Most marketing communications firms do a great job of building their clients’ businesses. But when it comes to marketing themselves they tend to rely on a “strategy” of “laying in the middle of the road and hoping to get run over” to win new business. Perhaps it’s this lack of proactive marketing that causes client decision-makers to view the entire MarCom services world as a giant set of commodity firms.

To break out of this commodity grid-lock and change your new business results, you have to change your new business marketing approach. And that’s why so many marketing communications firms have turned to Robb High.

From time to time, the leadership at every MarCom firm recognizes a need to “shift gears” to go to the “next level,” or just to stay competitive. Sometimes it’s motivated by a recent client loss, or a pattern of not getting into enough reviews. And sometimes it’s because the agency is going through, or about to go through a management or ownership transition.

Whatever the motivation, centering the change process on the pursuit new business is always the most effective strategy . . . because new business changes everything . . . for the better.

Who should participate?

Everyone involved in directly presenting to prospects or contacting them during the prospecting process, plus other senior management. Ideally not less than three or more than 12 people should participate.

AGENDA / DELIVERABLES

A brief summary of the current competitive context:

An up-to-the-minute status report on the new agency marketplace: how it’s changing, where it’s headed, how it will impact your firm and what you should do about it.

A detailed summary about what clients really think and feel about their agency partners; what they like and don’t like; and what they look for when they conduct reviews. (This is based on interviews with over 700+ marketing executives at 190+ client companies.) You get recommendations/action plans for how your agency should evolve to take advantage of those client needs and dissatisfactions.

A summary of what the most innovative firms are doing to restructure to adapt to the changing MarCom agency marketplace.

Several new services you can add to increase agency income.

How impending changes in the television medium will disrupt the dominance of the 30-second commercial and, in turn, shake up the agency world.

New techniques to prospect for new clients more effectively:

How to market your firm to become distinct and interesting vs. the 6,200 other MarCom firms in the US. As a group we’ll generate specific communications strategies and content relevant for your firm and identify brand architecture solutions to make it easier for clients to “buy” your agency services.

How to build an intelligent prospect list: setting the optimum number of firms; determining the right decision-makers to communicate with; identifying which prospect database sources to use and how to use them effectively; and the impact of business agency growth objectives on prospect selection. We’ll go through the step-by-step process of creating the list using online database resources.

A totally new way to communicate to prospects to lift agency awareness using email they actually will want to read: how to create the right content; methodology for enhancing readership; how to use the readership data to identify who to contact to get face-to-face meetings. This approach will enable your agency to develop awareness/relationships with 300+ prospect decision-makers with minimal expense and staff time required. We’ll go through the actual online mailing process and how to identify specific prospects that read your email communications.

Approaches for using social media effectively; building followers fast; using video; creating multiple Facebook follower sets.

Techniques for making your agency web site a more effective selling platform. Specific recommendations for making the home page more inviting; creating a relevant and interesting intellectual property section; making the creative section stronger; how to present your client list more effectively; ways to showcase key people.

Multiple strategies for getting “first meetings” with prospects so the relationship development process can advance: who to contact; how to break through; what to offer; who to send; what to say; what not to say; and how to generate future meetings over time.

Methods for getting press visibility consistently so you’re contacted for your “comments” by publications the client decision-makers actually read.

Ways to get noticed and considered by agency search consultants; what criteria they look at; how to position yourself to them.

Approaches for crafting better responses to RFP’s so you make it to the next round more often: when not to respond; what makes an agency submission stand out.

New methods for creating more interesting and engaging new business presentations that will increase your win rate: how to beat agencies much larger than you; techniques for effective “closes;” optimum pitch team composition; rehearsal strategies; PowerPoint techniques; team acting roles; what to do in a credentials presentation.

Presentation team assessments (optional/additional):

One-on-one sessions with each agency presenter to evaluate the “first impression” they convey to a prospect along with suggestions for how they can make themselves more impressive. Essentially this is a “mini” acting lesson. Each session is about 15-20 minutes. If the main seminar ends a little ahead of time, I can fit in a few of these. If there is a longer list of presenters who need to be evaluated, then it requires an additional half-day to the engagement.

The seminar includes 50+ pages of detailed, comprehensive written explanations and action plans about everything we discuss so your firm can immediately implement.

Post-workshop consulting: 45 days

Following the workshop you can contact Robb High “24/7” by phone or email – as often as you want – for 45 days to discuss:

• The seminar recommendations and how to implement them
• Strategies for responding to actual RFP’s you receive
• Strategies and ideas for new business presentations/pitches that come up
• Matters relating to organization, hiring, succession, merger and/or sale

COST

The RHA fee for the 45-day engagement described below is $3,500 + travel. ($5,000 if an additional day is required for the presentation work).

The reality is that all clients will eventually change agencies. Yes, even your oldest client. It’s just the way life works.

But you can “slow down the endgame” by having Robb High check in with your clients to get an accurate assessment of their satisfaction levels and find out any hidden “issues” that might cause a breakdown in the relationship. At very least, doing the evaluation always buys you some extra time to fix things.

Think of it as an insurance policy on your firm’s financial future.

The cost generally runs from $1,000 to $4,500 depending on the number of clients involved and the extent to which face-to-face vs. telephone interviews are used.

Whenever new business issues or opportunities arise, you can instantly reach out and contact RHA for confidential consultation via phone or email. This includes consulting on RFP responses, strategies for getting first meetings, developing new email campaign copy, evaluating email campaign performance, presentation strategy, compensation proposals, etc. Fee: $2,400 per year for unlimited access (= only $200/month).