Insights

Personal Update

Peter · June 6, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Yes, It’s Personal

First

I was interviewed recently by Mitch Joel of WPP’s Mirum agency and its Six Pixels of Separation podcast. It’s the second time that we’ve discussed the “art” of business development and the state of today’s advertising business. While I recommend listening to ME!, I want to make sure that you add Mitch’s podcast to your podcast list. I think that Six Pixels is the best and most informative advertising podcast. It’s way deep too at 569 episodes. Search through it and you’ll find many industry leaders.

Second

Some of you know that I moved to San Miguel de Allende Mexico about one year ago. My wife and I are building a house here that should be ready for move in June (fingers crossed.) Very exciting. If you haven’t read my well-read blog post on moving to Mexico, here it is.

Third

After years of dabbling with my photography (I started life as a commercial photographer in San Francisco – then fled back to NY advertising), I am doing a serious project in San Miguel. My goal is to have an event, not a photo “show”, that will celebrate the people of San Miguel. I am well on my way to getting over 400 portraits against my portable white background. One is on the left.

More can be seen on my photography website…. HERE. The project is also on Facebook at @lagentemexicana – join my over 2,200 Followers.

How To Win The Advertising Agency Pitch

Peter · May 31, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Hubspot Advertising Agency Expert Series: How To Win The Pitch

I won my first advertising agency pitch over 30 years ago and have been pitching ever since. And, channeling a bit of chutzpah, I’ve won more than my fair share at Saatchi & Saatchi, at my two Internet startups (I pitched VC’s and advertising clients) and at my own ad agency. In fact, I put my not so secret secrets in my book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. I say not so secret because the agencies that win more pitches do so by following a set of logical rules or processes and truly understand the needs of the client being pitched.

Frankly, I’d love you to buy the book. However, our friends at Hubspot will help you get going to more wins by having me deliver a 1-hour seminar on pitching in their Agency Expert Webinar Series.

The “Win” session is in a couple of weeks – so get it on your calendar…. June 14 at 11 AM ET that’s 4 PM GMT.

My online presentation: The Pitch: Present Smarter To Win MoreClients. You can sign up right here @ Registration.

My goal is to help your agency and people master the new business pitch process. This means more wins; more profits; more happiness; more craft beers and longer holidays (OK, more beers.)

HubSpot’s Agency Expert Webinar series is an opportunity for professionals in the agency space to hear from industry leaders and learn about their areas of expertise.

Hear from thought leaders about their experiences in agency life in one-hour YouTube live segments, focusing on topics ranging from agency growth and brand experiences to finding new talent and procuring clients.

My Presentation On Pitching & Presenting

My presentation will track the key elements and advice from my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

You don’t have to buy the book to track the presentation. But, why not buy it anyway – you will win more advertising agency pitches. Hey, go ahead and buy multiple copies. You can do that with just a couple of clicks … and even get a free chapter at the top of this page.

What You Will Learn

I’ll track these key elements of the book…

Chapters One & Two:

These chapters reveal the very high cost of failing to run well-crafted, efficient pitches. Chapter One includes an instructive and humorous story about the worst advertising pitch ever… for the global Adidas account at Saatchi London. Chapter Two offers a system for how to choose which pitches to go for and which must be avoided.

Chapters Three & Four:

Chapter Three begins to help you position your pitch and presentation for success by learning how you will understand the client’s mindset, type of assignment and what style of agency and relationship the client is actually looking for. Chapter Four covers “The 12 Deadliest Presentation Mistakes” that must be avoided to win that new account.

Chapter Five:

This detailed chapter is a ‘how-to’ of 30 techniques on how to build a brilliant presentation that will increase your odds of winning. These ideas cover the three major elements of a successful pitch: process management, content development, and how to craft a compelling presentation. Each element is supported by an insight that offers a fast way to achieve these objectives.

Chapters Six & Seven:

These chapters deliver insightful interviews with advertising industry leaders. You’ll get valuable learning via 14 interviews with a range of clients, presentation gurus, and industry association experts. Finally, the book includes real-world insights from 16 of the world’s leading search consultants. Believe me, they’ve heard it all.

