How To Add Value To Agency New Business Prospecting

While understanding it’s important, agencies struggle with how to add value to agency new business prospecting, and the timing of that struggle tends to kick in uniformly across firms.

Here’s what I mean: when agencies decide to really give it a shot and apply themselves to a new business process, everyone’s excited.  You’ve got new case studies, you’re creating some form of content on your blog or posting on LinkedIn and you’ve made some site improvements.  Heady days!

Then 2-3 months in, the struggle becomes real.  You’ve used those new case studies several times now, you’ve kept up with content, but it’s getting harder to come up with, and you’ve gotten some likes and a few comments here and there on LinkedIn, but is it getting you anywhere?

As an aside, for those of you who get into smoking meat, it’s like the brisket stall, where the brisket temperature gets stuck and stops rising for several hours. For first-timers, a little BBQ panic kicks in if you’re not aware of it, but if you’ve planned ahead, you’ll learn to incorporate those 2-3 hours into your overall cook, and the stall will break.

Similarly, you’ll experience a “stall” in your new business efforts where it feels like you’re no longer making progress.  However, you have to stick with it.

Case in point: this week I got an email from an agency owner that was a reply to some content I had sent his way 6 months previously!

With that in mind, a few stats from our Marketing Technology Survey Report (which you can download here) to help reinforce my point, along with a concrete example of how to provide value.

In our survey, we asked marketers and agencies to characterize their company’s level of prowess relative to marketing technology platforms.

Only 9% of Marketers felt they were “on top” of it, and 33% said they’re just starting to figure it out or are way behind the eight ball when it comes to marketing technology.

We followed up with another question: What Do You Find to Be Most Challenging About The MarTech Space?

46% of marketers replied there are too many offerings, and

55% said they had no time to study up.

Here’s where you can really shine, and can include more members of your firm in the process who may not usually be part of the new business effort.

The MarTech space specifically is an area you can help, if you have experience there, but it could also be any vertical you’re working in.

Regardless of the vertical or space, your prospects, and your current clients, are slammed. They don’t have time to keep up and stay on top of trends.

But you’re on top of those trends, through the work you’re currently doing. Sure, you may need to do some extra digging or studying to complement that knowledge, but you have the employees who are on top of those trends right now, and many/most of you, aren’t using them to help you drive new business.

Yes, it will take some initial effort, but try assembling an internal team that will meet once every 2 weeks, or once a month, those individuals in your firm who know their stuff, and pick their brain for half an hour on what they’re working on and what trends they’re aware of.

You may be surprised by what you get, that you can then turn around and use to personalize and add value to your prospecting, and use with current clients as well, to help keep them around.

And a word of caution: whatever you take away, don’t assume your prospects, or your current clients, already know about it, or that it’s not cutting edge enough, for example.  Assume nothing, because even if they do know it, they’ll see that you’re on top of it.

That you’ve made an effort, and set yourselves apart from your competition, many of whom are order-takers at this point, who aren’t bringing value beyond taking those orders.

A perfect opportunity for you to come in and take advantage.