I just read a great posting from Tom Finneran of the 4A's about client new business practices. It was followed by endless whining and complaining about what agencies are subjected to with dysfunctional client pitches.
I had to react. Here is a copy of my post:
By BRENT | NEW YORK, NY December 9, 2009 10:21:31 pm:
Tom's thoughts are spot on.
However, there's a bigger issue: What are we going to do about it? There is so much whining and complaining, but little action.
The fact is, the search process is [Read More]
Our Mirren Search Consultant Review closes fairly shortly now. We've had a good response from the industry, with some interesting insight into what's working and what can improve in terms of how search consultants and agencies work through the competitive review process.
Here are some responses to the question:
Overall, what do Search Consultants most need to improve in terms of how they work with agencies?
"Cut way back on what often is an over-the-top RFI/RFP process." "Transparency of expectations." "Manage the clients' expectations better and eliminate useless work and hoops for the agencies to jump through." "Find a new way to evaluate [Read More]Our Mirren Search Consultant Review closes fairly shortly now. We've had a good response from the industry, with some interesting insight into what's working and what can improve in terms of how search consultants and agencies work through the competitive review process.
Here are some responses to the question:
What are one or two of the single biggest trends you see taking place with Search Consultants and their impact on new business?
"Growing number of digitial AOR reviews." "They are setting less boundaries around what a client can request for spec thinking/work." "Higher number of specialized searches--PR only; media only, etc. vs. AOR searches." "More [Read More]
Mirren is conducting a review of Search Consultants, as evaluated by you, the agency. The objective is to spark dialog and provide feedback that will ultimately lead to improving best practices.
You can participate in the review here: The Mirren Search Consultant Review.
Based on speaking with agency CEOs and new business directors over the last few years, our own experience as new business directors, and extended deliberation within the Mirren team, this is what we've carefully selected as our evaluation criteria. As always, let us know if you have any [Read More]
So you've decided that it's worth the investment of resources (it always takes more than you think) to market to the Search Consultants.
Well, we're happy to get you started with our Mirren U.S. Search Consultant Directory. In producing this relatively straight forward (but definitely time consuming) listing, we would like to thank the Search Consultants and our clients... who referenced a few that were not yet on our radar.
Please do let us know if we've missed any, or if any contact information has changed.
[Read More]
As one focus in our upcoming advanced workshop series, we'll be addressing Search Consultants.
For large agencies, if competitive reviews are a key element of the new business growth strategy, then there is no question about marketing to search consultants.
However, what if you're not a top 25 global agency?
Each year, we have all of the major search consultants join us at our New Business Conference. This past April, participants included Pile & Co, [Read More]
1) The business problem solved
2) The insight
3) The results
Let's now focus in on getting access to the kind of client results that will be meaningful to prospects.
Clients often [Read More]
1) The business problem solved (is not relevant).
2) The insight.
3) The results.
In this third posting, we'll focus in on making sure you provide the kind of results that are meaningful to prospects.
First, address the subject matter of your results.
What is your point of view on what and how clients [Read More]
As we covered in the first posting this week, from the perspective of clients, there are three issues with most case studies. To recap:
1) The problem solved is not relevant to the prospect.
2) The insight is predictable and fails to position the agency's strategic muscle.
3) The results are not meaningful.
In this second posting, we'll focus in on Insights that are Relevant and [Read More]
Quite a number of good questions about case studies have come up over the past couple of years. The issue has become critical enough that we are now addressing it with brand new content in our September Workshops. Over the course of several postings, we'll also address it here.
Over the last few years, we've personally seen several hundred case studies from large global and smaller boutique agencies. And well, please have a seat, we're afraid the news isn't good.
Clients and search consultants regularly [Read More]
This posting from Jill Konrath is quite relevant to agencies in their positioning, pitching and prospecting efforts.
Below are the highlights. You can read her full posting here.
How to Create Strong Value Propositions that Lead to Sales
By Jill Konrath
In order to get customers to consider changing, you have to give them a good reason-a really good reason. They need to know about the tangible business results they'll get from using your product or service.
One of best ways to wake a prospective customer out of his "everything is okay" slumber [Read More]
While Search Consultants peform a valuable role for clients, they can be tough on agency resources. Their questionnaire responses alone are quite comprehensive... and no two are alike.
We have been working on a set of best practices (some more ethically oriented) that we think would help improve the agency-search consultant relationship and ultimately lead to better, more effective work for clients.
