New Business

Ask For The Order

January 4, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

After I left Advertising… I Learned How To Ask For The Order.

I left advertising for the first time in 1995 to start one of my two Internet / digital companies. You can catch up by reading How I Discovered the Internet After Saatchi. It is a decent read about my asking for a new career and about how to ask for the order.

When I founded and ran New Jersey Online, a very hot and popular first-of-its-kind online news website, my owners, the Newhouse family (think Conde Nast, mucho magazines, mucho newspapers, and Random House) handed me Jim Hageman as my sales director. Jim had been very a serious sales director at the Miami Herald.

As Saatchi & Saatchi’s USA and European business development director – I thought that I knew how sales worked. That was until I went on sales calls with Jim (we were inventing and selling first-gen Internet advertising.) One of the key things he taught me was to never leave a sales meeting without doing for the ‘ask for the order’ dance. If the prospect said yes, great. If, no, we tried to craft a program that fit their needs – and gave some stuff away to soften them up. i.e. we’d sweeten the pot. It worked a lot. And, it became of of my atomic habits.

Today I See A Lot OF Advertising Agencies That Are Way Too Shy – They Do Not Ask For The Order.

Below is a quick example of a smart guy that knows how to perform the ASK. In this case, Jim Clear (a New York Times Best Selling author of “Atomic Habits”) is asking me to share his newsletter with my friends. A clear ASK (yes a clear ask from James Clear). My point, see how he does it… Nicely plus an offer for you.

Learn from this to grow your company’s newsletter and even your advertising agency client Referral Program (you have one, right?)

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Hi there! It’s James Clear. [Read more…] about Ask For The Order

Advertising Agency Sales Prospecting

December 3, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

The Art & Science of Advertising Agency Sales Prospecting – A Smart ‘KISS’ Approach

You know what advertising agency sales prospecting is. Yup. But… let’s start with a couple of definitions to get us on the same page.

From Shopify: Prospecting is the first step in the sales process, which consists of identifying potential customers, aka prospects. The goal of prospecting is to develop a database of likely customers and then systematically communicate with them in the hopes of converting them from potential customer to current customer.

From Peter Levitan: Sales prospecting is efficiently going after and getting the new clients for your advertising agency that y’all deserve.

A ramble: All advertising agencies, digital marketing expert agencies, PR, well you get the idea, need to grow. If you have been reading me for a long time, I’ve told you that you start to lose that new client the minute they become a client. So, knowing that your clients will eventually leave by the back door means that you better be working hard at bringing them in the front.

NOTE: The following is NOT a definitive prospecting plan. I am just toplining the core elements that you have to do. Sales prospecting is both science and art. I help agencies every day get this particular act together.

Sales Prospecting

I am going to assume that you have a referral strategy so you have taken care of that critical business development tactic. But, you cannot rely on referrals and WOM alone for growth. Can’t, shouldn’t. Way too many agencies do this. need a referral plan? Here you go.

Your Brand Positioning Comes First

To be a great prospector, you need to offer the market, your specific market, a compelling brand proposition that will get their attention — one that resonates. You can do all of the prospecting you want but if you do not sound like you will meet a potential client’s needs then ‘fuhgettaboutit‘… you will be wasting your time and money. Need to rethink your positioning? Go here – How To Position An Advertising Agency. [Read more…] about Advertising Agency Sales Prospecting

Smart 2014 Advertising Quote From Mad Men

November 19, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

A Very Smart Advertising Quote From Mad Men

I originally wrote this blog post in 2013 – a year that I published 189 blog posts (a year that my consultancy started to boom). This “Smart 2014 Advertising Quote From Mad Men” post had a brilliant message from Don Draper to all advertising agencies:

The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them.

This total factoid about losing clients is why advertising agency new business has to be 24 / 7 / 365. Only the relentless win. Sleep and you will close your doors. I couldn’t come up with a better ad for my business development consultancy. A few dozen + clients after 2013 and I will hammer this point – Only the way actively unignorable win at business development and agency growth.

I highly recommend that you peruse my over 800 blog posts on how to grow your advertising agency. And how to run your business development program 24/7. Here is my list just for you. It is Don Draper approved.

34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants

October 21, 2021 By Peter 6 Comments

Advertising Agency Search Consultants – The Personal Shopper Of The Ad World

I’ve updated my list of the advertising agency search consultants universe. After updating we’re at 42. But, I can not update the “34” URL – so, there. Let me know if I am missing any consultancies. Thanks.

Before I get into the subject, I want to make an important point. Whether or not your agency has the chops and appropriate expertise to get the attention of a search consultant, please try to look and act different. Be unignorable.

Yes, you might be a great social media agency or media planning and buying group. But, I bet you have at least a dozen look-alike competitors.

Get It Right – First = Ask The Tough Questions Before You Contact Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Ask how you will stand out under the scrutiny of expert agency search consultants. Ask yourself, would you be interested in your agency? Ask me to help you.

The Big World of Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Advertising agency search consultants help clients locate the perfect agency out of hundreds, even thousands, of small and large agency options. It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of all searches use the services of a consultant (I am thinking about dollar volume, not total agency searches.) I suspect that the number of consultant-led pitches is well over 50% for clients that have large budgets, complicated accounts and now, highly specialized agency requirements.

Should Your Agency Contact An Advertising Agency Search Consultant? It Depends.

Should your agency contact the search consultants on this list? Well, yes and no.

Deliver An Advertising Agency Newspaper

September 30, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

Really? An Advertising Agency Newspaper. Peter, You Must Be Joking.

Websites are ephemeral. Social media is like the wind. Email. well email, just fades away. Same for LinkedIn messages. But paper, well paper sticks around. So, here is a suggestion. Consider having an advertising agency newspaper. Whoa… A newspaper? In 2021 or beyond. Yup.

Just to get the conversation going… that’s one of my photography series newspapers over there from my Mexico LaGente photo series.

I Am A Photographer. I Use Newspapers To Give Back.

I photograph communities (and dozens of people) around the world. I have created ‘newspapers’ as a follow-up for photo series I’ve done in San Miguel de Allende Mexico and Selma Alabama. It is a way that I give back to the community. People dig it. I’ve even gotten hugs in Mexico when I’ve given a newspaper to a person that has their photo in it. Hugs. Doesn’t your ad agency want a hug? See some pics of ‘hugs’ below.

Yo, Be Unignorable = Get attention = Creat An Advertising Agency Newspaper Or Zine

Ok, getting past that ephemeral digital problem. Go newspaper, or if you prefer a more modern approach – call it a zine.

Smart words get attention. Groovy imagery gets attention. Smart insights get mucho – repeat – attention. So, if you are going to the trouble of doing all this outreach work to get attention… why not try to really get attention. Go 1990’s and put it in ink. Let people touch your brilliance.

I Use The Newspaper Club

Go to the UK’s Newspaper Club for inspiration and, hey, why not use them to produce your groovy print work.

OK. One More.

Minneapolis’s video production company Current Resident also uses print / zines / newspapers…. whatever you want to call it.

Issues? Sure.

Yes, it is paper. Go green and make it eco-friendly paper.

Need addresses? Now that many businesses are back at the office – at least some of the time – mail is getting delivered to the right person. Or, you know what… ask people for their home address. I often send one of my The Levitan Pitch. books to people. They gladly supply their real address. These days, getting anything in the mail is like Christmas.