According to marketing and
sales consultancy Sirius Decisions, the number 1 reason why B2B
companies—agencies included- miss their revenue target is not the lack of a
cool website, awesome team, great client roster, or a killer pitch—but the
inability of the organization to properly communicate value to new prospects.
Traditional sales and marketing efforts, which worked well before 2009, no
longer work today. The reason for this is that the buyer has changed. The CMO’s
job is much more complicated and he/she is one voice among a growing list of
stakeholders. [Interestingly, the average tenure of the CMO has nearly doubled over the past 3 years(now 43 months)while the Biz Dev leader's longevity has slipped dramatically(now roughly 24 months).] Procurement and finance are in a stronger position and are less
inclined to buy into the wow factor. They want to know why they should invest
millions with your agency. What will be the return? And what are the expected
results? It is widely known that agency
margins are under attack. How do you win new business but at the price you need
to make the engagement profitable? Here are a couple of key skills now required:
You’re a Doctor-Put on your stethoscope and Re-Frame
the conversation-A doctor friend of
mine told me recently that very often patients walk in and ask for certain
medications based on TV commercials they recently viewed or from research they
performed online. Of course, she cannot prescribe the requested medication
until she performs an assessment. She needs to take a step back and ask the
patient questions in an attempt to properly diagnose the patient's condition and only then can she
prescribe the correct medication. In business development, we often face a
similar situation. As we know, buyers today are 60% or more along in their
decision before engaging with an agency. This means they have already drawn
some conclusions as they move toward selection. Brand leaders come with RFP’s
in hand for specified services. Or they march into your conference room asking
for a new website, a mobile strategy, banner ads, or programmatic media. The
power has shifted to the buyer right? Not necessarily! The new business leader needs to be skilled
in reframing the conversation. He needs to work with the team to force the
prospect to take a step back and uncover the business challenges that the brand
is facing and the KPI’s that are most critical to their success. Based on this
assessment, the agency can prescribe the most effective engagement and one that
will improve the chances of success. This moves the agency more into a strategic partner role
versus a fulfillment house. It also leads to a potentially larger engagement
and one that is mutually profitable.
You’re a Therapist and Matchmaker-Be an Active Listener and help them
deal with a broken relationship-Chemistry
is key to all relationship success and the agency-brand partnership is no
different. Brands are changing agencies with a great deal more frequency.
According to the marketing consulting focused Bedford Group in 1984, the
average client-agency relationship tenure was 7.2 years. By 1997, that number
declined by 25% to 5.3 years. Today the average client-agency tenure is thought
to be less than three years(and perhaps a lot less) The Biz Dev
leader needs to probe as to what has worked well for the prospect team in
working with agencies and what hasn’t. Why are they seeking a new partner? She
needs to deliver the correct team to that initial pitch meeting—the team that
matches up the best based on the intel collected--your version of Match.com.
The bottom line is just like
Quinn said to Carrie at the end of Homeland
last week, “It’s not about you.” The
focus needs to be on the prospect—their issues, their challenges—not your reel,
your client list, your team, and your awards. The more you can learn and
deliver to the pitch team, the better your chances of reaching your revenue targets.
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