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The 4 Worst Habits Of Advertising Agency Sales

Peter · April 25, 2016 · Leave a Comment

The 4 Worst Habits Of Advertising Agency Sales

Yes, just 4 ~~worst~~ bad sales habits.

After a few years of digging deep into the business development plans and the daily habits of a range of advertising, PR, design and digital agencies, a few common bad habits rear their heads all too often. Here are what I think are the 4 primary bad habits that can be avoided with sound planning and an ongoing system that yields agency-wide ‘sales consciousness.’

Bad Habits Be Gone

1. No Business Development Plan – I Mean Sales Plan

Over 60% of agencies do not have a detailed market-ready business development plan. This plan must be objectives driven and reflect the changes in market behaviors – how marketers think and the evolving world of marketing tools – that are going on in B2B marketing.

When I say objectives, I mean the business development plan must be a part of a sound business plan. I tell my agency clients that they must start with a business plan – even if it is one page long. One concise page can be a good thing. Admission: I could never get my agency’s plan on one page.

Back to sales. Here are some lean and mean bullet points:

You must know what you are selling. Just saying digital or social is not enough. Some form of specialization is warranted. Read this on agency positioning.
Be able to express why you are unique. I won’t bore you by saying that you need a distinctive brand – you know that. The good news is that most of your competitors are not distinctive. And, most do not have messaging systems that bring the agency positioning alive.
Know how what you are selling will (must) resonate with the needs of your target clients. Obvious point: put yourself in their shoes. Today’s marketing director type is nervous. Help them do their job. Ongoing thought leadership rules in this space. It is also very SEO-friendly. Like, um, that’s probably how you got to this page.
Plan on how your agency, its story, work and thinking will get found via both in and outbound strategies (you will need both).
Be competitive.
Going slow will not win. Here is a great quote from Mario Andretti:

“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

2. Taking The Eye Of The Ball

We all know this one.

Our unwavering desire to please our clients means that they most often come first. OK, I get it. But, the fact is that running a healthy profitable agency with positive skilled employees has to come before client service. If you don’t have a well-run agency that is financially secure, the idea of paying attention to client needs will be a doomed effort. Your company comes first because the client hired your wonderfulness in the first place.

In my opinion, the only way that you can get to well-run is to have a very positive cash flow and ROI. You’ll get there two ways. 1. Build a service package (agency management, pricing and costs) that helps to make your P&L sing. 2. Run a very smart 24/7 new business program that gets the right clients (you must clearly define right for your agency) in the door. As you know, older clients will walk out the back door. So keeping your front door top of mind is rather important.

3. You Do Not Have A Business Development Sales Culture

First, a point. We call it business development. But, it is sales. And getting it right inside of your company that lives in one of the most competitive service categories is critical. Just imagine a category where your competition are all expert marketers and have super articulate glib management that usually dresses real well. That’s your sales universe.

Yikes, I’ll repeat the obvious: Business development can be daunting. It is a team sport.

It is essential that everyone at the agency understands that growth is a primary objective and that they play a role in agency sales. They will be asked to help with marketing programs, RFP’s and pitches. They need to be aware of any opportunity that floats by via friends, ex-clients and reading the press. It is all about instilling a culture of sales- consciousness. Much of this will come from agency management’s focus on new business efforts, talking to the agency about what is going on in and outside the agency and by acting as a positive role model.

4. You Hire A Business Development Director And Cross Your Fingers

One of the first things agencies say to me is that they have not had a positive business development director experience. Having been Saatchi’s business development director, running two internet firms and my own agency that had sales staff, I have a few thoughts on why this happens.

First of all, reread the first 3 bad habits. If you do not have a sales plan, an agency with the will and time to execute, and an agency that recognizes that growth is critical and is to a certain degree, everyone’s job, virtually any good sales person will fail.

I have a couple of important blog posts on the business development function and how to help make them successful. Here you go:

Is Your Agency Business Development Director Doomed?

As you might expect, the answer is no.

How To Aim Your Agency Business Development Director.

This is the blog post with a sample contract.

That’s it. No, No! That Isn’t It.

