Don’t Take My Word For it.

My work with agencies is always confidential. Most of my clients request that I refrain from making public or promoting our relationship or the results. I include a confidentiality clause in my contract so you can be confident that what we do is forever between me and you. That said, over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some exceptional people who have said some kind words about the experience. Below are a few of my favorites. I hope these will give you a better sense of what to expect if we work together.

---

Past Clients

Agency Client, Vice President Client Services
We’ve learned more from you than the last three consultants combined. I feel that my team is ready to take the reigns and continue the momentum you started.

Agency Client, President
I can’t thank you enough. You turned our miserable new business program around and started us back on the path to growth. And, you’ve shown us how to engage, build relationships, and close the right way so I don’t have to start cutting staff. Honestly, I was ready to sell and then you happened. 

Agency Client, Founder and CCO
We had been through a dozen new business people internally and from outside. John process, strategic insights, experince and no bullshit advice was exactly what we needed. We now have a strategy and process, and the confidence to win.

Agency New Business Director
I didn’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of, tell me what I was doing wrong, stand up to agency management, give me the confidence I needed. Thanks to John, I am having a record year.

Past Agency Colleagues

Luckie & Company, Ed Mizzell, Managing Director
We hired John to lead Business Development at Luckie. He immediately impressed us with his experience, professionalism, and initiative. And, John was quick to bring quality prospects to the agency. He has a non-salesman personality that engages serious marketers is meaningful discussion regarding their business, their brand and their path to growth. John is very cool and diplomatic under pressure and determined to overcome the obstacles to building new business relationships. John has a smart, professional and aggressive style — give him a call.

Luckie & Company, Brad White, Chief Creative Evangelist
If you want to know what’s happening in the world of advertising, ask John Heenan. His curiosity about what’s now and what’s next is amazing. His passion for this business is inspiring. And his capacity for understanding what it takes to break through the cluttered world of new business is enviable. On every pitch, I had the pleasure of working on with John he was always pushing for new and better ways to solve the prospects marketing problem. To find a more compelling answer. To leverage new technology. And while he understood the value of using data to refine our message, he will tell you that a great story is how to truly connect with people. Amen to that.

LevLane Advertising, Martin Bihl, Executive Creative Director
In addition to working with John Heenan, I have also taught with him, which means I have had the opportunity to see him engage with people who had utterly no idea how marketing and advertising worked – as well as college students. In both situations I have found him to be insightful, patient and smart, that rare person in our industry who can take the time to make the complex understandable – whether we’re talking about complicated strategy, cutting edge creative, or highly fluid media plans. This is probably because he’s remarkably sensitive to clients – their needs, desires and challenges – allowing him to figure out not only how to give them what they need, but how to articulate it in a way they can understand. Which is not at all a bad skill to have when engaging consumers either.

PureRED Integrated Marketing, Ronnie Roberts, VP of Digital Development
I worked with John on many technology and digital pitches. Even though he wasn’t a technologist he had a great aptitude for what it takes to run digital programs and the roles and value of the many skills that contribute to data-driven marketing. He knew enough to let the experts contribute their best thinking yet would never settle for less than winning solutions. I can’t wait to see what clients he wins next.

iBiquity Digital Corp, Peter Brady, VP, Business Development
I have known and worked with John for a long time – years together at Sony, and on special projects when he taught at American Univ in DC. John is a very astute marketer, in-tune with current trends/generations. He is among the very best that I have ever known or worked with. He somehow manages to keep age-old wisdom and cutting edge wisdom perfectly blended together – no small feat!

I would recommend, that anyone considering outside council to reach today’s’ markets reach out to John. You will not be disappointed, we never were.

Campbell-Ewald, Chris Day, Senior Vice President
I originally met John through a competitive situation where we were both going after an influential piece of business. Rarely do those types of situations yield an ongoing dialogue and idea exchange. But, John’s enjoyable nature and high level of professionalism, along with an elite understanding of the Marketing industry and his desire to collaborate in all kinds of situations has made that original meeting a great opportunity and provided a number of fruitful discussions since.

I am consistently impressed by John’s ability to manage great work and clients while also inspiring those around him both internally and externally. His understanding of the way in which people think and consume information is a great asset to his clients and those who partner with him.

