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The ad agency sales cycle
The ad agency sales cycle Agency business development is a long game, unfortunately. The average client-agency relationship is about two and a half years. The average CMO tenure is between three and four years. Marketing…
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5 Reasons You Need a Consultant NOW
5 Reasons You Need a Consultant NOW The first half was slow. Declining agency tenure, increasing client turnover, in-housing continues, project relationships, and tighter margins put even greater pressure on the need to add, replace,…
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From referrals to outreach
From referrals to outreach It is a common experience. For years, an agency startup thrived on a steady stream of referrals, never having to do proactive business development. The founders had stellar reputations for delivering…
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Can Anyone Really Predict the First Bite
Can Anyone Really Predict the First Bite When you embark on a new business planning process and look at all the time and effort required to develop an effective program, one question is top of…
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The AI revolution is on fire
The AI Revolution is On Fire I prompted ChatGPT to write this post in May, 2023. More on that later. See what you think of the quality of AI over a year ago and image…
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A new era in prospect targeting
When you define a target audience for your business development program, you will probably use criteria like CPG, Hospital system, Fintech, or startups with a minimum of $50M in total funding, $100M+ annual sales, 100+…
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No more Whac-A-Mole
The ad agency sales cycle can be long. The average tenure of an agency-client relationship is about three years. The average CMO tenure is about 3.3 years. What’s worse (or better if you have one),…
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Help! My pipeline is empty
If you are saying that at this time of year, it will be a tough year indeed. The truth is, almost every agency gets to that point every so often. It may be that your…
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Win before the pitch
Pitching new business is the oxygen that keeps agencies alive. Ask any agency leader, and you’ll probably hear how much they hate it. It’s disruptive, costly, mismanaged, unfair, and many other NSFW comments will ensue.…
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What are the forces that will influence prospects in 2023
2022 was supposed to be the great recovery, yet it is ending much softer than predicted, with a pessimistic outlook for 2023. Experts predict further economic turbulence, with business leaders taking the necessary steps to…
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New business planning for 2023
While there is a lot of 2022 left, 2023 is closing in fast. What is the industry focused on in 2023? Social justice, DEI, ESG, climate change, or are these now old news in the…
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Let’s get personal
Personalization in marketing has been one of the hottest trends over the last 5-10 years. There is a good reason for that. According to Twilio, 62% of consumers say a brand will lose their loyalty…
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Has the marketer’s journey changed
It’s a topic of great interest across the marketing spectrum. How has consumer behavior changed post-pandemic? Many have attempted to answer this question, and those answers all lean in one direction. The change is digital.…
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What do prospects want
It’s not an easy question to answer. In fact, 95% – 98% don’t want anything, at least not right now. Better said, don’t want anything when you try to reach them. Marketo says that only…
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Do you know who your audience is
It seems like a funny question to ask an ad agency. After all, agencies are in the business of defining target audiences for their clients. Agencies rely on well-articulated criteria that guide almost everything they…
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The unintended consequences of success
If you’ve been on my site before, you know that I focus on the foundational building blocks of ad agency new business. I believe new business is much like a sport where perfecting the fundamentals…
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Is your agency a PRO at new business
No matter how you get there, agencies will eventually have to generate new clients through proactive means. Maybe you’ve been fortunate to have a network of friends who keep sending referrals. Perhaps a campaign you…
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3 post-pandemic prospecting insights
With Q1 well in hand, business development pros continue to see and feel the effects of covid on their ad agency prospecting process. I spoke with an agency BD leader the other day who lamented…
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Hug Your BD
It’s almost the end of the year, and we all have a lot to be thankful for this year. While it may seem insignificant in comparison, I think one person doesn’t get the thanks and…
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What’s in your BD strategy
What should agencies expect in the new year, and what can they do to prepare? A lot changed all around us. Extreme business pressures have shortened CMO tenure, applied even greater pressure on marketing performance…