Five simple ways to improve your cold emails

Most people only do a little bit of genuinely cold new business. As a result, they’re sending out email campaigns in such small numbers (and so infrequently) that it’s almost impossible to draw any conclusions as to whether one campaign (and therefore one ‘style’) does any better than the other.

The advantage of being in our position is that ALL WE DO is genuinely cold channel prospecting. As a result we get to test the hell out of any and all variables you might consider in an email outreach campaign. How many paragraphs should it be? Do we say “hello” or “hi”? etc. - you get the point: WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING. So here are five tips to help you do better with your cold emails.

1) Don’t try to tell the recipient EVERYTHING about your company. This email should be the teaser trailer, not the whole movie.

2) Tell them WHY you are getting in touch. Show that you’ve done some research. Don’t just list your services; talk about the things you know will benefit them.

3) Feel free to name-drop relevant current/previous clients. People like to know they’re in good company, so flaunt your connections.

4) Don’t ‘jazz up’ your email. If you were sending a genuine email by your own hand it would be simple text. As soon as someone receives an animating HTML email they know they are being sold to. Be authentic, not flashy.

5) Don’t waste a PS. You’ve sent a nice casual non-HTML email, but a simple “here’s the work we did for…” hyperlink snuck into a PS. is a nice way to give them a little breadcrumb trail to follow.

If you want to know more about doing better new business development, you know how to get in touch with us.

Happy hunting.

Get on with it and win.

If you’re having fun doing New Business development you’re probably not doing it right. Take a tough cookie, soak it in vinegar and then bake it at 220 degrees for a further 17 hours. THAT’s how tough a cookie cold channel biz dev is.

Probably the biggest ‘killer’ of effective New Business is inactivity. I know that’s like saying “the fastest way to not make bread is to not make bread” but you’d be amazed how many people do ALL the prep but put off actually doing any of the work (primarily because they know it’s a lot of “NO”s just waiting to happen).

Though I’m not generally a massive user of mnemonics and acronyms, I heard something recently that I quite liked called the “Triple A” rule. Assessment, Assembly, Action.

Whatever the task (in our case, some business development) start by assessing what you already have and what you’ll face (otherwise known as “the problem”). For us, we might already have a small list of prospects, and what we’ll face are the companies on that list who likely don’t want to be sold anything today.

Next we plan with those variables in mind, augmenting what we already have by adding what we need. Assemble the ‘things’ we need - the assets, the data, the people, the objection-handling responses, etc.

And finally (and MOST importantly) you then take ACTION.

It sounds like common sense, but I can assure you there are fleets of people as we speak NOT doing anything despite having assessed the situation and assembled what they need.

The sooner you get on with it, the sooner things will happen. And the sooner things happen, the better you’ll do.

Happy hunting.

EPILOGUE:

1) Meatloaf was wrong (two out of three IS bad)

2) Funny how you can’t think of the word ASSEMBLE without picturing Captain America, isn’t it?

3) I got the “Triple A” rule from a PlayStation game. I knew they wouldn’t rot my brain (mum).

List-building for cold prospecting

For us, list-building is very much a “bread and butter” part of what we do. We could be awesome on the phone (we are) and write incredible emails (we do) but none of it would matter if our prospect lists were duff.

As I’m relatively new to business development compared to some of the experts I rub shoulders with, I just always assumed everyone had a team like we do, scouring the web and building databases for clients. But it turns out that many folks (including some of our competitors!) buy them in from external list-building companies.

The big question is, does it matter?

Well… my answer starts with a question (I’m like a politician in that way). What process that wasn’t purely mechanical was ever improved by automating it or cutting corners? Sure, some list-building agencies allow you to manipulate twenty drop down lists and tick as many filter buttons as you can, but without a smart human eye-balling every list made, something will slip through the cracks.

If you want a list you can depend on, invest as much time, effort and love into it as possible. These names and numbers potentially represent the future of your company. These are they guys you plan to collaborate with (and be paid handsomely by) for years to come., so invest invest invest.

If buying in the same list your competitors bought in last week seems like the strongest move, then fine; fill your boots. However, some diligent desk research and directory interrogation might uncover the real prospects that haven’t yet made it onto the communal “for sale” lists.

Happy hunting.

Trick yourself (and get some work done)

As someone who gave up office life more than 15 years ago, it was interesting to watch the entire nation deal with something that I had to address back then: working from home.

