The promise(s) of New Business

A recent Semrush study (“How Companies Look for Marketing Agencies”) spat out some great facts and figures for me to base blog entries on.

One of my favourite parts of this report was a “Top Ten” of the biggest red flags that turn businesses off and affect an agency’s chance of success. There are some obvious candidates in the mix (poor communication, lack of expertise, etc.) but in at number three is “overpromising results”.

This is an incredibly hard one to get right and we’ve fallen foul of it ourselves many many times - not so much in the delivery stage, but in the pitch stage.

It’s a moral dilemma as much as anything: do I lie to you now to win the business (but have to face you when the exaggerated results never appear) or do I tell the truth from the start, setting things up realistically but risking not being hired to begin with?

We’ve always chosen to be honest from the very start but (I won’t lie) I’ve often wondered if we’d win more business if we just promised the moon to trick new clients onboard (I’m pretty sure others out there are doing that as standard).

The report isn’t necessarily geared towards a new business agency such as Sponge, but the dilemma remains none the less: how do you balance promising the kinds of results the client wants to hear versus the kind of results you believe are achievable?

The answer is… “I don’t know” (oh sorry - you thought I knew? Apologies!)

I would however suggest promising the kinds of results that are going to challenge your team. That way, even if you miss certain KPIs along the way, your client will - one would hope - certainly be able to see and appreciate the effort being put in.

Good luck. Oh and watch out for the minefield on your right.

Don't promise; just communicate

As you might imagine, I look at LOTS of agency sites every week. We’re always interested to see the good work done by creative folks, but we’re also (being honest) looking for people doing a dreadful job of representing themselves in case there’s an opportunity to swoop in and save them from themselves.

As a result of said browsing excursions, I encounter LOTS of bullshit, hyperbole, and criminally wasted space (why would someone pass on showing a killer case study to instead tell me what they were like at school, how they met CFO “Dean”, when they were established, why they chose their office building, etc. etc?)

One of the most common BS plops I encounter are statements that were no doubt written while standing proudly atop a mountain, chest out, staring heroically into the sun, but are - under brief examination - utter guff.

“Will will only take on a client if we believe we have the knowledge and expertise to help them.”

Yeah. Right. So when Client X turns up with a bag of gold you’re REALLY going to turn them away because you don’t think you have the expertise to help them?

We’re meant to read such statements and think “Gosh darn it; these guys have integrity” but all we do is snort tea out of our noses and roll out eyes (which isn’t as easy as I make it sound).

I Skyped the statement to my colleague (yeah, we’re total bitches) who replied: “It's such a bullshit line: it's easy to claim, impossible to disprove and unlikely to be true.“

Wise words mate.

So, in summary, stop saying silly things. We all see straight through you, and all those heroic statements are taking up space that could be used to impress us with your work and the outcomes attached to it.

Four ways to improve your case studies

For various reasons, we’re massive fans of case studies when deploying any new business efforts . One reason is simply that they can’t be argued with. While every agency blabs about how unique they are and the only ones that “really get under the skin” of their clients, etc etc., the truth is that everyone says this, and the only things unique about you are your staff (unless they work for more than one company!) and the work you’ve produced.

This is why we recommend very ‘front and centre’ use of case studies in all cold communications. Here are four ways to make better use of case studies in your creds and comms:

GO BACKWARDS: Most case studies we see start with The Client, followed by The Brief, followed by The Method, then The Problem, then The Solution, then… etc etc. If you’re lucky, at the VERY end you get The Results - arguably the MOST IMPORTANT part of the entire case study. So start with this (oh, and make sure the results are in a REALLY BIG font).

TRIM THE DETAIL: Remember that you want your cold prospect to see this case study and have questions for you. “How did you achieve these incredible results?”… “What time scale did it take to implement this?”… etc. Don’t give them a page full of text and every detail. Leave them wanting to get in touch to find out more.

SHOW OFF: As well as the results, make use of all the space you’ve just gained by trimming the text to show off your work. If it was creative work, SHOW IT OFF! Don’t leave huge white borders because “it’s your house style”, make use of the space to impress your audience.

USE TESTIMONIALS: If you’re thinking “but we don’t have any “150% increase in sales” results to share” then use testimonials. Your client’s MD saying how much impact you had on business or how creative you were in the face of a tough brief… these are results too.

The Data Doughnut (TM)

Yeah yeah… go ahead and snigger. So I’ve got a ‘thing’.

I accidentally said it one day… and then liked it enough to use again in conversation (multiple times). But you mind my words (sonny boy) once I take you through The Data Doughnut (TM) you’ll be eating your words. Your delicious doughnuty words.

I should also quickly point out that though I’m aware there’s a way to get a proper trademark symbol to appear, I like to simply put the letters T and M into brackets to show that I’m not precious about it (use it, however, without prior permission and I will hunt you down and kill you).

Anyway… The Data Doughnut (TM) is a FANTASTIC visual representation of your database. A mistake I see often is people building a database, starting to work on the database, and then, when not even halfway round ‘the ring’ (as we call it) adding a bunch of new prospects. So, just as you were approaching 6 o’clock (yes, I know I’m mixing metaphors - don’t tell me how to live my life) you’ve sudden expanded the ring and sent yourself back to 4 o’clock.

And then off you go, continuing round this slightly larger doughnut, and then… BAM! - you add even more data! You’re taking what was a manageable, well-thought-out and reasonably-sized database, and warped it into an unmanageable monster. And while you think you’re doing a dandy job of ‘augmenting’ your database, the data sitting at 11 o’clock is getting older and mouldier (and further away). You’re sabotaging your own doughnut you lunatic!

I am of course assuming you did a good job of building your database in the first place, so now just focus on working it. As data is removed (taking ‘a bite’ if you will) don’t replace it, just continue round the ring. Give all this freshly-baked data a chance to bear fruit (again, don’t worry about the metaphor - it’ll be fine).

Some of the doughnut will require a second pass (maybe even three) but that’s the nature of a new business prospect database - it takes time and tenacity. Only once you feel you’re chewing on the same bits over and over should you think about building it back up with fresh entries.

Anyway… data, rings, doughnuts, trademarks. I’m sure you get the idea.

Good luck and goodbye.

You're not alone. Ish.

Steve and I were recently asked to guest present on an Agency Hackers’ video training session (check them out - there are some incredible agencies in their community), talking to agency owners about smart ways to improve their own business development. As lovely as it is to be asked to do such things, the part I actually enjoy the most is the Q&A session at the end.

Apart from it being a nice opportunity to interact with the many many faces floating on the screen, it’s also always interesting for us to hear which part of ‘new biz’ trips them up the most.

The kinds of questions we got asked on this occasion included:

How big should my database be?

How should I approach our ‘dream clients’?

What email platform should I use?

As you might imagine, we had a lovely time addressing all of these questions (no, I’m not giving you the answers ‘for free’ here – you’ll have to give us a buzz for those gems) but more important/interesting is that you get to see how – with just a simple prod in the right direction – the weight lifts from some seriously-intelligent people who just happen to not know where to begin when it comes to business development.

So… you’re not alone! If you know you should be doing some/more/better business development but don’t even know how to get beyond a napkin with a few prospects scribbled down, fear not; lots of other smart people are in exactly the same boat.

It took the SpongeNB collective many years to feel confident enough to host such a video session, so there’s no way you’re going to get everything right in your first few attempts to reach out into the (never-forgiving) cold channel.

And before you ask, no, I don’t have a copy of the video to share (but I do have a VHS of Robocop if that’s any use).