Do not want

The Ad Agency New Business Mercy Meeting = Do Not Want

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Ad Agency New Business
“Every opportunity is a meeting.”
It is not true (at least not in regards to a quality meeting) but some ad agency new business salespeople treat every “yes” as a winner.  For many reasons, that’s a mistake.
Why?

1)You’re overpromising-to yourself and/or to your employer-it will bite you
2)You’re not qualifying properly, if that’s your mindset.
3)You’re always going to find someone to respond to pressure but is that the kind of meeting you want to walk into?

I was told a few weeks ago by an agency principal about an internal new business person with a giant rolodex who pounded the phone all day long, very old school.  He was actually getting a fair amount of meetings but 80-90% of those were too small, didn’t have a budget for the foreseeable future, or weren’t the right fit.
We call those “Mercy Meetings.”  They keep you busy, but do they get you business?  Typically the answer is no. A few quick thoughts for this scenario:

Step 1: Re-examine that “rolodex,” are you even going after the right prospects.

Step 2: Use multiple channels, not just the phone, not just social media, etc

Step 3: Qualify.  Easier said than done.

You may not get every piece of information you need to make a decision on first contact. That’s okay, but in that scenario, you may need an extra step-set up a conference call, a cup of coffee if they’re in town.

Avoid the “Mercy Meeting.”  Do not want.

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.

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