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How To Sell A Business

Peter · September 4, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Want To Know How To Sell A Business? Many Want To Do That Right Now.

I Wrote The Book: ‘How To Sell Your Advertising Agency. And, How To Buy One.” It Is Built For Anyone That Wants To Sell A Business.

I wrote the free, yes free, 57-page “How To Sell Your Advertising Agency” book so you will learn how to add significant value to your advertising, digital, and I mean it, whatever kind of company you have. Do you want the book? Just ask me or subscribe below or to the side. Yes, even free has its cost. But, hey, just do it.

How To Sell A Business & How To Buy One.

I bought and sold three advertising agencies. I also had two VC backed Internet startups. I get it. Here is a start for you – The Why and how of my buying an agency in 2002. The deal is to really know why you want to buy or sell and what you will do after the deal.

I will post about the other deals very soon.

Deal Number One – 2002. From New York To Oregon.

This deal had multiple objectives. I wanted to leverage my deep advertising and digital skills + buy a successful advertising agency + move out of the New York area to much greener, mellower pastures. The deal I was looking for would meet both business and personal needs.

I bought the Bend, Oregon advertising agency Ralston Group in 2002. At that time, I was living in New York and had left the position of CEO and founder of ActiveBuddy, a highflying Internet startup. We had raised over $30 million from VCs and individual investors and had patented natural language technology (earlier than SIRI) that we used to create the incredibly successful Instant Messenger Bot, SmarterChild. It ran on AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo. That was our “sample” Bot that had millions of followers because people liked to talk to a smart computer. The business goal was to create natural language Bots for brands and media. These Bots allowed people to talk directly with brands and information resources. Interestingly, our first paying technology customer was Warner Records’ hot band Radiohead. I could not have invented a cooler market entry.

Our company goal, like many other dotcom boom companies, was to sell the company to one of the majors. We in fact had deep negotiations with all when the dotcom dam burst. To make a long story very short, I did not get my “fuck you” money from a sale. Oh, don’t worry about me. I actually came out OK. Microsoft bought our technology.

After the dotcom bust debacle, I started to look for a company to buy. As an ex-Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising executive, owning an advertising agency was one of my options. I found Oregon’s Ralston Group though a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal – how 2002. Advertising in the WSJ was a smart move by Ralston Group’s owner. Here are the four main reasons I bought the agency.

The Ralston Group was a very smart and creative agency. Kevin, who would be my partner after I bought out the majority owner, was one of the best Creative Directors I had ever seen. The agency staff was also top notch. Without question equal to the talent I had worked with at Saatchi London.

The agency had a strong client list in Oregon and Idaho. Big community banks; major healthcare companies (hospital groups and Blue Cross); Sunriver Resort and Idaho Power and more. These clients came with recurring revenues. I knew that the addition of my Saatchi and digital startup background would help us grow.

The owner, who was looking to get on with her life after building the agency, was realistic in respect to agency valuation and – important to say – was easy to work with.

The agency was in the soon to be very famous Bend, Oregon. The idea of my wife and me raising our children near a ski mountain, rivers, fly fishing, mountain bike trails and, yes, even great restaurants and brewpubs, solidified the deal. We gladly gave up the usual two-month wait for a table at New York’s hottest new restaurant for 6,000 feet of fresh air.

Years later, I still view this as a very good business and personal deal.

Stay Tuned For More Stories On How To Buy Or Sell A Business. Plus More Expert M&A Podcast Interviews.

The next story will be about how I bought a design company that got me Nike as a major client. And after that one, how I sold my agency – and got lost in Mexico.

Oh, more… Here is a link to my podcast interview with a major M&A expert. You’ll hear how to sell – the details about how to do it that is.

My Story

Me Today

Much of my current brain is building out a 2026 project in China…. Cathedrals of Consumption. An ethnographic book and digital project. This leverages my global photography.

OK, back to business.