Read my best-read blog posts – they are all about advertising agency sales. I’ve designed them to help you win. And, hey, while you are at it, why not call me? You might have nothing to lose except one or two nasty habits.

Top 11 Marketing Podcasts

Peter · April 13, 2016 · Leave a Comment

My Favorite 11 Marketing Podcasts

This blog post is the latest installment of my growing Advertising Agency Resources list. I’ll get to the Top 11 essential marketing podcasts below. But, first, a bit of my personal podcasting history. I’ve been hot – then cold – then hot on this subject.

I was early into the podcasting arena starting a series of podcasts for my Oregon agency Ralston360 (it eventually became Citrus) the mid-2000’s. I fell in love with podcasting because a producing a weekly audio podcast series was relatively easy and being early into podcasting made our agency look like we were ahead of the curve. Sometimes I get ahead of the market – I think we were in the case of podcasting. It was one of my ‘shiny pennies’.

Our audio content included 1:1 interviews and episodes based on our thought leadership white papers. I liked that the podcasts could be delivered via RSS and it got my agency on the global iTunes platform. It also gave the agency something fairly new to talk about to our clients and prospects – looking like you have your agency’s finger on the digital pulse is a very good thing.

Here’s a review on how we promoted our podcasting skills from a 2006 article on our program from BuzzSonic.

Podcasting FAQ Via the Virtual iPod

Here’s a clever idea. Marketing and design specialists Ralston360 have come up with a great angle to market their services, a streaming video that explains all the basics of podcasting all wrapped up in a ‘virtual ipod’.

There’s also a free 14 page whitepaper, ‘Podcasting-the Pod Has Landed’ (in PDF format) on the website (in exchange for your email, natch!) which explains a bit more. They also have another free download, ‘To Blog or Not to Blog’ which kind of speaks for itself but is worth a look for newbies if you’re thinking of starting your own.

We promoted our podcast skill set via a website that featured an interactive iPod that you could scroll to get to various ‘how to’ sections. That’s the scrollable iPod to the left. It was one of the agency’s coolest and best promotional efforts and got us lots of attention. Here is a link to the podcasting white paper on SlideShare mentioned above. Remember, this was written over ten years ago.

The Shiny Penny Has Landed: Podcasting is Hot

Podcasting has seen a recent surge. Much of it, unlike the olden days, is now slickly produced by large media companies like NPR. Here are a couple of resources that help to explain the current positive interest in podcasting. That said, take a look at the Six Degrees of Separation podcast below. There is at least one major agency cranking these out on a very consistent basis.

TechCrunch.

TechCrunch’s article “The Future Of Podcasting” is a smart article on where podcasting is going and why. As you can see from their chart, podcasting is rising after a fall from grace (remember my shiny penny dates) in the mid-2000’s.

PEW.

Additionally, PEW Research center published its Podcasting factsheet in 2015 that shows the growth of podcasting.

In the fall of 2014, the medium of podcasting achieved a milestone moment. The podcast Serial – which reinvestigated the 1999 murder of Maryland high school student Hae Min Lee – became the fastest podcast to reach 5 million streams or downloads in iTunes history. Although the success of Serial – a spinoff of WBEZ’s This American Life – clearly represented a new peak in the popularity of podcasts, Pew Research Center data show that the medium has, in fact, been steadily growing its audience over the past two years.

Read the factsheet here.

11 Best Advertising and Marketing Podcasts

Finally…the list of the top 11 advertising related podcasts. Like most of you, I listen in my car or at the health club. I was a major listener when I lived in New York and had a lovely hour-long commute. My Portland commute is now only ten minutes. This has severely reduced the amount of time I listen. I wonder if the use of podcasting is higher where people spend more time in their cars = Los Angeles and even Montana or on the subway.

Build A Better Agency. Drew Mclellan’s series is dedicated to the art of advertising agency management and new business. Listen up.

Tim Ferris. I became a Tim Ferris addict after reading his brilliantly titled best seller, “The Four Hour Work Week.” Tim combines a very active and curious mind, an effervescent talent for self-promotion in the best sense and a very long list of talented friends to interview. I find at least 75% of his podcasts (and blog posts) to fall in the zone of high mental stimulation. Of course, one of his recent interviews is with Seth Godin.