Here are a few of the best practices:
Respectful of Agency Resources
Based on what a client requires to make well informed decisions, the resources required to complete the review process are reasonable. While we understand that Search Consultants differentiate themselves in [Read More]
If you happened to attend our new business conference this spring, you will have heard us harping on the role of relevant and unexpected Consumer Insights as vital for winning pitches and opening doors with new prospects. We're always keeping our eyes open for new tools.
As it relates to an ability to quickly uncover a new consumer insight, here's an excerpt from the AdAge piece [Read More]
I've been following the Zappos pitch insanity on Adweek: http://bit.ly/WGWV0. The debate was originally sparked by a friend, Mike Wolfsohn (an exceptionally talented Creative Director at Ignited), on his blog at http://bit.ly/3eRP3W.
I contributed my 2 cents today:
Almost 2 1/2 years ago, I wrote a POV on "Agency Pitch Addition" here for Adweek. A few thoughts:
Most agencies are in fact caught in a nonstop rut of loss after pitch loss. Why? Because pitching is far more exciting than stopping to examine and address the core business issues behind the losses.
Agencies secretly [Read More]
Ask yourself one simple question: from the perspective of the prospect, do you have the perceived credibility to beat the other agencies and win the review?
If the odds of winning are not unusually high for your agency, then they are for someone else.
Gather your team for an hour and develop a set of "Pitch Targeting Criteria" - rules that will objectively help you determine whether you should engage with the review, walk away from it... or in fact run.
In my experience as a new business director, I [Read More]
Everyone loves to talk about themselves. And agency pitch teams are no exception.
We've seen many debates ignite amongst pitch teams as they battle the addiction of adding more content to pitch presentations. The collective energy of the team reflects a flawed approach to persuasion: "The more we cover, the better we increase our odds of hitting on something that will land with the prospect. The more we can say, the more we're selling."
However, the opposite is true. It's human nature to want to feel listened to... to feel understood. Give prospects an experience of [Read More]
This is probably the part of our training that we enjoy the most.
Storytelling is one of the latest best practices in pitching... weaving a narrative that captivates the room, punctuated by moments of inspiration and moments of fear.
Great stories dominate our culture.
And they come in many forms. From religion, to music, to movies, to hypnotic campfire-induced tales, they capture our imagination and often our hearts. There's nothing like a good narrative to make even the most rational decision-maker more emotionally engaged.
One of the great epics currently dominating our consciousness [Read More]
Following the brief is the fastest path to mediocrity. You will end up looking and sounding just like every other agency in the room. You'll also end up providing what the client thought they wanted. After all, we all know that what they request in the brief is rarely what they go with in the end. To make matters worse, the decision-maker probably didn't write it.
Job one is to reinterpret the brief. A few simple questions to consider:
1) What does this client really need to impact [Read More]
Agency teams often follow the instructions of the prospect... only to find out the winning agency did not.
This happens commonly with the request for the presentation to be made only by "the people that will work on the business." The quality of the presentation team is further diluted with a desire to have all the department heads present.
Only put your best presenters in the room.
You have worked weeks (if not months), you have invested capital, and you have invested the morale of the agency. There is too much at stake [Read More]
Agencies complain about clients saying one thing, but then doing another. However, do agencies treat their own marketing the same way?
At the latest Mirren New Business Conference on April 6 - 8, 2009, 325 attendees took in the latest thinking from 35 speakers in 30 sessions over 3 days. Speakers included every major search consultant, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Goodby Silverstein, R/GA, Razorfish, Anomaly, to name a few.
158 agencies participated in a basic survey about their new business practices and the impact of [Read More]
As requested by many of you who attended the conference, below are several of the handouts (often a condensed version of what was actually presented). Simply click on the link to download each PDF.
Please Note: these will be available for download only until Fri, June 12th.
What Clients Want: Mary Ann Packo, Millward Brown
Where the Spending Is: Krista Faron, Mintel International
Keynote: 25 Things About Pitching To Win: Jason Whiting, AKQA
Breaking Into New Categories: Brent Hodgins, Mirren
[Read More]
Try the Mirren Pitch Decision Tool to help evaluate your potential for a win. [Read More]
Although the industry prides itself on cutting-edge creativity and innovation, it can be one of the best cliche factories known to mankind.
Case in point, here's copy from one agency web site:
"Times have changed. You can no longer talk at consumers. We are a new type of agency; we use a unique fully-integrated, idea-driven approach that builds a dialog with consumers. Driven by passionate people, powerful creative, medium-neutral solutions and a relentless results-driven focus, we activate brands, turning consumers into advocates."
I have a personal [Read More]