If you have a dog, a ukulele, a biscuit barrel, a PlayStation, a garden, Candy Crush, Netflix or perhaps a keen interest in adult entertainment, working from home can initially prove challenging when it comes to staying focused. Without a boss calling you into their office or staff wandering by your screen to keep you honest, it can be hard to self-discipline and stay on-task with so many distractions around you (and no one to stop you from doing whatever you fancy).

Ironically, if you can stop your eyes twitching to something more interesting, you’ll be stunned at how much work you can get done (though there’s no one hassling to keep you working, there’s also no one hassling to STOP you working). Tea and coffee intake will initially go through the roof (you don’t have to make ANYONE else a cup!) but once you get control of that obsession you should find a more productive WFH balance is entirely achievable.

I enjoyed a blog by Rachel Degginger at Heinz Marketing, offering “4 Tips to Improving Your WFH Experience”. In the blog Rachel talks about improving her WFH situation by mimicking her old work setup (down to an office-replicating raised laptop, external keyboard, second monitor, etc.) to ‘trick’ herself into entering her own personal ‘office space’ with the right mindset.

Though workers are already returning to offices, many are still working from home, and who knows if we’ll all be sent home again in the coming months and years. It’s for this reason that it’s so important to get your WFH workspace arranged in a way that allows you to enjoy the benefits of working from home (no commuting!) without compromising your productivity.

Now close that Incognito window.

Agency new business. What works?

There are so many ways to build a sales campaign for an agency. Many agency bosses don’t want to be seen as needing to sell, but once you’re past the honeymoon phase and it’s time to scale-up beyond what falls in your lap, you’re going to need to have some outreach strategy.

Cold-channel business development is, when considered in isolation, inefficient. But there are ways to make it work better. It takes discipline and you have to throw out any ideas you have about high-volume telesales campaigns or mass-email outreach. Forget transactional selling (for at least 95% of the process) and sell something that has huge relevancy to your prospect. A recent Dun & Bradstreet report showed that 67% of b2b buyers see “relevant communication” as a top influence for choosing one vendor over another.

But it’s more complicated than that. A Gartner report found that the number of people in a company buying decision has increased from 1-2, to 7-8 in a small business (up to 500 staff). Each level of decision-maker will have a different idea of what is relevant.

Luckily, it’s not just the direct outreach that can create that relevancy. Your content marketing is part of what makes you relevant. A Forrester report from a while back (2014) found that even back then, half of b2b prospects will view at least 8 content pieces during the buying process. 80% of them looked at a minimum of 5 content pieces. This is all part of the selling process and your direct outreach should dovetail nicely with the content you produce. Sadly agencies’ content is all too often the sort of thing that impresses other agencies rather than prospects.

The reason agency new business endeavours are so frustrating at times is the need to maintain relevant contact with a large number of prospects, who have rarely been profiled and segmented properly. And if you get busy, you drop new business. And if it doesn’t bring in new clients quickly, you drop new business. And that’s why it becomes cyclical. You blame everything in turn. Your proposition. Your creds. Your Business Development Manager. A new business agency. The prospects. Your website. You. Another new business agency. You might be right (about one or two of them), but the chances are that nobody has ever really explained how cold-channel outreach works. It’s literally the opposite of winning through referral. It’s very, very hard. But it can work.

I’ll finish with some insights from Hubspot – their survey of buyers said that the top things that lead to a positive sales outcome are:

-          Listening to the prospect’s needs (69%)

-          Not being pushy (61%)

-          Providing relevant information (See!) (61%)

-          Responding in a timely fashion (seriously, it’s such an easy win – and so many agencies screw this up) (51%)

We can help with all of these things. We can consult with you on your agency’s many value propositions, selling personas, positioning statements, outreach strategies, and content strategies. We can do the outreach for you. You’ll feel it move under your feet and you’ll finally be able to tick “get the new business sorted” off your to-do list. Let’s have a chat.

7 ways to stop making dreadful sales calls

First, let’s get something clear: we do a lot more than make phone calls for our clients. Today we’re just addressing the fact that most new business calls are remarkably bad. We don’t claim to have a magic wand, nor do we promise ridiculous results from our work. We do however make sure we avoid wasted opportunities. The phone call is a prime example of where waste can occur over and over in a single day. In a single hour. At a new business agency like Sponge NB, we see this affect outcomes directly - so we’re strict.

