An Advertising Agency New Business Survival Guide

I admit it, the blog post “How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program” has been read by your competitors over 40,000 times. Glad you stopped by.

Advertising agency business development is a 24/7 operation that requires the right agency positioning, strategies, action, and high efficiency. I help my agency clients get there faster.

The post’s popularity is due to three key factors:

1. It directly addresses a major marketing pain point: how to build a winning and efficient advertising agency new business plan.

2. The post is well optimized for search engines, delivers high value, and, therefore…

3. Google loves it. FYI, my number two trafficked post is, “How To Name Your Advertising Agency – Part One” at 30,000 + views. While always rethinking their website, advertising agencies also obsess about their name. By the way, this post is also a very good cheat sheet on naming that you can steal if a client ever needs a new brand name.

“How To Build…” is all about the most important thing an advertising agency can do (while it is nurturing its current clients)… run a new business program that ensures that the agency will keep growing. Agencies are like sharks. They must keep moving forward to eat or else.

Your potential clients have over 4,000 marketing communications ‘agency’ options (other agencies, new consultancies, freelancers, even your ex-creative director…).

Therefore, any form of business development passivity on your part – sucks. If you think you are doing everything right, you probably are not. How can I say this? I never thought that all was well whilst running business development at Saatchi & Saatchi and when I owned my own agency.

Here’s my “ad”: I suggest that you give me a shout and take me up on my Corleone offer – It’s hard to refuse.

OK, Let’s Go… The 24/7 Business Development Plan

I moved from New York to Bend Oregon in 2002 to buy a very successful advertising agency (and raise a family 20 minutes from a ski lift).

Citrus grew to add a Portland office and national accounts including Dr. Martens, Harrah’s, Leagalzoom, Nike, Providence Health, Montana Lottery, and the UN.

I woke up every day as if a client like Nike was going to walk out the back door along with its revenues. I bet as an ad agency owner or manager you have rough nights too. One of the things I knew I could and should do was to manage this back-door issue was to have an active, I stress active, new business plan in place.

Here are some (I stress some) of the elements of my marketing plan. They helped me grow Saatchi & Saatchi and my agency Citrus. I hope my insights help you grow your agency.

Execution Rules.

When I set out to write this advertising agency new business post I didn’t think that it would be this long – a warning to the ADHD types. But, advertising agency new business planning is complex and is getting more complex every day due to the rapid changes in our industry and technology. That said, the devil in business development, you know what’s coming, is in the detail. Success is all about execution.

For example, running a successful inbound biz dev program that attracts market attention must be based on a sound strategy and smart agency process if you want to run a 24/7 sales program. Staying the course is critical.

The Advertising Agency Business Plan. First Things First.

The Ad Agency Business Development Director: How To Get Past Wishful Thinking

The awful “Death of a Salesman” image at the left means two things: The salesman is dying and his company’s sales program is probably heading towards a death spiral as well. Advertising agencies should not want to go in this direction. However, many agency sales programs are spiraling — or, are at best just static.

The way out is to have a very smart business development plan (crazy fact coming: most agencies do not have one) and, in many cases, a well-focused sales professional leading the way. Here is a path to get there.

First: The Business Development Plan

Start here.

You cannot win at new business if you do not have a business development plan. I’ve written about how to develop a business development plan here – “How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program.” Warning… it is over 2,000 words. Another warning, as of today, it has been read over 4,780 times and there is a decent chance that one of your agency competitors has read it.

Next: The Business Development Director

I am asked a few times a month about how to establish and manage the role of the ad agency business development director. I was one (at Saatchi & Saatchi New York and London) and had them working for me at my own agency and two Internet start-ups.

Most agency leaders hope and pray that they will find the right sales leader and then sit back and watch the right leads role in. Sorry, it simply isn’t that easy. Sales management is hard work.

I wrote about biz dev director position and interviewed Brooks Gilley of 52LTD (a leading creative and agency staffing firm) here – “Is Your Advertising Agency Business Development Director Doomed?”

Doomed? Why was I so down… Well, most ad agency business development directors fail. Most!

They fail for a couple of key reasons.

Your agency does not have a business development plan.
If you have a plan, you do not make running it an agency priority (you’ll wait until you lose that large client to get to it.)
You do not have a sales-oriented sales compensation plan (see below.)

And, from my “doomed” blog post:

Yes, wouldn’t it be nice to have a business development director that brought in more business for your advertising agency than you can handle. But is your business development director doomed from the start?

He could be if you do not have agency objectives, a competitive agency brand positioning, something to sell beyond, “Hey we are a full-service / digital / social media agency”, a list of clients and categories you want to nail, an active up-to-date CRM system and you are not in a state of panic because you just lost your largest client and are freaked out.

Next: The Business Development Director Compensation Plan

The Business Development Director offer letter below – which is essentially a ‘sales map’ – was used by my Oregon advertising agency Citrus from 2002 through 2009. It worked, we had a solid business devopment program that helped us grow regionally and nationally. After selling the agency and becoming a new business consultant, I have shared the offer letter with my advertising agency and corporate clients. It is an excellent template that you can modify to meet your specific needs.

To win, a Business Development Director and the sales staff, for that matter, must be guided by a commission plan that creates a win-win scenario for the sales team and company. If the plan does not direct the sales person and align with your corporate sales objectives, the chances are mighty fine that your team will not find their way to the sales goals you are looking for.

This sounds obvious, right? However, most agencies do not have clear quantifiable objectives and incentives. Agencies are not alone. I recently discussed the role of sales with sales people from two major San Francisco SaaS software companies. I was surprised to find out that that these folks were a bit unsure of how their goals meshed with that of their company. Frankly, this has to be crystal clear. The offer letter is a great way to start to deliver this alignment from Day One… and it makes it very clear what SUCCESS means to your agency and… your sales team. Frankly, for many agencies this as critical a goal as it gets.

Here you go. Use it as a blueprint. Modify it to meet your agency’s goals, culture and our ever-changing ad, design and digital agency universe.

The Advertising Agency Business Development Director Agreement (A Sample For Your Agency) [Read more…] about How To Aim Your Ad Agency Business Development Director

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