You probably have many conversations with potential clients in your agency. Perhaps on a daily basis? How many of them progress to become actual fee paying clients? How many of them end up being just ‘good conversations’?

There is a process that you can take people through that is so effective it will give you a huge advantage over any of your competitors to convert conversations to fee paying clients.

By the time you’ve taken people through this method they will be ready to buy from you.

Step 1: Listen / question / respond
Arguably the most important phase of any new conversation. This is the time to listen and learn. Ensure you always ask to speak to the client once they’ve invited you to pitch. Either in person (if they will agree to it) or via a phone call.

Often neither of these will be permitted. In which case ask to send through a list of questions. If the client still refuses to answer any questions be very wary. Is this something you realistically have a chance of winning? Most likely not and you could just be making up the numbers. You can always decline the conversation or pitch.

Step 2: Challenge & interrogate
There is a place for appropriately challenging and testing thoughts or ideas. As long as you have good rapport with the client you can ask relatively direct questions back in response. This is the time to go a bit deeper with the thinking or questioning.

“If we suggested X,Y,Z, how would that feel?” Another great question to ask is, “On a scale of 1-10 where do you want to be creatively? 1 being very safe and conservative. 10 being off the scale creatively” You will always get very different responses to this question! Their answers and reactions will help shape your creative at a later stage so make sure you take the time to do this.

Step 3: Interpret & create
Once you’ve understood their thinking you can now go away and begin your creative development. This is your time to start interpreting and translating it into your ideas. Do what you do best, that’s probably why they’re interested in you.

Step 4: Question
By now you should be confident in what the client is looking for and in your ability to win the pitch. If you’re not confident at this stage, ask yourself is it time to bow out? Would your time be better off spent elsewhere?

Once a plan is beginning to formulate in your mind can you go back to the client and test the water? By checking your thinking with them you can sense check if they like it. It’s also a great way of keeping the dialogue going with them.

If they’re happy to keep chatting (which they often are) – do it! However, make sure you don’t give away the big reveal until you need to. Keep most of the big creative back for now.

Step 5: Evaluate
Ask yourself as you go, are we fulfilling the brief here? Your job as the sales lead is to become the eyes and ears of the client. Sometimes creatives will get fixated on an idea that you know is not right.

This happens quite often and it’s your job to challenge back internally. It isn’t always an easy conversation to have but trust me it’s much better than losing the pitch because you didn’t say anything. Always try to think like the client and use their success factor and objectives. Evaluate as you go and don’t be afraid to change course if you need to.

Step 6: Deliver
You’ve come up with a brilliant creative idea or proposal. Now you have to go and deliver it. Decide who is going to be in the room. Think about the personalities involved and avoid any clashes. You want your best self, or your A team delivering their A game. So choose a time that best suits you. Try to avoid the middle slot if clients are block booking. Going either first or last is usually a better bet for making an impact. This is surprisingly effective at helping win more pitches – especially if you know you’ve nailed the creative! Get in there early, dazzle them and leave everyone else looking average. It works!

You should know who will be in the room from their side and what their individual agenda is. Are they focussed on the budget or the creative? Do they want the detail or the sizzle? You should know this because you’ve asked the question. Be ready for the difficult, challenging questions – embrace them head on, don’t fear them.

Step 7: Win!
By doing all of this and following the process you will have now built a dialogue with the client throughout. By the time you walk into that room, or send it digitally via email, you will be so aligned that you are making it very easy for them to say yes.

You have framed your company, your team and you as the only people that they should be awarding this project to. It is the natural choice for them to say yes, press the big green GO button! You have made it easy for them to buy from you.

This is ultimately what effective selling is all about.

The Client Key – A New Way, for New Business.

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Yes there are some short term challenges in terms of Covid restrictions but they won’t be there forever.

The barriers to entry are lower than ever before and agencies can open in new markets with minimal costs and time investment. In this article we are going to look at some of the ways we can support your agency internationally, helping you establish new clients and setting up offices in international locations.  

Understanding your market: Picking the right market is critical. There is no point trying to be in several locations at the same time, unless you have the size and scale to make this a reality. It is better to understand and focus on one market first. 

Focus on the Mega Projects: There are a huge number of mega projects in the world that drive business for creative agencies. Whether it’s sporting events such as The World Cup or cultural events such as Expo 2020. I visited Expo last week for a client and the sheer scale of creativity is incredible. Many of our clients have won business in the preceding years running up to these events. The next World Cup and Expo are already being planned. What could your agency do to target business in these (and other) mega projects? 