I know more about the art and science of advertising agency business development than any other human. My programs deliver a detailed strategic plan sandwiched between efficient branding and messaging programs that are designed to make your agency unignorable. Talk to me.

I wrote the best-selling The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.

My latest book, How To Build A Kick-ass Advertising Agency is the only book you will ever need about agency management. I mean it.

Oh, and I also wrote a book about Baby Boomers and two photo books about the cannabis industry — Portlandia and Jointlandia.

Me In 20 Seconds

During 16 years at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide, I ran business development across Europe and the USA was EVP Management Director in London and New York, and was GM of the Minneapolis office.

From 2002 to 2012, I owned Citrus Advertising in Portland and Bend Oregon. Clients included Nike and the U.N.

I was CEO and a founder of two major Internet startups during the dot-com boom. Advance Publication’s New Jersey Online was an early leader in online news, and the intelligent bot company ActiveBuddy was sold to Microsoft in 2006.

I am a New York native. I now live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Me In 2 Minutes

I went to the San Francisco Art Institute to study photography. That led to SF’s Levitan & Feinstein Photography. Our clients included San Francisco Magazine, Robert Mondavi Winery, Sonus, and Visa.

I joined New York’s largest Mad Men agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample Advertising in 1980. DFS had golden clients that included P&G, Nabisco, General Mills, Hanes, Wrangler, Toyota, and HP. One of my clients invented email.

Saatchi & Saatchi bought DFS in 1986 while I was running the Minneapolis office and the global Northwest Airlines account. I started to buy English suits. I won EFFIES that delivered sales from content marketing. This was content before we called it content.

I moved to Saatchi’s London office in the 90s as European Director, business development director, and managed Johnson & Johnson and other accounts across Europe. I bought more English suits.

I discovered early-stage digital marketing when I returned to New York in 1995. After AOL’s President Ted Leonsis told me to “get the fuck out of advertising”, his exact words, I left the agency to invent the online newspaper industry for the third largest newspaper group and Conde Nast. The Newspaper Association of America named me its New Media Pioneer.

In 2000, I founded the startup ActiveBuddy, raised $30 million, and lead the world of natural language bots. Our SmarterChild bot had over a trillion Instant Messenger conversations across AOL, MSFT, and Yahoo. Microsoft bought the technology in 2006.

I moved to Bend and Portland Oregon in 2002 and bought the ad agency Citrus. Our clients included Nike College and MLB AOR programs; multiple banks; healthcare accounts including the five-state Providence: hospitality accounts including Harrah’s Casinos; the Montana Lottery; Seaswirl Boats and LegalZoom. We delivered national and uber local advertising.

I sold Citrus in 2014. I’ve bought and sold three agencies. I know the art of buying and selling agencies.

I have spoken at the 4A’s, the ANA, Newspaper Association of America, Hubspot, Radio Advertising Bureau, international and regional advertising orgs, and recently at marketing universities across India.

What I am Doing Now

I counsel and coach advertising, digital, and PR agencies worldwide on how to build kick-ass business development programs and be UNIGNORABLE.

I wrote How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency and The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. I have over 1,000 blog posts on business development. Over 3,00,000 views.

I toggle between San Miguel de Allende, Mexico’s coolest city, and the USA.

This is from a few years ago. I know more about advertising than Donald Trump. That’s not a difficult thing to say. I hope that you find this as funny as I do. Even Obama thought it was funny.

Make Contact

Advertising and Ageism

Peter · May 7, 2019 · 3 Comments

Advertising and Ageism = Insanity

I am going to discuss two forms of advertising and ageism. First, as it relates to agency staffing and second about the insanity of not marketing to the richest consumer market.

Start Here: There are few areas of the advertising industrial complex that baffles more than rampant ageism. Here is a World Health Organization definition of the master issue…

Ageism is the stereotyping and discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age; ageism can take many forms, including prejudicial attitudes, discriminatory practices, or institutional policies and practices that perpetuate stereotypical beliefs.

