The New Business Dingo

I’ve posted plenty of thoughts around the ongoing new business challenges that agencies face, but there is none more frustrating to hear each day than the one that is so simple to identify and ultimately to solve – ‘right fitting’ people for positions.

Agencies spend tens of thousands of dollars with recruiters and placement services to find new creative directors, copy writers and account directors. They spend hours upon hours scrutinizing …

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It's sometimes hard enough to lead new business directors who work a few feet away, let alone outsourced contractors with a different end game and who are in many cases hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. Such is the experience of a distraught agency owner who contacted me last week.

This agency owner had just terminated a contract with another outsourced new business agency after just six weeks and needed our help.

Why?

 “They …

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You wouldn’t ask a Jackaroo* to provide legal advice, so why do agencies continue to force fit account managers into new business roles rather than hire trained professionals?

It’s no secret that most people fear that black box on their desk when it comes to using it as a new business tool, especially ad agency account people who’ve been tasked with the role of new business due to their recent decline in …

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Typically the first step for any new business person looking to embark on a new target category begins with the development of a prospect list or group of companies and brands.

The accuracy of this data may be the make or break of your efforts, so do the research and test the data from any supplier or source before incorporating into your new business CRM application.

There are a variety of great information resources, both free and subscriptions based that can help you build-out a …

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Large organizations across the country hire advisors and consultants of all kinds to make better informed decisions on the purchase of products and alignment with partners. Some might speculate, this also offers a certain degree of ‘distance’ should the decision end up being an unfavorable one.

For many years now, larger companies (typically with ad spends greater than $20M) hire agency search consultants to help them select an agency.
Typically these search consultants are provided with a brief by the company, detailing the rationale for …

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I’m often asked by agency CEO’s, CMO’s and New Business Directors, “What benefit will I see by outsourcing our business development to a third party”?

The simple answer, efficacy and accountability.

All too often the focus of a new business director is on items other than the procurement of new business, be it client services on previously won business, RFP responses or any number of things. It’s also a rare occurrence to meet a new business director that is a true hunter, someone that …

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As President of an Atlanta based new business agency (Catapult New Business), I speak with dozens of agencies each week, while my new business teams talk with hundreds of corporate marketers. In this capacity we're in a unique position to see changes in the new business climate.

Today I was asked to submit a guest post on New Business …

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