Agency New Business Prospecting From A Position of Strength

Reflecting on the 2012 Mirren New Business Conference and a presentation from Bob Wiesner at Saatchi on agency new business prospecting.

Bob’s presentation was titled Building Your Pipeline: Casting and Converting the Meeting and early in the presentation he asked the question, “Why Are You Prospecting?”

And he went on to talk about a subject we’ve touched on here many times-the positioning of your agency from a sales standpoint.

Unlike the creative side of any agency, when you’re prospecting for new business, you’ve got 20 seconds to a minute at most to concisely answer the question foremost in any prospect’s mind:

Why Should My Company Work With You?

 

And in order to answer that question, you first need to have your agency’s position of strength clearly distinguished as the foundation for your answer.

In one particular slide, Bob laid out what that position of strength needs to flow from:

• You have valid experience
• You have persuasive case studies
• You have a point of view on the industry/the consumer

Simple-yes?

But it’s amazing how many agencies still don’t have their position of strength solidified.

If you don’t-do it as soon as possible.

Because once you do, your prospecting effort takes on a clarity and sense of purpose that enables you to grab that 20 seconds by the throat and very concisely tell your prospect exactly why they should work with you.

It’s only one of the early steps-but an important one.