Agency New Business: “It Was A Great First Meeting-Wait, Who Just Got Fired?”

Our owner, Mark Sneider, conducted our second 2011 webinar “Counsel on Closing (2011 Update)” today and before anything else, thanks to all of you that attended, we greatly appreciate it.

(You can view it anytime via our site here by the way.)

I wanted to focus on one particular webinar takeaway in this post: the diversion of thought between Marketers and Agencies in what Marketers want from a first meeting and what they actually get.

Understandably, what a Marketer wants can be an incredibly difficult thing for an Agency to forecast.

An Agency may feel they have an excellent grasp on the situation going into that first meeting.

And yet, inevitably, it’s not at all what they expected or were even explicitly told to expect in some cases.  (We’ve heard many, many stories to this effect.)

But, too many agencies go into a first meeting with little to no forethought.

What That Marketer Gets

So with that, here’s what Marketers have told us, from past and current surveys, they typically get from agencies in a first meeting.

• The agency’s opinion
• Creative highlights before strategy
• Portfolio of past work
• Often just a sales pitch on how great they are
• Not enough about what they can do for me
• Some effective examples that aren’t tied to our real world
• Sales pitch
• Marketing speak

Ouch.

What That Marketer Wants

If any of those above remind you of your last new business first meeting, it may be time to take a step back.

Now, for that first meeting you may be given explicit instructions or needs from the Marketer, but those notwithstanding, the following list is always an excellent big-picture guide for Agencies to consider prior to going into any first meeting.

• How you’re different from other agencies
• Asking questions
• Demonstrating strategic understanding before creative
• Curiosity about the Marketer’s  business
• Thought leadership
• Being open to Marketer ideas as well as presenting your own ideas
• Proven capabilities/case studies
• Thinking, passion and real people
• Honesty

Some things you obviously can’t control. Like the story I heard this week from an Agency Principal considering using our services.

She and the team went into a first meeting with a major brand and walked away feeling great, being  told next steps were imminent.

And then the next day, literally, the CMO was fired and the rest of the marketing team (or at least the majority of them) left shortly after.

The agency was back to square one, and still haven’t gotten back in the door to this day.

These things you can’t control, but the nine takeaways above you can: focus on those.