For those of you actively prospecting, here’s some advice: The approach you use today should mirror the approach you use long-term. There’s no magic bullet that’s going to save the day and bring prospects in any faster.
Pushing out postcards or quirky mailers isn’t the ticket. Sending out hundreds of e-mails with a “pound my chest and look at me” message isn’t going to attract a soul. With hundreds, if not thousands of other agencies trying to do the same thing, what are the chances any of this is busting through the din? Not high.
Prospecting takes time and requires smart, relevant outreach to make potential clients want to take a look. They need to know you’re going to bring fresh, new thinking to the table to help them out of a situation they’re hand-tied trying to get themselves out of.
So, tough times or not:
Make your outreach relevant to your prospects. Don’t just call and shout how great you are-or simply say, “We do it all.” Look at any agency Web site. Think most look a lot alike? Don’t make your approach a one-size-fits-all program. Look up news about the prospect, use that news to talk about their world and how you have dealt with similar issues. Study their site and think about how you can lob ideas into the prospect’s world. Give them some meat. Give them a reason to want to meet with you. In good times or bad, your prospects are asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” They aren’t going to just open the door to anyone. They need to understand your value.
Clearly define and differentiate your message. You want to define the unique reasons you can get your prospect to a better place. Look for unique sources of insights, levels of expertise in sectors, unique processes, etc. to formulate a story that can be used when reaching out. Your differentiating points are not, “We’re more strategic,” “You’ll only work with the principals,” “We aren’t just about the creative; we’re more about your business.” These are costs of entry.
Keep your target list fresh and focused. Marketing tenure was already low prior to our economic collapse. Today, it’s likely those marketers that were present yesterday may not be there tomorrow. Working with lists that are cleaned every 150 days is a risky and potentially wasteful proposition, particularly when time and money is short. Prior to an effort against any agency program, call and clean each contact on each list to ensure all information is correct and the prospect is sitting in the title you most desire to pursue. Hire a co-op or intern to make the calls. It will pay out tenfold in the end.
Your site needs to sell for you. Prospects need to be able to find your site. They need to easily navigate your site. Prospects don’t care as much about “Philosophy” as they do about relevance to their world, and seeing your work and successes. They need to understand you get it. And please — don’t use flash! If you use flash, not only are you going to have a tough time being “SEO’d,” you’re also going to make it harder for your new business manager to prospect. Flash doesn’t enable a prospect to link to a specific place on your site, which can be frustrating and very unproductive. You can, for instance, create separate landing pages to house materials that can be more easily used within the context of the prospecting effort.
Don’t stop when times are good (because they’ll be bad again). If the billions being thrown at our economy start turning things back around and you start feeling a little full again, don’t stop your outreach. Would you tell your client it’s OK to advertise one year and then take the next year off?
Don’t stop the push after the first meeting. Just because you had a great first meeting or call with a prospect doesn’t mean the job is done. They’re highly unlikely to simply roll over and start writing checks. They have a million and one things on their plates and you need to stay on their radar as much after the meeting as you did in trying to get the meeting.
So remember, don’t panic. Take measured steps, lay out a well thought through plan, and think about your prospects’ needs, not your own. Your prospects will see your value. Your equity will build, and the pipelines will fill.
What do they say? “Build it and they will come.” True for ballparks. True for brands. Also true for agencies.
Mark Sneider is owner, managing director of Reardon Smith Whittaker. He can be reached at mark@rswus.com.