Tombras, Ken Cohen, Senior Vice PresidentSenior Vice President
I worked with John when he ran the mid-Atlantic office for DWP/Bates. He was responsible for managing the technology clients in that office and developing new business. He stepped in and immediately made an impact bringing in new clients and growing our existing clients. He proved to be a seasoned strategic counsel, high energy and extremely effective at getting us to the table with great opportunities. He has such an arsenal of skills that can improve most any facet of the marketing equation. I am confident John will have an immediate impact on any agency assignment.

RP3 Agency, Beth Johnson, President
John is a new business pro. He worked for me for 7 years including our transition from Rosenthal Partners to RP3 Agency. In addition to the many new clients he brought us, John was essential as the team lead in winning our cornerstone client during the start of RP3. That win put us on the map and continues to be our biggest client today.

JWT Atlanta, Eric Hyman, Senior Partner, Director, Marketing & Communications
I hired John to run business development for the mid-Atlantic office of DWP/Bates, a technology-focused full-service agency and part of the Bates Worldwide network. Within six months he had 5 great opportunities he found, pitched and won. In no time at all, he had established a rigorous new business process and effectively utilized agency resources from our HQ in Atlanta to win new clients.

Consultants, Headhunters, and Thought Leaders

Headhunter, rainmaker & matchmaker, Mike Palma
It’s been a pleasure to work with John on some of my agency reviews. His RFP responses are professional, thorough and creative at the same time. His follow-up is polite and considerate. Unfortunately, only one agency can win a particular review, and John’s best trait is to get a candid de-brief for his agency without being whiny or cranky. This is what separates the seasoned Biz Dev pros from the rookies. I look forward to working with him again.

Carrie Palmer, Director of Marketing, International Expeditions
John is a brilliant man who is never satisfied with the status quo. He embodies a unique blend of supreme creativity, coupled with the ability to turn your business objectives into reality by having the strategic vision to implement plans flawlessly.

John is extremely customer centric and will always exceed expectations. I would highly recommend John, without any hesitation, as the only choice for all aspects of Digital Marketing consultation.

Fuel Lines, Michael Gass
I met John when he first moved to Birmingham to assume the position of CMO of one of the most respected advertising agencies in the Southeast, Luckie & Company. John is among the few who were born with all of the attributes necessary to be great at new business. When most agency rainmakers struggled through the recession, the rise of digital and social media marketing, John thrived. I greatly regard his insights and highly recommend him in his new role as a new business consultant.

Steve Bast, Search Advisor
I worked with John on two different client searches and was impressed by his professionalism and thoroughness throughout the process. He brought together the right team and the right resources to delight my clients and made an exceptional case for his agency in the pitch. I found his agency in my early research phase because of the great content he put on his agency’s website and through blogging and social channels.

Nathaniel Perez, Entrepreneur. Digital Guru. Consultant.
I had the pleasure to work with John as he tapped me to drive strategy for a few high profile client initiatives. He proved to have a great sense of managing pitch craft and strategy, together with an uncanny sense of the prospect’s opportunity in the marketplace. I really enjoyed working with John. He’s a well-rounded business expert that gets how digital, social and mobile play a role in driving success.

Kristi Kelly, Cannabis Strategist
John approaches each client’s business challenges with fearlessness. Never one to shy away from the impossible, he is driven by a sense of what can be and pushes for it with aplomb. He purports what he thinks is best, and is not afraid of the consequences of saying something different from the rest of the herd in order to get the right result. No job is too big (or too small… well, maybe a few are too small). He is aggressive, professional and reliable, and his depth of knowledge on the agency and client-side provide valuable insight and perspective. I have also seen John serve as a professor and mentor, and watched how his students navigate that relationship with respect and deference. There are many sides to John, and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him on numerous pitches over our 7+ year professional history.

James Batkin-Smith, founder Listen
Thank you for sharing this, insightful and poignant point of view on advertising agency business development. I’m seeing strong correlations between success & authenticity / social responsibility as “final stage differentiators”.

Don’t miss any more new clients

If your agency needs help but are not sure what services are right for you or if I’m the best resource to get you where you want to go, let’s talk about your goals and the best way to achieve them. You’ll find that I am pragmatic in my approach, and always a straight shooter. If you haven’t already, look through the posts on this site to better understand how I think about agency new business and what I believe is important to success.