The official blog of Ignition Consulting Group
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-New Business-
If you want the attention of an agency leader, manager, or department head, you’ll have to wait until they get a break in the action from the latest new business pitch. In agencies of all types and sizes, new business presentations are all-consuming. As a speculative investment, new business is always a gamble. But an even bigger problem is the misdirection and misallocation of agency talent spurred by the new business process …
The gravest sin committed by marketing communications professionals is their tenacious tendency to sell services instead of solutions. A bullet point list of capabilities is hardly the most effective way to frame the value you create for your clients. These generic service descriptions are worse than useless; they project a certain kind of naivety …
ake a close look at your standard pitch deck, the “about us” section of your website, or your new business materials. Highlight every instance of words like “leading,” “excellence,” and “innovative.” Claims of leadership, quality, and excellence have all lost their meaning, not only because they’re ordinary terms but because so many companies have used — and misused — these expressions over the last century of business history. In professional services, there is a clear “top 10” when it comes to pointless claims …
If and when it feels you’re competing in a buyer’s market, it’s only because you’ve chosen to be there, if not by design then by default. It’s true that many professional buyers view their job as running apples-to-apples comparisons. But you, the seller, have a job as well — to be an orange …
Do you know what proportion of serious new business prospects visits your website? 100%. They all do. Because all prospective buyers of your services want to know what exactly what it is you’re selling. And although different marketers might want to know different things about your firm, they’re all ultimately looking to find one thing: expertise …
It’s been said that new business is a numbers game, but the most successful agencies focus their talents in areas where they have a clear advantage and pass on everything else. Agencies who have chosen a clear area of focus don’t have to “sell” much at all. They’re so well positioned that prospects actively seek them out. …
The decline in the perceived value of advertising agencies can be closely correlated with their increasing propensity to dutifully fulfill “scopes of work” rather than proactively solve client problems. An unfortunate number of firms have forgotten that the role of the professional is to probe, question, and diagnose, not simply to provide services …
Who is the worst person to do the pricing in your firm? Many times it’s the CEO. It’s often the top people in the organization who are the most willing to discount fees and meet the demands of professional buyers…
It’s a curious fact that advertising agencies don’t know much about selling — at least when it comes to selling their own brand. Even though agency professionals show good sense (and sometimes sheer brilliance) when crafting messaging strategies for their clients, this is rarely applied to how they market themselves…
When sitting face to face with the buyers of your services, remember you’re not just selling the value of the work you create. The value your firm brings to the table is deep and multifaceted. But don’t count on your client to point them out for you …
When we walk into a store to purchase a product in a category in which we have no prior experience, how do we make our choice? Mostly, we depend on value signals. The same dynamics apply to evaluating and selecting professional services …
Since every agency on the planet is now apparently in the business of “brand storytelling,” perhaps it’s time for agencies to spend some time making their own stories more interesting and compelling. Storytelling has catapulted onto the business stage because we’ve learned that stories are inherently more interesting to people than bullet-point lists of facts that populate so many agency websites …
Imagine you’ve just received a notice from the IRS that they’re going to audit your most recent tax return. You’ve never been through an audit before, and because you’re in the habit of preparing your own tax returns, you decide it’s time to get some professional help …
Does this look like a familiar list of criteria for new business prospects: Do we see good revenue potential? Do they have a history of being a good client? Do we feel passionate about this brand or category? Do we think we can do good work for this client? Do we think we would enjoy working on this business? But are there better questions you should be asking?
From every corner of the world, agency executives are reporting the same trends in new business. It’s more challenging than ever to get the attention of a promising new business prospect. All of the factors that make it more difficult to get a consumer’s attention come into play in trying to get a prospect’s attention. People simply have more ways to shut out the information and communication they don’t want …
