You Dare Doubt The Power of Prospecting For Agency New Business?!

Bringing in new business for your agency is in an interesting place in 2012.

New technologies continually add layers of convenience and effectiveness while also adding layers of time many of you don’t have in learning and implementing those technologies.

With these new technologies also comes an attitude from many agencies that traditional prospecting is dead, doesn’t work.

Depending on their definition of “traditional,” nothing could be further from the truth.

The Hard Sell

. . . is out.

So that tradition (think Boiler Room) is dead, or it should be.

Amazingly it’s still out there, as we all know from those wonderful telemarketers.

But traditional in the sense of picking up the phone and reaching out to prospects?

Absolutely works, given the right strategy.

You Know What Else Still Works?

Mail and email.

An interesting graph below from our 2011 New Business Report:

54% of marketers most learn about agencies from email and 38% from mailings received from agencies.

Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, once could argue that those placement numbers exist because prospects can control those mediums-they can delete or throw in the trash.

While potentially true on its face, we know they still work from our own experience.

But Social Media?

. . . works as a prospecting tool as well, certainly.

As ever, your new business program needs to be about planning, targeted prospect lists, ongoing awareness, polite persistence and a mix of all available channels-phone, mail, email , social and whatever cool new stuff comes down the pike that works for your agency.

“But woe to those agencies who doubt the power of ongoing prospecting, for they shall reap a bitter harvest.”  (Something like that.)