Cultural Differences: Each market has it’s own specific differences and nuances that must be understood. Winning business in New York or North America is a very different process to doing it in Dubai or The Gulf! Spending time getting up to speed on the sensitivities and cultural details will stand you in good stead. Things don’t happen overnight either. A long term and patient approach is required, which takes a committed board or agency owner(s) to see things through. 

Growth plan: When going into any new market you will need a clear plan for growth. What are the steps you need to take to secure business? How can you do it in an effective and lean way? Most SME creative agencies do not have FTSE 100 budgets when it comes to international expansion! I have watched many agencies burn through 2 years worth of business class travel, to China for example, with precisely zero to show for it at the end. Getting bang for your buck and spending carefully is essential. 

Foundation clients: Ideally, having 2-3 foundation clients can help provide a springboard into new markets. Those can usually be won from base camp – before you take the plunge and invest significant sums in travel and a new office. This is a very effective strategy that has worked for lots of our agencies. 

On the ground network: Build your on the ground network as quickly as you can. Get to know the key players and major prospects in a specific city you may be targeting. There are lots of resources via British Embassy teams and the DIT (Department for International Trade). There is a well developed infrastructure on the ground, all over the world, to help you. Tap into those services and get to know people locally. 

Office: This will probably be the final stage in the process, taking the plunge and opening an office. It may take a while to get to this point, if you build up business and your client roster beforehand. Being able to say “we have an office here” or “we’re about to open an office here” is a very powerful signal to prospective clients and it goes down very well. A satellite office with a simple presence can often be enough to start with.   

In summary, there has never been a better time for SME’s and agencies to expand abroad. The technology is there to support you and there are less barriers to overcome. The political and economic link between many countries and the UK are a major focus on government agendas. Markets such as North America, The Middle East and The Far East are all very hot for creative companies.  

The UK creative sector is revered around the globe. Whether in music, arts, fashion, film, events or createtech it’s one of the things we do best. Now is the time to take your creativity out there to the world!  

Rob King – The Client key: A new way, for new business 

The post Agencies Going Global: Now is the time. appeared first on The Client Key.

We are currently in the middle of a huge evolution in the way that clients work with their creative partners and agencies. The biggest challenge of all? Engagement. How do you engage people (e.g. your clients, current and new) in this hybrid business environment? In a world where they, seemingly, have much of the power and control?

Agency new business has always been the thing that separates the good from the great. Great agencies understand that new business comes before all else, and that without it, there is no agency or indeed creativity. The merely good agencies, often pay lip service to new business and it usually plays a secondary role. Today, amidst this evolutionary period, things are no different. The great creative agencies are finding smarter, new ways to adapt in the digital, post pandemic realm.

What are the best ways you can thrive and develop meaningful relationships with new clients, that quickly convert and lead to direct business, for your agency?

Relevance: Before you even think about approaching clients (new or current) have you considered whether you are truly relevant to them? Everything you write, or deliver in any meeting, should be aligned with their needs. That takes time to consider, craft and prepare. Client meetings are immensely difficult to secure and yet many agencies always under prepare for them. Spend time thinking about your clients businesses and their needs. When you genuinely align them in the right way you will soon be pushing on an open door.

Cut through: Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of all right now. Many clients are not in the office, e.g. no phones, and therefore contacting them, getting access or any kind of ‘facetime’ (these days, digital facetime) is harder than ever. That tips the balance massively in their favour, not the agency. The Client Key are using new technology to get you access to clients and land those highly relevant messages that start the all-important first conversations. Find a way to cut through the noise and get in front of clients. If this is a challenge, ask us to help you!

A structured process: Don’t get stressed, get a plan! New business & sales really doesn’t need to be hugely difficult or challenging. Most agencies are standing on a mountain of value – they just need someone to help them unlock it. In order to do this effectively devise a clear strategy and campaign plan for growth. We can help unlock your assets and value so that clients are quickly ready to buy from you.

Client Clarity: Ask any agency who they want to work with and the answer will usually be one of the ‘FAANG’ companies. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix or Google. Sound familiar? Clearly we’d all like to be working with these companies, perhaps you already are? But how about going after the ones under the radar? The global behemoths that most people have never heard of. These are the kinds of clients that we love – and there are lots of them out there! Know who you want to work with and, more importantly, why. If you start with a direct relevance to the client from the outset your first engagements will be far more effective.