I see two areas where ageism lives in advertising.

Oh, oh… before I start. I was going to use Jeff Goodby of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (that’s him in the photo) as an example of an ‘older’ guy who still works in advertising. But, and I find this kinda humorous, it is virtually impossible to find out how old Jeff is. I suspect that he has erased age from his bio.

First: Ageism and Advertising Agency Staffing

There is no question that the advertising industry is about young people and the not over 45 employee. According to AdAge:

In 2017, the majority, or 63 percent, of workers in advertising, public relations and related services were under 45 years of age, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median age in the category was 39.2—roughly the same as a decade earlier. (By comparison, the median age in accounting, including tax prep, bookkeeping and payroll services, was 45.)

Though I find advertising agency employee-based ageism unnerving, I understand this bias from a business perspective. As an ex-agency owner, I know the need to keep staff costs down. In what is becoming a lower and lower margin industry, cost efficiency, especially when it relates to salaries and healthcare costs is critical. My over 50 employees cost a lot more than my under 40.

Another reason that agencies go “young” is that there is the perception that older workers do not “get” new digital marketing platforms. Really? Are we really thinking that one has to have been born after 1990 to understand how digital marketing works? I am twice the age of the average agency employee. Yet, I was one of the ‘inventors’ of digital news in 1995, launched the first natural language marketing interface in 2000 (think bots) and ran an Oregon agency that specialized in digital marketing. Do you think that I am the only older person that gets it? I mean frankly, how much of a fucking genius do you have to be to understand Instagram video?

I think that the idea that anyone over 45 does not get it is simply an excuse to keep costs down by reducing the number of more expensive employees.

Second: Ageism and Advertising’s Missing Demographic

Imagine a marketer waking up and not wanting to market to a huge segment of the population? Well, that is how advertising works today.

Despite being a massive market, only about 5% of U.S. advertising is even aimed at people over 50 according to Havas Group. There are many reasons for this. But I think that ageism plays a part (like you are 27 and like why would I want to spend my client’s budget on people like my parents?) I mean, they don’t use Snapchat. They don’t play Minecraft. They don’t binge drink.

When you staff up an agency with 27-year-olds, you are going to miss having a bunch of people with broader life experiences. The kind of life experience (and no, I am not suggesting that agencies need in-house 70-year-olds) that helps your agency sell more stuff.

Isn’t an advertising agency in the business of selling more stuff? To like, whomever?

Possibly, not selling more stuff is a reason that advertising agencies are not perceived as being essential as they used to be to driving client sales.

OK, time for my milk and cookies.

Want more? Read this from Fast Company: Why marketing to seniors is so terrible.

Advertising Agencies, Nerds And Digital Marketing

Peter · February 11, 2019 · 1 Comment

This is a post about advertising agencies and the ongoing move to digital marketing and as a result, the need for more nerds. In this case, I mean a single-minded person that is highly focused on a technical field, like mobile advertising; programmatic media, database marketing or, well you get it. Stick with me on this one.

There is some personal history here and yes, the name dropping is important. I am trying to make a point and can use all the help I can get.

History

I “discovered” digital marketing in 1994 when I came home to the U.S.A. from Saatchi London where no one had a computer on their desk. I returned to work as Business Development Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising New York and as it turned out, it was my 16th and last year at the agency.

My eventual move out of advertising was stimulated by my discovery of and fascination with the new world of interactivity via CD-ROMs and a life-changing conversation I had with Ted Leonsis who, at that time ran Florida’s Redgate Communications. Redgate was very early digital agency founded in 1987. I found Ted through the 4A’s Michael Donahue another early digerati (you could say this word then without cringing). Using my Saatchi credential, I met with Ted and he told me two very interesting things. One, his company had just been bought by America Online and two, this advice,

“Get the hell out of advertising, it is going to die. Move into digital.”

Well, after the meeting I did two things – one a mistake and the other, the smart one: I listened.