Duct Tape Marketing. Another serious and broad look at the tools and techniques marketers are employing today.

Foundr Magazine. Nathan Chan interviews some of the most successful founders in the world to find out what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Go for the osmosis.

TED Radio Hour. If you don’t have the time to watch TED Talks, then listen to them via their podcast.

Six Pixels Of Separation. A secret… Leverage the power of social media to grow your agency. One of the most active advertising agency leaders using social media is Canada’s Mitch Joel (CEO of WPP’s Mirum) and his Six Pixels Of Separation podcast which, as of today, get this, has 508 podcasts. Clearly a record and what should be an inspiration to any agency CEO who values the marketing power of looking smart and building fame for his agency. Oh, you’ll see just one of the reasons why I love this podcast by clicking on the link.

Sound Opinions. Now that we’ve killed the record / CD store, it seems like it is more difficult (as in time consuming) to know what’s going on in music. I get my fix from MBEZ’s Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis. Listen to this and have something other than Steph Curry to talk about at those client dinners.

Freakonomics Radio. The Freakonomics team explores “the hidden side of everything”. From the economy, headline news to pop culture. A great example is the “Economics of Sleep” show.

#ASKGARYVEE. Best-selling books, one of the fastest growing advertising agencies, and a renowned wine business. Gary is the energizer bunny of agency CEO’s. Listen to this show about how to accelerate business growth. Your clients are probably listening to him.

Smart Passive Income. This podcast series from Pat Flynn will do two things for you. 1. It will make you much smarter about the universe of digital strategies and tactics (even how to do a podcast series). But, more importantly, 2. It will help you figure out how to make money by building your own online business. Pat made over $171,000 last month – not working for the MAN and he will tell you how. A way to get past advertising.

Social Media Marketing. Michael Stelzner’s podcast is designed to deliver the latest news and perspectives on social media. There is a very good chance your clients listen, so you better too. Need an up to date Facebook strategy? Listen to this show.

More & More Online Resources

This post is just one more element of my Big Advertising Agency Resource List. Let me know if I am missing anything.

What Does Your Advertising Agency Charge?

Peter · April 12, 2016 · Leave a Comment

What Does Your Advertising Agency Charge?

There, I’ve said it twice. Why? Because if you are an agency owner or partner or business development director or creative director and you have no clue how to charge for your advertising agency’s services, you are way screwed my friend.

As an agency owner and CEO, I participated in all large pricing surveys. Why wouldn’t I? Throwing darts at the wall of agency fees is not a good plan. It won’t help you win new accounts and will undoubtedly not help you become more profitable. Most of the RFP’s you deal with demand that you get your pricing right. Also, I’ve occasionally used these numbers with existing clients to show them that my agency’s fees were in line with the world of competitive agencies.

This industry-wide survey will immediately become a “best of” because it comes from our friends at HubSpot and the results will represent a huge number of agency respondents. Here is the link to the Agency Pricing & Financials Survey and here is what HubSpot is saying…

How do you determine the price for your services and track the profitability of your agency?

Some might call it an art, but that might be because many agency leaders are forced to get creative with their approach. They have very little industry data and best practices to tell them how to price their services, what metrics to track, and how to improve their business practices.

In addition, profitability in agencies has become a more difficult thing to achieve. Margins are shrinking, and clients can ask for more for less because of the number of competitors.

Do It. It Takes Ten Minutes.

Taking this survey will help all of you agency leaders better understand what pricing models to use.

The survey takes ten minutes. You’ve got ten minutes to get into your competitor’s heads, right?

Why I Love Vice, Motherboard & SmarterChild

Peter · March 18, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Motherboard, SmarterChild And An Interview

I moved on from founding NJ.com, one of the first online newspapers, to starting the company ActiveBuddy with Robert Hoffer (brains) and Tim Kay (CTO). I was the CEO (LOL).

