If You Don’t Have The New Business Chromosome, You Never Will

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And that’s OK.

We’ve had agency principals tell us straight up:

“I didn’t start this agency to be a salesperson-that’s why I’m hiring you guys.”

And no, this post will not turn into an RSW commercial, but I’m speaking to you, agency principals-if you don’t have that new business chromosome, don’t run the new business ship.

If You Don’t Have The New Business Chromosome, You Never Will

I’ll clarify-I’m not talking about pitching.

While you would certainly be correct in saying pitching is a part of new business, I’m talking about everything that comes before it, and I don’t have to tell you-there’s a lot.

Just a few examples:

Reaching out to inbound leads

Building focused prospect lists

Disseminating targeted content

Nurturing prospects along the entire spectrum from point of contact to that first meeting

Setting those (qualified) meetings

Some principals can do it, to be sure, but most of you can’t and you shouldn’t.

Because you’re constantly slammed, working with clients and typically wear about 30 hats.

And to be honest, many (most?) principals aren’t wired to do all that it takes to artfully engage with prospects and carry them through to the pitch.

That doesn’t mean you’re not involved, but you can’t do it all, and new business needs to be driven by an individual(s) with sales (and marketing) chops.

But then there’s the hard part, a few years ago, agencies told us only 26% Of agency new business directors are considered successful.

That’s another post though.  The first step is recognizing whether or not you have the new business chromosome.

If you don’t, accept it and take the steps to find an individual (or individuals) who do.

I'm the VP of Sales at RSW/US. We specialize in working with services firms to help drive and close new business-if you need help with that, email me at lee@rswus.com. What I actually do: drive sales efforts to bring ad agencies and services firms on board with RSW, create content around successful new business tactics and help drive RSW/US marketing objectives, including social media channels, blog content, webinars, video and speaking engagements. Dig it.