1 - Research it

The first compliment you can pay your prospect is having taken the time to research them. Even a little bit. It’ll make all the difference to your confidence. It’ll make all the difference to how receptive they will be. You don’t need to know their dog’s name (though if you do, please find a way to mention it without sounding like a stalker (on second thoughts, you will sound like a stalker. Probably keep it to yourself)), but knowing where they have worked before (Linkedin will help with that) or which agencies they’ve hired before (trade press can yield that information) will show that they’re not just a name on a list. You’d be stunned at how many BDMs don’t do the simplest research.

2 - Make it different

Most agencies’ new business calls open with something like “We’re Crunchy Frame Creative and we’re a creative agency and we’ve worked for Channel 6, Harbinsons’s Jam and Nevaslip Prophylactics. Can I have a minute to talk about your marketing?”. Other than the fact that you’ve already started talking to them without establishing that they are okay with having an agency badly described at them, it’s just dull. You’re an agency? With clients? Wow! When can we brief you? If you’ve done your research and you’re smart enough, you’ll be able to open with a question that prompts some conversation. Some of our team are sometimes guilty of not using their research to spark natural conversation – it makes the call far harder to get anything from. Nobody in any marketing department wants to know who you’ve worked for or what type of agency you are until you’ve created a compelling reason for them to desire that information. You might create that compulsion through your clever questions, your knowledge of their company or simply your genuine, carefully directed enthusiasm.

3 - Stick to what you say you’ll do

If you tell someone you’ll send them information straight away. That means moments after the call. If you’re not going to send it immediately, then tell them when they’ll get it. If you tell them 3pm, make it arrive at 3pm.

4 - Follow it up properly

Your prospects get a lot of calls. If you’re going to build any relationship with them then you will need to stay in touch. If you don’t then despite how amazing your agency’s work is, they won’t remember you. There’s a fine, nay (nay?) invisible line between “staying in touch” and “pestering the heck out of someone”. Stay on the right side, but don’t convince yourself that they’ll call when they need you. Too often they won’t. If polite contact from time to time is enough to annoy them then they weren’t going to hire you anyway.

5 - Don’t offer outs

“Can we respond to your next advertising brief, or……..”. This “or”, hanging off the end of the sentence is like a comfort blanket to new business people. In fact I’ve heard it from salespeople of all types over the years. Listen to your new business calls. If you hear that, then stop doing it the way you’re doing it and hire us (quoting SNB_OURPREVIOUSNEWBUSINESSCALLSWEREAWFULSOPLEASEHELPUS for a 7% discount). Don’t offer exits along the way. If the prospect doesn’t like your approach, or if your questioning uncovers the fact that they don’t want you, then they’ll find their own exit. You ought to be looking for the next best thing, all the time. When are they reviewing? How long is the current agency contract? Are there ever projects that fall outside of their current agency’s remit? But don’t roll out the red carpet to the exit door, or why did you call in the first place?

6 - Don’t immediately mention something you sent

You sent information and now you’re calling. You mention it, right? Let’s look at the possibilities:

1)      You call, saying that you sent the information about your amazing work on Harbinson’s Jam. The prospect remembers this information. But the prospect also remembers seeing it and not calling or emailing you. Otherwise you wouldn’t be calling them, eh?

2)      You call, saying that stuff about the PDF about the jam guys. The prospect doesn’t remember seeing it, or didn’t have time. Now you’re back at square one, but the prospect now views you as the guys who sent the information that he instantly forgot, or couldn’t be bothered to read.

3)      You call, use your research and intelligence to ask questions, building on the previous information that led you to send information. If the prospect doesn’t mention it, then you can send it as if they’ve never seen it. If they now remember it of their own volition, then their image of you is rather stronger – they remembered your jam work unprompted.

In case it’s not clear, number 3 is best. So if you sent info, don’t mention it. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it isn’t about your ego, it’s about creating a compelling reason for a prospect to hire you.

7 - Close, boldly, openly and honestly.

There are loads of different types of closes – the assumptive close, the Ben Franklin, the negative close. Bin them – they’re too prescriptive. How about something like:

“I hope I haven’t interrupted your day too horribly, but if I did then here’s the short version: we’re a cracking new business agency and you’re an agency that could do with a long-term, coherent, effective new business campaign. How can we do some work for you?”. Too prescriptive? Of course it is. The conversation should guide the words you use to close. Do close though. It’s the bit that’ll start your stomach churning but when it works (and if you follow all of the above, it’ll work more often), it results in those lovely highs that make the new business slog worth it.