By 2001, we raised over $15 million and became famous. SmarterChild, our proof of concept instant messaging app, ultimately had over thirty million IM relationships across AOL and other IM networks. People loved that they could talk with a computer that knew and remembered them and delivered instant results in the pre-WIFI age.

When I meet people in their late 20’s, it is not surprising that they played with SmarterChild. Apparently, Motherboard’s Ashwin Rodriguez did too.

SmarterChild had a persona and personality. It pains me that 16 years later, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are way boring.

In fact, our first paying customer (for the technology) was the band Radiohead.

The Article

Here is some copy from the top of the Motherboard article.

SmarterChild was a robot that lived in the buddy list of millions of American Online Instant Messenger (AIM) users. He was, as far as I know, my first interaction with artificial intelligence. I was a ripe 11 years old when SmarterChild was “born.” As we reflect on making machines in our image, and look to the future of AI, I can’t imagine this journey beginning without SmarterChild.

You could do many useful things when pinging the SmarterChild robot. Technically, I could ask him for stock quotes, movie times, weather, or other useful information. (When you asked whether SmarterChild was a male or female, I believe the answer was deflected. I always referred to the bot as a “he” in my mind. Perhaps because we try to see ourselves in technology. Maybe at the age where it was awkward to talk to girls, I could not fathom the pressure of speaking to a female robot.)

Read on to learn more. And… to hear me actually sound intelligent as one of the ActiveBuddy team just told me.

Advertising Age and The Future Of Advertising

Peter · January 25, 2016 · Leave a Comment

The Future of Advertising

Advertising Age recently ran two very interesting and insightful articles about the current and future state of advertising. It’s that time of the year.

In Part One, I offer my take on what I think are the most salient points in The Industry Speaks: 2016’s Top Priorities that delivered a range of industry leader perspectives on issues and opportunities. I’ve edited the original copy and briefly discuss what it means for you Ms. Advertising Agency CEO.

Part Two comes later this week. I’m feeling too cluttered right now.

One big takeaway… clutter. Advertising clutter, technology clutter, social clutter, content clutter, SEM clutter, even personal blog clutter and on.

Article 1: The Industry Speaks: 2016’s Top Priorities

“What’s the No. 1 issue that the overall marketing and advertising industry needs to deal with in 2016? Advertising Age surveyed executives from throughout the business, and heard a surprising range of answers.

Jeff Charney, CMO, Progressive

Everyone’s so concerned about ad blocking and time shifting, but we see a very different threat. Everybody is flooding the web with their own content, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. We’re not just competing with our top competitors, or even other brands outside of our category, we’re competing with people’s friends, mothers and self-made celebrities on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. And it’s just getting started.

PL: Yes!!! So much stuff. So much competition for your eyeball and ear. I am currently advising an L.A. based fashion agency and have been digging into fashion and luxury marketing trends. The fashion and cosmetics marketing world has shifted. For example, Revlon’s mindshare competition is now coming from personal tastemaker sites like The Blonde Salad — not L’Oreal and it’s Vogue ads. That was Revlon’s old school competition. But, cosmetics buyers attention is now whipped snapped by dozens of new eyeball options.

Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP

So number one on the agenda is encouraging companies to take a longer-term, less risk-averse view of the world, predicated on the fundamental truth that marketing is an investment not a cost.

It’s clear from BrandZ analysis that investing in brands works. In the last 10 years, a measurement of the strongest brands from the BrandZ Top 100 as a stock portfolio shows their share price has risen over three times more than the MSCI World Index and almost two thirds more than the S&P500.

PL: Ah, the old argument. Advertising spend is a long term “investment.” OK, yeah, we’ve heard this before. But, Sir Martin backs it up with some facts.

Lori Senecal, global CEO, CP&B

Convention won’t challenge itself. As an industry, we need to help marketers really take control of the technology solutions that unlock opportunities to offer consumers truly inventive, additive, and welcome experiences. But clients, agencies, and consumers will only benefit – and our industry will only thrive – if together with CMOs we can control the necessary technology from start to finish.

PL: A nice wish. Will agencies control the technology food chain? No. Will some savvy agencies build their own technology? Sure. but, the agency world will not be in control.

Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe

Mobile and data.