Expedia And Sales Chutzpah

Peter · May 22, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A Lesson From Expedia On Sales Chutzpah

OK, we all have bad customer service experiences. I get it. But when the bad experiences go across four Expedia service phone conversations (that lasted about three plus hours over two days) and another six back and forth Twitter direct tweets and the customer who is spending over $5,000 on the trip is still unsatisfied (that’s me), there must be something wrong with how Expedia runs the humanbeing (vs. digital) sales service side of its business.

No, This Post Is Not About Expedia. It Is About Your Ad, PR, Digital, etc. Agency

Stick with me because this blog post is actually about a way to grow your agency – a way that requires a bit of chutzpah. However, before I get to your agency and an unignorable sales tactic, I have to share a tiny bit of customer service related background to set up the chutzpah recommendation.

A few weeks ago, I used Expedia to book two tickets from Mexico City to Budapest for a summer trip to see the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix race. This week, I called Expedia to change the trip by adding a few days up front and move the original first destination from Budapest to Vienna. I knew about and was willing to spend the extra $500 flight change charge and, before I called, I had also looked at all of the available flight options. I was prepared for the service rep call. But, I was not prepared for the following:

Expedia’s phone system could never recognize my itinerary number or phone number (the ones that are listed on Expedia’s original flight plan document). I knew I was in the system because when I finally got to a rep, she recognized the numbers. What’s up with Expedia’s automated phone system and the interface with its database?

While it took me about 30 seconds to get to the Iberia Airlines and Expedia sites to find my reservation detail, it took the multiple Expedia reps I talked to at around two minutes.

I was repeatedly asked if Mexico City was my origination airport (I live in Mexico) and if I was to change flights in Madrid as stated on my reservation. Um, yes.

The reps took forever to find alternative flights although I was helping them find the alternatives. And on. I won’t bore you with more including the third rep who apologized for how sloooooow Expedia’s computer was working.

Taken individually, these don’t appear to be too onerous. However, in aggregate, they were and I gave up without making the flight change.

OK, two more points.

I was so pissed off that I sent LinkedIn InMails to three Expedia marketing execs gently complaining about the service and asking them if they ever sat in on customer calls – consider this action an internal “Store-Check”. It’s been four days since I sent the emails. Any response? No. Sure these folks get lots of emails. But, I used attention-getting customer-centric subject lines.

The Cost Of Ad Agency Business Development

Peter · May 13, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Ad Agency Business Development. What Does It Actually Cost?

Simple answer? Ad agency business development costs… a lot. A more detailed answer follows.

I recently spoke about ad agency business development (essentially the art of Account Based Marketing) at Hanapin Marketing’s PPC Hero conference in L.A. and did a day long ‘how to pitch’ workshop for a major agency network at their annual meeting in Miami. I came away from both sessions thinking about the high cost of business development.

The True Cost Of Business Development

Since there is no one size fits all answer to what BD costs, I am going to illustrate the cost for a typical medium sized agency. Based on many conversations with agency leadership and the research done for my book on pitching (see the top of this page or just go here to buy it), the cost of participating in a serious pitch can cost close to $100,000. Sounds high, right? But, here is my math.

I am making the assumption that a typical medium size agency responds to 10 RFP’s and participates in 6 serious pitches per year. Of course, your mileage may vary.

RFP’s cost $15,000 to write and produce. This includes both hard and soft costs as in labor and overhead. At 10 RFP’s per year, that’s $150,000.

Pitches are more expensive. Lets go with $35,000 per pitch. If you are an active agency, you’ll do 6 per year at a total cost of $210,000. FYI, I’ve run pitches at Saatchi & Saatchi that cost over $100,000. Not at all happy about that but that is a fact at the huge agencies pitching for huge pieces of business.

OK, back to the mid-size agency. The annual agency cost for RFP’s and pitching is $360,000.

But, there is more and I am going to be very conservative here. I am going with $200,00 per year for the cost of an active business development program itself. That’s the hard costs and the cost of a BD director and significant management time.

The total… $360,000 plus $200,000 = $560,000 or $56,000 per RFP and $93,333 per pitch.

Ouch.

Business Development – A Cost Center Or Opportunity?

The big question at many client companies is whether or not marketing is a cost or a business opportunity. Of course, you tell your clients that it is an opportunity that pays for itself. No marketing, no sales. Well, this is the case at many agencies. They simply do not spend the effort (as in time, investment and planning – oh, and execution) to run smart aggressive business development programs. As both an ex-Saatchi guy and small Oregon agency owner, I am blown away by this.