The ad agency business is tough–everybody knows it, but things are getting better.
[Cue angelic music!]

A lot of marketers are hiring new ad agencies despite what you read.

Besides stand-out strategic work, one thing always separates thriving from surviving agencies: Attitude.

Not to come off as Tony Robbins, but here are 10 things I don’t hear from agencies who are winning new business:

1. Clients are wrong.
You’re not making your case–or maybe…you’re wrong.

2. Clients don’t get it.
You haven’t explained it well.

3. Clients are stupid (jerks, assholes, etc).
Leave the business now.

4. The work they have us doing is crap.
Show your brilliance. Imagine if Goodby, Silverstein & Partners thought that about milk.

5. They’d rather see us go out of business than pay us what we’re worth.
The best clients still want their agencies to succeed.

6. We should fire those bastards.
If you’re at this point, maybe that’d probably be best for everyone.

7.  They don’t respect us.
You haven’t earned it.

8.  They don’t appreciate our brilliance.
Perhaps you’re just off target. Dig in and collaborate. Or maybe you suck–they just don’t have the heart to tell you.

9. This RFP is a piece of crap.
Tighten it up. Show the client where they missed the mark. Stand out. Color outside the lines. Take a risk. Or don’t answer it.

10. This budget hardly makes it worth the work.
Fight for more money (but be able to back it up). Consider taking it at the budget offered, but if you do you don’t get to hold that against the client.

Have fun! This is still one of the best businesses in the world. Remember why you got into advertising in the first place and bring that to work every day. Your teammates will thank you and your clients will swoon.

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I’ve got a new guest blog post directed at ad agency new business on Philip Reid’s WinningBusinessNow .

The second of hopefully many more.  Happy to be included, Philip.  Thanks for asking me.  If you’re looking for fresh content on ad agency new business development check out Philip’s site.

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Recently, I was asked by a European ad agency how to break into the U.S. market, what tools were available to research U.S. companies, and where they could learn about accounts in review.  Rather than dash off an email I caught myself in mid peck.  It was clear from their questions that although they prided themselves on being strategic, this agency was not thinking strategically at all.  Getting U.S clients was not the real issue.

They needed a gut check.  I suggested they start by asking themseves:

• Why they wanted U.S. clients?
• Had they fully explored all the opportunities in their country’s market?
• Was there a real basis for a relationship?  For example, tactically speaking, could they demonstrate cultural differences that would be a stumbling block if their prospect simply translated their existing English advertising?  Can you say Chevy Nova?  How about Clairol or Starbucks’  stumbles in Germany?
• With clients forced to do more with less, could they overcome the objection of the added cost to work at a distance?
• Had they identified specific companies they could help, had contacts in, or at least an affinity for?

It was clear that they hadn’t considered these issues (or many others).  My Euro friends seemed intent on a shotgun approach.  They would have been happy to dance with whomever said yes–not the basis for a good relationship, plus the “yeses” would have been few and far between.  Their strategy would have been frustrating, expensive, and demotivating for the entire team and would have impressed few, if any, prospective clients.

In addition to being strategic about new business, this  agency also needed to be selective.  This can be counter intuitive, considering that sales is partly a numbers game. But knowing who they were as an agency, understanding their real value to a client, and then acting in accordance with these values would increase their ratio of wins far more than a vague tactical move to expand into the U.S.  When marketing problems more closely match the agency’s                                                                                        strengths, wins increase.

Following established, logical and simple business practices seems like a no brainer; so why not do that instead of making things more complicated than they need to be? Instead, we approach business development like a peacock:  all flash and dazzle, squaking loudly to attract whomever will listen, as if brilliant creative will open doors otherwise closed. It’s style without substance; and with so many smart marketers out there now, and no shortage of good ideas, business is not won by simply presenting great creative.

I suggested to my Euro friends that they do some real soul searching, and then if it still made sound business sense to target U.S clients, start by researching  U.S companies with existing offices or with plans to expand in their country.  Or let another firm do the heavy lifting by developing partnerships with larger U.S agencies already working for international companies in their country.

New business has no magic bullets; it’s combination of diverse skills that include business acumen, instinct, strategy, psychology and more.  Missteps happen because we fail to engage all of these senses.  I think much of what I told this agency they already knew; theirs was not a gap in knowledge but a failure to be self-critical.  Marketing likes to quantify and qualify everything; it’s built into our DNA.  And even through they knew better, this agency ignored their gut. As a stubborn person once told me, “don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up.”

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Phil Johnson made this PDF available from the Mirren New Business Conference.  

I thought it was worth sharing again, so here it is!

http://www.agencypja.com/pja-scorecard-mech.pdf

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The swoosh.  Possibly the most overused graphic element to come out of advertising in 100 years.

Clients are demanding more from their marketing agency than following the latest trends, and the answer centers around innovation.   Some agencies are listening but others see innovation as a buzzword to be spouted like a talk radio host blabbing about socialism.

Dozens of attendees at the Mirren New Business Conference last week described “innovation” as the missing piece of agency magic that will make all the difference. 

Here are three tweets from the Mirren conference alone:

Clients no longer interested in processes & ‘what we do;’ they are looking for innovation in the service offering”

Are you a commodity or an innovation? The agencies growing the fastest innovate.”

Companies operating in innovation mode 36% – organizational 33% – survival mode 21%.”

How about “Connecting Marketing Innovators”?  Look at the top of this blog.  So am I calling the kettle black?  Not exactly.  Telling real innovation from ad copy is the key to hiring the right marketing agency.

To start, let’s look at a few definitions of innovation:

Innovation can be defined as the act of introducing something new.  Hey, marketers love repackaging!  Put a bright pointy starburst around it and throw in “Improved” while you’re at it!

What’s innovation outside the marketing world?  Botanists define it as a newly formed shoot, or the annually produced addition to the stems of mosses.  Marketers would call this Product Line Extension.  

None of these definitions get to the heart of the real innovation marketers need from their agencies.  Princeton University’s definition comes closest:  a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation.

Great.  But marketing generally doesn’t like experimentation.  

Marketers like best practices and quantitative case studies.  Adaptabilty…?  Not so much.  It’s paralyzing when the rules change and as a result many agencies are scrambling for air; while others are the proverbial frog on the stove.    

For ad agencies to innovate they have to step outside the advertising space to look at business problems (and solutions) more broadly.  This is a tactical change that many won’t do because the agency org chart makes no allowances for it.

Innovation means a shift in the agency business model–which calls into question, an agency’s very value to its clients–and that’s a pretty small ledge to be standing on alone.

To be fair, ad agencies, alone, are not to blame.  How many clients have you heard say “not with my budget!”?  

 Innovation requires huge shifts for both marketer and agency, as a Forrester Research study recently showed:

Almost 80% of marketers don’t influence a critical customer interaction like customer service.  To regain effectiveness, marketers must transition to a Customer-Centric Marketing Organization. Doing so requires: 1) redesigning P&Ls and metrics; 2) shifting culture away from marketing communications; 3) investing in a customer relationship infrastructure; and 4) rethinking agency relationships.”

Yes, clients have to support the mindset to innovate and be willing to take the risks, but real innovation has to start with ad agencies.

In the coming weeks on this blog I’ll be interviewing agencies who are rethinking the agency/client relationship; shops with the guts to use their instincts.  With them, I’ll explore how innovation is more than a buzzword–it’s what clients want. 

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