Rainmakers – To bring all of this together you need people who intuitively know how to do all of this! The points we’ve shared are second nature to them and this is how they operate all day long. If you don’t have natural born rainmakers in your team, find some externally!

The old agency model for growth has changed. Previously, companies looked to the Sales Director or Client Services Director and largely, left them to it. That is a risky and ineffective plan for agencies not to grow. Why try to deliver such a critical function in-house when you don’t have the skills or team to do it?

There is a new way, for new business. A service that brings in expert specialist knowledge with the proven skills to grow your agency. The game has changed and it’s now time to embrace new and innovative ways of growing your creative business.

If you have any questions or want to discuss any of the points covered, get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Rob King, Founder

The Client Key – A new way, for new business.

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How does this translate in smaller agencies of 20-70 people? Can one person be a solution for delivering this large agency model for small creative businesses? Or is it simply too much for one person to deliver effectively?

New business for small agencies has long been a problem. You’re a creative so it doesn’t come naturally or isn’t your first priority. So you hire a sales person – the new business director. Very often this doesn’t work out. Perhaps they’re not what they’d promised and you waste 12-18 months on a misguided strategy, failed pitches and weak leads. Not to mention the £80K+ salary. Or, they’re everything you wanted for 2-3 years, then they move on. Because guess what? They’re great at their job and the big agencies will pay them double.

This is a very common problem in small to mid-sized creative agencies. Something we encounter on a weekly basis at The Client Key. Why? Because we believe agencies under 70 people don’t need full time, old school, new business directors. They need a new, more effective, hybrid sales model. A new way, for new business.

The successful large agency new business model is led by a team of individuals each with their own skillset and specialism. A new business team in an agency of 100 people will roughly break down into the following core strengths and skills:

Business Acumen: 40%
20 year+ director level professional
Proven ability

Creativity: 10%
Strategy development
Marketing & communications skills

Lead generation: 25%
Lead generation
Pipeline management

Sales: 25%
Sales negotiation & closing
Proposal generation

In other words, a mixture of grownups, creatives and doers as well as superstar sales people. People who will always get the job done.

Small agency new business usually fails because there isn’t one person who embodies this broad spectrum of talents. They’re a unicorn hire. Agencies hire senior new business directors, only to find out they can’t deliver on the creativity or rigorous sales processes required. Junior new business execs don’t always have enough experience and client understanding. Alternatively, Managing Directors, or founders, try to do their own new business but often don’t have time for real consistency or with enough regularity.

It’s a challenge for small agencies to access the breadth of specialist skills required. Arguably, the hybrid skills model doesn’t exist for agencies with 50 or less staff. These are the reasons The Client Key have developed A New Way, for New Business.

The new way is proven, simple, lean and cost effective. The skill set of a full team, for less than the expense of an old school sales director. So you get experience, knowledge and expert skills across each core sales function. We are specialists within the creative agency sector. The Client Key helps you ‘uber-ise’ new business in your agency. Eg, faster, better, cheaper and with results that deliver sales.

If any of this resonates with you then please do get in touch. We’ll be running digital workshops throughout January to help small agencies thrive in 2021. We’d love to hear from you.

Rob & Amy – The Client Key

A New Way, for New Business.

The post Death of a Sales Director – A new way, for new business. appeared first on The Client Key.

However, is that really so? Can you run successful business development campaigns purely in the digital realm? Are clients just as motivated to engage digitally, than they are in real life?

The balance of power has shifted massively towards the customer and buyer, which in itself is a great thing. Suddenly customers – your clients – have more information, more knowledge and more power at their fingertips. They can find you, qualify you and make a quick judgement based on that information (rightly or wrongly!) on whether to give you any of their most precious resource – their time. Beyond company websites all of your CVs are on Linkedin and all of our personal lives are on Facebook and Instagram. All that person has to do is go and have a quick look! In short buyers don’t need to meet sellers. The old agency world of meet-greet-pitch and win has changed.

However, I don’t believe that this is now the permanent reality for any business or creative agency. Human beings are a social species and we’re hard wired to want to interact, communicate and socialise. Whilst a lot of the sales process can now be conducted through technology there will always be a place for customer interaction at some stage in the process. Buyers want to understand and they want to learn. They seek rapport, want to do their due diligence, and they like a relative degree of certainty in their decision making. Logic makes people think but emotion makes people act.

