purchased brand strategy services in the past, but it’s very important if the service is new, technical, or even reinvented.
However, I think there’s almost always a place for education as a means for moving your prospect through the buying process. Education content builds trust, demonstrates how you’re different from your peers, and showcases your smart thinking.
Relationship-building
Relationships are built in lots of ways but for the purpose of this article I’m referring specifically to one-on-one communication. The people on your team who are going to be most successful at this are those ones who are energized by personal interactions. They’re naturally curious about the people they meet and have a knack for making them feel at ease and listened-to. The best relationship builders are also connectors. Unprompted, they’ll think about who would find an idea or piece of news interesting and useful.
Relationship-building is more challenging at the beginning of the buying cycle—it’s hard to establish a personal connection with a total stranger! But later, as you engage an interested prospect in a conversation about desired outcomes, good relationship-building skills are a must.
Closing
In the classic sales book SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham defines a “close” as anything that puts the customer in a position involving some kind of a commitment.
But, as Rackham points out, in larger, high-value sales, which is what anyone selling agency services is doing, closing techniques are ineffective.
(Was that just a sigh of relief I heard from you, dear reader? Did I dispel your image of Glengarry Glen Ross?)
When you’re selling high-value services, closing is the act of advancing your prospect through the later stages of the buying cycle. Of course, you’re seeking a signed contract, but don’t overlook simple intermediary commitments, such as getting the next meeting scheduled before ending the one you're in. These are important but they also feel less daunting.
Closing is not bullying a prospect, but it’s people-pleasing either. Good closers ask probing questions. They engage their prospect in a discussion and draw out the implications of not acting. Strong closing skills lead to two-way conversations about the value of the outcome a client seeks in relation to the value you provide. They may even challenge the brief in order to get to a higher-value outcome for the client, even if it’s higher-priced.
Integrating
Your prospect has told you you’re the chosen one and now all that’s left is to hammer out the terms. There’s nothing quite like this moment when you realize your hard work has paid off and you’re about to close the business.
But you’re not done yet because as soon as a customer makes a commitment, buyer’s remorse rears its ugly head. It’s just what happens when we decide to buy an expensive and complex product or service. (Think about when you’ve said “yes” to a contractor for a home renovation or made a big non-refundable payment for an expensive vacation. That’s when we feel the risk most acutely and say to ourselves, “what if I’m making a terrible mistake?”)
Ease the stress of this massive commitment by integrating your new client into the flow of the assignment.
Earlier this year I did a short project with a direct mail agency. Successful direct mail campaigns rely on the seamless coordination of many complex details. To offset any anxiety or confusion, the agency sends the client an easy-to-read guide on some of the more esoteric features of direct mail, from building target lists to postage. It’s purpose is practical, but it also makes the client feel she’s in very good hands.
When you’re participating in a pitch that’s been tightly controlled by the client or a consultant it can be easy to neglect this part of the process or treat it as an afterthought. After all, the client has dictated the brief, the deliverables, and the deadlines thus far. Don’t assume they’ll dictate exactly how they want to initiate their work with you (nor should you want them to–this is a collaboration after all).
Instead add value to this transition by being clear and generous about the steps you take to ensure an easy and efficient onboarding.
What can you do to better lead through your agency’s business development process?
If you’re the owner of a very small agency, you may find you’re playing all of these roles. (And it’s not unusual for me to meet agency owners who are capable of playing them all well. The capabilities were born of necessity as they were building their agencies). But, if you have a team that supports you, or a managing director structure similar to that of my client I talked about earlier, you’ll want to figure out what each one is good at and leverage those strengths.
And likewise avoid their weaknesses. There may be some who shy away from relationship-building because in their minds it feels aggressive or “sales-y”. If it feels uncomfortable, minimize that section of the cycle and invest more in awareness. (B2B buying trends reinforce this. Gartner estimates that 45% of buyers’ time is spent on independent research, while 17% of their time is spent meeting potential suppliers.)
When done well, awareness-generating activities help you pre-qualify prospects and move you into a closing conversation more quickly.
So, where do you start?
Start by assessing your team. Are they in the right roles? Are they playing to their strengths? Identify where you’re strong; know where you’re weak, and have a strategy to address that.
Next, audit the materials and tactics you use to support business development, from your case studies to your social media feeds. Which parts of the process do they support? Where are the gaps?
Then, make them part of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Build a New Business Ecosystem™ of complementary and interconnecting tactics that support you and your team in the roles you play at each step. Thought leadership is an example. You may produce an amazing podcast, but does it work in conjunction with the other tactics you’re using? When you view your sales and marketing vehicles as a means to an end, they can be better organized and leveraged to support your buying process.