Some of the common questions I’m often about sales asked are: Where do I begin and what should I focus on? What should I prioritise and how do I have the right conversations with prospective clients?

A famous film director once said “the hardest part of making a movie is getting out of the car”. E.g. what to do when his car pulls up on set and 300 people are all standing there waiting for direction! There can usually be a tendency to adopt avoidant behaviours if you don’t know where to begin. But just like the film director you cannot simply drive away. The hardest part of all is just getting started. Once you’ve ‘got out of the car’ you’re already half way there and “once begun the job’s half done”.

As I have said in other posts ‘the only 5 ways to grow your agency’ having a clear plan is critical. You have to set a strategy and plan of what you’re trying to achieve with clearly defined outcomes.

Implementing sales campaigns within your business creates a unique energy and, sooner rather than later, momentum. Momentum is defined as ‘once you push it, it keeps going under its own force’. So, once you get started it begins to take on a life of its own.

You start to create an energy to what you do which becomes somewhat infectious. People (both internal teams and external clients) start to notice and it resonates. They start to recognise and understand what you’re doing – and more importantly they get on board! Whether that’s a new prospective client, a team member that was eager for a challenge or someone you hadn’t encountered before – people start to notice and buy into what you’re doing.

This is in turn, is incredibly motivating and gives you yet more energy as it validates your efforts, therefore becoming self-fulfilling. There is no better feeling in an agency environment than winning a competitive client pitch, from a client conversation that you have engineered yourself, and driven forward to get that project over the finishing line.

Thus the whole campaign beings to take on a life of its own and usually amazing things start to happen – I call this ‘the magic of momentum.’

The other big advantage is it’s much, much easier to keep up once you’ve begun – keeping the client rhythm going and the engine ticking over is a lot easier than building a sales machine from scratch. You just need to make sure you structure your time to give this the regular energy, effort and attention it needs.

“The harder I work, the luckier I get”

I’m not saying you have to work 18 hour days to get the momentum going, although you might start to notice there is a degree of truth here. Only that the more energy and attention you give something the more surprisingly positive things seem to pop up. Try it for a few weeks and see.

The magic of momentum can have a very powerful effect on your business. Having too many client pitches and being oversubscribed is one of the best problems a small business or creative agency can have. It gives you many things but the biggest luxury above them all – it gives you choice. When was the last time you truly had that in your business?

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I attended the event this week which brought together entrepreneurs, intraprenuers, technology experts and creative leaders to discuss and share their vision in the Createtech space. But first things first, what is Createtech?

Createtech is the umbrella term used to cover the emerging genre of activities in which technology enables creativity to produce new value-added products, services or experiences – and vice versa. Developing Createch fields include augmented reality, VR, programmatic branding, creative robotics, AI, immersive technologies and the application to performance and experiential markets. Createch is a wide-ranging term that describes an eclectic array of projects combining technology and creativity. Musicians and artists using blockchain to protect and exploit their IP. Brands creating blending virtual reality and live experience to launch new products. Craftspeople teaching new techniques to surgeons and scientists.

The UK is already leading the way and one conference speaker Russ Shaw, founder of Tech London Advocates, who acclaimed London “the Createtech capital of the world.” A combination of the world’s leading creative industry and a tech sector which is growing exponentially have already cemented the UK’s authority as the leading global Createch economy. There were numerous themes on the blurring of technology into every part of our lives presents to global companies and gain insights into how the sector can help shape our collective future.

There were examples throughout the day of how technology was being used in the creative sector to solve business challenges, specifically sales challenges. I was particularly interested in TRX a new platform aimed at the international TV distribution market. Founder and CEO Matthew Frank described the challenges of slow and inefficient deals which can often take more than 9months for a single rights acquisition deal. The TRX platform is a digital marketplace – a kind of stock market for the TV industry – that aims to bring streamlined deal making and far more efficiency to an area ripe for disruption. They have secured investment and VC from Channel 4 and Sky TV.

The potential for change is huge and the UK is leading the way. How can creative agencies and technologists innovate to drive growth and revenues? The answer according to Iain Tait, Executive Creative Director at Wieden & Kennedy, is to “invite everyone in”. Many big clients are “programmed to protect” and inherently stick to traditional methods of campaign management and delivery. The ones that thrive are the clients who are not afraid to embrace such rapid change, for everyone, across the board. Easier said than done for global behemoths! Invite everyone in – embrace change. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

http://www.createch2018.com – http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk

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