The mistake was that I didn’t buy America Online stock (its stock rose 600 percent in 1998). Had I, I might be sorta near (well, kinda near) where Ted wound up. Today, he is the owner of Washington D.C.’s Capitals, Wizards and Mystics. [Read more…] about Advertising Agencies, Nerds And Digital Marketing

Surprise: Inbound Marketing Works

Peter · March 1, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Inbound Marketing Works

Some inbound marketing tips about half way down. But, ya know, I just gotta start with a story.

OK, no big surprise here… I just have to say it. Inbound marketing does work. Why am I bringing up this subject that you probably think about every day? Because I have been starting to see some thinking that the overabundance of marketing content and SEO activity, especially in your B2B space (I am talking about advertising agency business development), is reducing the effectiveness of inbound. Well, it is. In fact, all forms of marketing appear to be less effective for the average marketer. But, here is the deal. A hefty segment of inbound marketers are clearly winning. They are winning because of their strategic approach, well-targeted tactics and, most importantly, how they execute. The winners use both best practices and the objective of being unignorable.

Some background.

My wife and I are building a house down here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It will kinda look like the photo on the left – more windows and a different color. Click on the link to see why we moved down here and how (yes, I know that some of you have thought about leaving the USA too — shhhh, I won’t tell). As new house builders and ones that will need to purchase a bunch of furniture because we totally downsized when we left Portland OR last July, we need some new stuff. This got me thinking that I’d rather have people like you buy my services and send me cash vs. simply raiding my savings. Therefore, I ramped up my inbound marketing about a month ago to slightly increase my leads. Because, yes you know this is coming… Inbound works.

The Inbound Marketing Switch

Over the past four weeks, I’ve gotten inbound leads from advertising agencies in Sweden, Dubai, Adelaide, Botswana, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, and Toledo. I’ve even gotten incoming from multi-national networks.

I got these seemingly random, but very hot global leads because I flipped the inbound switch. A switch I found in 1995.

I have been doing social media and inbound marketing since the mid-90’s. Without getting into great detail, my first web business was New Jersey Online, a very early news website. We used social media in the form of viewer forums about New Jersey and New York sports (the Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Islanders, Rangers and Devils, oh and the Yankees and Mets) and all the local kid’s sports teams and entertainment to capture the attention of a huge audience. We added daily content from four news sources (they were called newspapers). We grew an audience that was even larger than the New York Time’s website (I love saying this.) We won the New Jersey / New York metro battle by using social media, the power of sharing and… inbound marketing.

Back To Today

Here are the the switches I’ve thrown since January. No, no secrets here. It is just about execution and online sales pressure. I offer these as a reminder that targeted inbound marketing activity begets sales lead activity.

I’ve been posting more often. Some are long posts repurposed from other thought-leadership platforms I’ve used.
I’ve been amplifying and reposting my current and past best read posts beyond my website via my newsletter, linkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
I agreed to speak at my client Hannapin Marketing’s big Los Angeles PPC Hero Conference. They have promoted me.
Because of the speaking gig, I was interviewed by Paul Wicker of the super-smart ad tech company ADSTAGE.
A very large multi-office agency (one I am going to give a pitching seminar to) decided to tell all of their execs to buy my book on pitching and then get reimbursed. February was one of my best selling months. The book, actually an outbound strategy, gets the word out.
HubSpot is about to run another one of my guest posts and they just invited me to present on one of their large international webinars.

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So, my message is simple. Inbound activity works. Google likes it and they grant you better search positioning (FYI: it took Google less than an hour to crawl this page). Increased activity stimulates the readers of your emails, Facebook page, LinkedIn Followers and your groups. Stimulation with the right content to the right people delivers sales leads.

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And, since I know you like infographics, here is a crisp one from StraightNorth. As they say,”The Internet marketing lead generation ecosystem illustrates how all components fit together to form cohesive campaigns. It is intended to give marketing leaders a blueprint for building a complete Internet marketing strategy that maximizes sales lead generation.”