Your Director of Business Development: Seeker, Closer or Both?
What’s the role of your Director of Business Development, or for those of you who handle new business, what is your role?
Is it seeking out the right prospects-building awareness and opening doors, or is it that, plus finishing and closing those opportunities?
There are strong arguments for and against both.
I lean toward the former as the ideal model-that of the seeker.
Director of Business Development-The Seeker
Done correctly, agency new business for one person is a full-time job when tasked with reaching out, ongoing awareness and opening doors for a first meeting with the right prospects.
Building lists, ongoing, consistent reach-out, research on those prospects and content creation all need to be a part of your agency new business effort, not to mention ongoing social media strategy for new business.
Something else to consider-the seeker needs to have marketing and sales attributes to succeed.
The closer is obviously heavier on the sales side.
Regardless of how you see the mix playing out, it’s tough to find one person who can seek and close truly well, with all that goes into both.
Oh And One Other Thing. . .
And then add the fact that so many agencies task their Director of Business Development with account management responsibilities for the clients they sell and close.
Very, very difficult to put a real effort against that seeking role with so many other responsibilities.
We’ve seen agency new business directors fail or leave because they just couldn’t do it all.
So carefully consider what makes the most sense in your agency’s role of new business director.
It’s not black and white, as every agency structure will lend itself to a model that works, but expect too much, and you’ll be looking for yet another new business person.
Related to
How to hire the right salesperson for the job
20 Qualities That Make A Great Salesperson
Successful Salespeople Have Moderate Temperaments
Post by RSW/US Director Of Business Development Lee McKnight Jr
Lee McKnight Jr
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.
