The Truth about Agency Sales

There are many misconceptions on the best ways to grow agencies and creative businesses. Most of them are inaccurate and very unhelpful for small to mid-sized agency owners.

The Client Key has decades of experience in successfully growing agencies, production companies and creative organisations. So, in this article, we’re going to share some of our core ‘truths’ in agency new business.

We hope that you’ll find them useful and relevant to your agency!

1) Strategy is paramount

Do you have a new business plan? Where is your next client coming from? How does your sales team operate? Not having a clearly defined road map for growth will slow you down hugely. Most agencies try to do things organically without a clear process and rigorous implementation of the new business function.

2) You need rainmakers

Rainmakers are the people who consistently win you business. They genuinely know how to engage clients and do whatever it takes to get them over the line. They operate instinctively and it’s in their DNA. Sales and new business comes naturally to them, and often without any formal training – they just know how to do it. Who are the real rainmakers in your business and have you got enough of them? Do you celebrate and reward them? Does everything fall squarely on their shoulders, or do you help them share the load?

3) Your brand proposition alone will not win you business

There are many people who believe in ‘win without pitching’ via a well-defined brand proposition. Namely, that if you communicate your agency value well enough, clients will automatically choose you without a pitch. Very, very rarely is this ever true. This single thing will not win you business. Yes, it’s important to have a clear and well defined brand proposition, that clients engage with. But forget the idea that on its own this will win you work – it won’t! Very rarely do clients ever single source major pieces of business without entertaining some kind of pitch. So…

4) Get good at pitching

Pitching is not a dirty word and ‘win without pitching’ is dead. Clients are duty bound to carry out their due diligence and entertain multiple conversations before placing a significant piece of business. They might know who they want to work with but 95% of the time they still have to run a pitch. Successful pitching is an art form in itself. So, get good at it! Learn what their major success factors are before you say yes. Learning how to pitch more effectively is the one of the single most important things you can do to grow your agency.

How to pitch!

5) New Business is the only building block for success

This is what separates the great from the good. The ability to put new business and sales at the heart of your organisation. It’s not great creative work (although yes, of course, that’s vital) it’s your ability to go out and sell that creative work. When you can embed this idea, across everything you do, your agency will grow, very rapidly.

6) Your clients might be further away than you think

Creativity is in demand all over the globe. The UK creative sector is among the best in the world. Through technology it is now easier than ever before to work with international clients. Are you doing this in your agency? How can you open up new clients in different markets more effectively?

Finding new international clients

7) There is ‘A New way, for New business’

You are operating in a very crowded marketplace so your ability to stand out and differentiate is vital. The Client Key helps businesses operate a new, more effective, way for sales and new business. Gone are the days of ineffectively trying to do this solely in-house. Our model is the ‘uberfication’ of the biz dev function. Proven and effective that generates results.

Let us know what you think about our agency growth truths! We’d love to hear from you.

Rob King – The Client Key