Agency New Business & The Change of the Guard

All the signs are right this time

You don’t have to try so very hard

If you live in this world

You’re feelin’ the change of the guard

-Steely Dan, Change of the Guard

 In a previous post, I talked about the importance of patience in Agency New Business.

Randy Gunter of  The Gunter Agency left a comment that I thought was worth posting here as a sort of follow-up:

Here’s another thing to remember when you are looking at prospective companies that would be a good fit for you: people change. We recently landed a new client that we have been pursuing for years, but it was a change in their management that prompted our landing the account. Two lessons: (1) Timing can be everything. (2) Don’t write anyone off, put them on the “check back later” list.

Interestingly, we had similar timing this week at RSW/US.

One of our new business directors got a meeting for one of our longest standing clients and had been pursuing that prospect for 3 and ½ years.  (I know what some of you are thinking- no, it typically doesn’t take nearly that long.)

The reason for the not-so-sudden change of heart: a new marketing director that decided it was time to make a move outside for their marketing needs.

So Randy’s got a good point, but of course it’s all in the doing.

I mentioned to him in a follow up comment, that “check back later” list is all-important, so long as that prospect fits the parameters you’ve set for the ideal prospect.

It’s one area where agencies fall short-they don’t actually check back.

Don’t be one of those agencies.