For now, at least, the majority of this work must take place through a digital and virtual lens. It’s important for agencies and creatives to understand their clients and their problems. To ask deep and searching questions that uncover a basis for a constructive and collaborative relationship. This can be done virtually but it takes preparation and research to put yourself in the mindset of your clients. Here are some of the key things to look out for when prospecting new and existing client relationships:

• Listening
The first rule of law in sales. Listen more than you talk. Practice becoming a better listener. Most people listen with the intent to respond, planning their response. Instead, try being an active listener. Asking questions will allow you to understand more. If you do one thing, talk less – listen more!

• Understanding people
First and foremost you are simply trying to understand the other person or company. Once you’ve understood a little more about that person you can begin to understand their needs and if they align with yours.

• Learning
Listening and understanding will help you to learn more about your clients and their business. Learn as much as you can and use that knowledge.

• Building rapport
It’s your job to help lower the tension levels in any conversation as quickly as possible. Both you and client will have a degree of tension in any first conversation or meeting. It’s literally hard wired into our DNA as human beings to be a little wary in unfamiliar situations. Use the above tools, to lower the tension levels and build rapport.

• Thinking like your clients
Put yourself in the mind of your clients and try to walk a mile in their shoes. Why should they talk to you, how are you relevant? See things from their side of the fence. Try to think like a client when pitching, how will you be perceived in their mind?

To thrive in this ‘new normal’ agencies and businesses must recognise that sales and new business is central to growth and success. It’s no longer enough to just hire a sales person and hope it works out. Or undertake some lead generation and marketing in isolation.

There is a new way for new business. Agencies need a holistic, comprehensive strategy for sales and business development. When it’s embedded and engaged across every level of your organisation, and with every team member, then your business will thrive. Even in a downturn or lockdown!

The Client Key – A new way for new business.

The post Agencies: How to thrive and find new clients during a downturn? (And a lockdown!) appeared first on The Client Key.

The barrier to entry for agencies these days is low. Very low. A slick website, beautifully curated social presence, a strong creative track record (often for former employers!) and boom; you’re off. A fully bona fide ‘agency’ is in business. Form an orderly que please clients.

Many people think that just by setting up shop and simply ‘being’ an agency their business will thrive, succeed and grow. A lot of start up’s I encounter think that clients are relatively easy to engage and win. You might think that sales will happen and continue to grow organically because that’s what they’ve always done.

You also believe might think that clients truly understand what you do and how you can help them – sadly, they almost certainly don’t. To change that you need an effective pitch. You might also believe that once they do understand  they will want to give you a pitch opportunity. Reality check – they probably won’t.

Clients have more information, more knowledge, information and more power than ever before. It’s now easier for them to identify, qualify and reject you. And, yup, you guessed it, reality check – they almost certainly will. Even more scarily, they can do all of this in a few moments and in just a few clicks of a button. They won’t even bother to tell you they’re not interested. Far worse, they’ll probably just ignore you. They will have already moved on whilst you’re sat there expectantly waiting, hoping, that something might come of your fleeting encounter.

However, you’re not responsible for new biz, other people are leading the sales drive within your business, aren’t they? No, they’re probably not. They’re all too busy and overrun with other things being fired at them from all directions. We live in the information overload age, especially in agency land. Which means that sales and new business is not top of most people’s list, however talented or well-intentioned they may be.

So how do you begin to change the reality you are faced with? How do you tip the balance back in your favour. The first thing to do is implement a clear strategy for sales and execute it effectively. Being very clear about how you communicate and delivering your value so that clients realise they can’t get it from anyone else but you. We’ve covered strategy in another article ‘the only five ways to grow your agency’.

Does the world really need another creative agency? – no, possibly not.

However, if you start from a different place altogether and recognise that understanding people comes first – above all else in fact – then you’ve got a fighting chance. Because once you understand what they want, what makes them tick and more importantly, what they need, then you are beginning the client conversation from a far stronger place. Armed with this knowledge and insight you will begin to stand out and once you stand out you’ll also start to resonate with your clients. When you resonate then you will start to accumulate.

Reality check: You are not just in the creative business: you are in the people business. You are in the building relationships business. Understanding these points, and implementing a radical shift in agency thinking, are the single most important things you can do to help your business grow, differentiate and thrive.

Reality check – it works. Try it.

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