We’re Sponge NB and you can hire us to do ALL of this for you. Call 01708 451311 or email Steve on steve@spongenb.com

How agencies can improve their creds deck's "About us" section.

Agencies can win more business by understanding the differences between prospecting in the cold channel and prospecting to referrals. Here we discuss the "about us" or "who we are" section, which is often seen as a place to inject lots of processes, founded dates and info on what the team gets up to in their spare time.

Summary (in case you can’t view the video):

The “about us” section of a creds deck or agency website can often present lots of subjective things that in fact give a prospect a reason to eliminate an agency rather than choose them. “About us” should be written with the underlying context of outcomes and results. If the processes you talk about on an agency “about us” page aren’t linked in some useful way to the commercial outcomes you cause for clients, then the prospect can’t be expected to do the work of joining those dots for you. If you’re an agency that creates brands that drive long-term commercial growth, then say that first. Once the prospect is interested in how you do that, then you can tell them.

Scores on the doors

Here’s fun: Open up your cold channel creds deck (you know, the one that you have JUST for people who wish they’d not answered the phone to you but did and are now trapped having agreed to look at “some creds”).

Ok – real quick… flick through and award each page a score from 0 to 5 based upon how likely they are to be a deal-clinching slide. “Hello” pages get 0, quirky photos of staff in circles also score 0, case studies showing not only the sexy work you produced but also the commercial outcomes they resulted in get a 5. Come back to me when you’re done.

Hi. So, you probably have a score sheet that looks something like 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, CONTACT US!

It might be better than this, but chances are we’re about to disagree over what information impresses prospects and what information simply impresses yourselves. Agency new business is our thing, so trust us for a mo…

The second part of this fun exercise (isn’t it though!) requires you to now delete the second half of your deck. If you had 12 pages, p7 and onwards no longer exist. Why? Well because if you think anyone looks through ALL your creds out of the blue, you’re kidding yourself.

The first few pages ‘earn’ you the chance to have more pages read. If (after killing the end 50% of your deck) you are left with a bunch of really low-scoring pages that include photos of yourselves, a page that discusses the year in which you were founded (and how your office was once a toothpaste factory) then you’re missing the point of cold channel creds. You aren’t having a cup of tea with referred chums; you’ve been given three seconds of a cold prospect’s day to shout something so exciting in their face that they give you a further 30 seconds.

“Hi – we’re the guys that increased IKEA’s online sales by 35%. Then we increased engagements by 4,000 a month for Pot Noodle. Then we… etc.” THESE are deal-clinching slides. If they’re not at the VERY front, then you’re kidding yourself as to how many companies hire you because of your faces.

GAME OVER. Now try again at a harder level.

Three reasons you don’t want to go in-house with New Business Development.

Ok, so that headline is heavily loaded in my favour because I work at a new business agency and want you to employ us rather than take things in-house. However (he said, legitimising his ulterior motive) though there’s little disputing that having your own kick-ass in-house new biz person is a wonderful way to be, there are a few things you might want to consider if choosing between going in-house or out-house.

1)      Did you want to be a sales manager? If you work in one of the creative agencies, you’re probably successful primarily because you’re incredibly creative (duh). You see things people don’t see… you have ideas others would never have… you know the difference between grey and teal (is that how it’s spelt?) Anyway, you get the idea. But now you’ve got an in-house biz dev person… a SALESPERSON. So that makes you a… gulp… sales manager! Time to get salesy: set some targets… implement some KPIs… and then somehow tell the difference between someone doing their best and getting nowhere (it happens A LOT in the cold channel) and someone doing nothing and getting away with murder.

2)      Little black books run dry. You might have an initial wish list of companies you want to prospect to keep your new biz body busy but do you have the internal resources to generate (and accurately populate) the up-to-date lists necessary to keep a new biz database relevant.

3)      They are brilliant… and now they’ve gone. Finding people skilled, tenacious, creative and resilient enough to be consistently good at new business is tricky (believe me – it took a LONG TIME to build the fabulous team we have right now!) And then they get cocky, get poached or use their successes to negotiate a move to a competitor.  

Yes, I’m scare-mongering, and yes, I’m blowing things up a tad to prove a point… but not that much. If you’ve never had to manage an in-house new business function you won’t have experienced these things. And that’s exactly why you should hire us instead (oh go on). We’ll take care of all these things. We are the New Business Landlords. We recruit, we train, we worry, we manage. And you can just sit back and grow. Win win. Win.

