First Meeting Advice for Ad Agencies

Our past survey on First Meetings and Closing Effectiveness (Client and Agency perspective) suggests that Agencies have some real issues they need to address when in first meetings or first calls with prospective clients.

We recently had two discussions with RSW/US agency clients, counseling them on their first meetings with prospects and thought that some of the counsel we provided them might be of benefit to you as you work to find agency new business.

Here’s some advice on first CALLS. I’ll post some insight we shared on first MEETINGS in a later post:

First meetings-CALLS.

Despite our best efforts to prepare our agency clients with our information-rich prospect snapshots, they both said they sometimes feel uncomfortable knowing how to start a first call. Usually they start with “so tell me a little about your business” or “what would you like to talk about”.

What our survey told us is that Marketers want to know that you know something about their business. We suggested to our clients that they come to the table with 3-4 questions about the prospect’s business (or business competitive with the prospect) that showcases they’ve done some research on the prospect’s business (maybe even tell the prospect that they have done the research so they know it).

We told them to not pretend like they knew it all, but to use the questions to showcase their interest, their knowledge about the prospect’s business and industry, and to get the prospect talking so they could then bridge the prospect’s answers back to work/solutions from their respective agencies.

In addition, we suggested that during the course of the conversation, the principals drop in important things to know about their agencies that align with the prospect’s world (e.g. have worked on similar size businesses, have faced similar challenges with my clients, have dealt with businesses with your level of sophistication or technical expertise).

This is intended to help the prospect mentally “check the boxes” on why their agencies are a good fit for the prospect’s business.

We also suggested that each of these principals send an email (maybe a week out prior to the first call) saying “looking forward to our conference all on “x” date and looking forward to learning a little more about your situation. I have a few questions I’d like to ask if that’s ok. I have done a bit of study on your company (and what I believe to be, your competitors) and would love to learn more”. This way the agency principal has made an initial direct connection with the prospect, has helped set his agency apart by saying he’s done some study, and has prepared the prospect for what he’d like to cover off in the meeting.

Another piece of  advice: “walk” out of every call with an action next-step.

At the end of the meeting/call, we suggested to both agency principals that they ask the prospect what they think the appropriate next step is. If the prospect hesitates, we told the principals to suggest one (e.g. opportunity to meet others, opportunity to bid on some piece of work, opportunity to come back with some high level thinking about their business) so they each have reason to keep the conversation going.

And finally, we told them…for goodness sake, if there is a follow-up, do it quickly…don’t let weeks pass or they’re sure to lose. We’ve seen agency clients wait weeks…sometimes months. The death of an opportunity! I don’t care if the prospect said “no hurry”…you need to be in a hurry!