Things you need before deploying New Business support (Pt2)

Assuming you read pt1 you’ve now got kick-ass cold-channel creds. Well done you… and you’re welcome (those bad boys are going to prove invaluable in all interactions that end with someone telling you that sending an email with creds is the only way to start the process).

But how can we avoid just becoming creds-emailing monkeys? Well, it’s basically down to your approach and setting realistic expectations. If you want to become Kellogg’s agency, you can’t just call the number on the website and tell whoever answers that you want to become their agency. It might seem the most direct route, but you just make it easy for the gatekeeper to send you back to your creds emailing duties. Instead, set yourself smaller goals: maybe just call to find out when their current agency is up for review. No agency is retained indefinitely, and when sales or impact dwindles (even if it’s not the agency’s fault) it’s one of the first things that gets a good shaking. If they’re nice enough to give you a time frame, just ask what you’d need to do to get your name in the hat. Simple, non-confrontational and non-salesy… you’re just having a chat.

If you try to sell cold and hard you WILL fail. If, however, you just try to find out a couple of simple pieces of information, you might end up having a better conversation than you expected.

NEXT TIME: Pt4. Just joking. Pt3.

Things you need before deploying New Business support (Pt1)

Many of the companies that enlist our help have either never done real cold-channel business before or think they have (but on closer inspection realise that there was always some old connection or ‘good reason’ for the contact lurking just beneath the slightly warm surface).

It’s not a criticism incidentally; understandably, everyone prefers developing existing leads and working old connections rather than cold-calling prospects off a huge wish list. What it does mean, however, is that most companies coming to us looking to gain more business from cold-channel prospecting aren’t entirely equipped to do so.

The 30-page presentation they’re used to nonchalantly auto-piloting through in front of semi-interested parties is no longer much use. Someone barely interested in switching agencies might swipe through nine tight and mobile-optimised pages on the tube home, but to expect them to care about the history of your building, your copyrighted methodology and the beauty of your carefully-waxed moustache is probably hoping for too much from a cold prospect.

So… imagine a key prospect was only going to look at the first three pages. What would you include? Still want a “hello” page? Still want a gallery of your staff’s mug shots? No, of course not. You want your best case studies that had the most impact. Ok – now imagine you have six pages, what more might you show? Perhaps all the companies that trusted you with their brands? Further case studies showing more disciplines you’re good at? Good – now you’re getting the idea.

Cold-channel prospecting is about respecting the time and (likely) attention of your prospect. If you come at them in a sensible way, they’ll give you the time of day (or at least 30 seconds of it).

NEXT TIME: More stuff. (Such a tease!)

My two favourite words: what creds can learn from Netflix

Do you know what my favourite two words in TV entertainment are? Breaking Bad? Stranger Things? Jessica Jones? Nope, none of those… it’s “SKIP INTRO”. Yes, that simple little option on Netflix to quickly get the show on the road without any further delay impresses me every time. How amazing that someone is happy to put ego (and 5 mins of random names) aside and simply ask themselves ‘why are people here?’.

I used to consider myself ‘king of the fast-forward’ back when VHS was a thing (and even more so once the likes of Sky and Virgin HDs took over from tape). I could land you on the first second of an actual show at will, laughing with glee as the impotent credits zipped past. If I added up all the seconds I’ve saved in my life (minus, of course, all the back and forth on the rare occasion I overshot) I’d have... well, a depressingly small amount of time now I come to think of it, but you get my point (i.e. that no one wants to watch all 10 minutes of Game of Thrones’ titles when there are dragons to be harpooned and buttocks to be flashed).

So why am I comparing this to agency creds? Simple: with every one of your 50 pages (groan) keep asking yourself ‘why are people here?’. While you blather on about what year you were formed, where your office is located, what processes you’ve decided to copyright in an attempt to appear more interesting than you are... why not ask ‘why are people here?’. Chances are they were thinking about hiring you and wanted to see some of your work… so show them that. Perhaps they want to sell more of their ‘things’ and want to see how many ‘things’ you’ve helped other people sell… so show them that. Cut out all the crap YOU care about and get on with the stuff your audience wants to see.

Obviously, if case studies, results and testimonials aren’t your thing, you could instead have endless portraits of every member of staff who’s ever worked there, tell them about the incredible ‘journey’ your company’s been on, or perhaps even force an infinite infographic on them explaining how awfully disruptive you are… or you could just “SKIP INTRO” and show them what they care about (you never know - they might even stay watching until the end). Happy hunting.