Opinion piece
What often strikes us is that despite all the new shiny martech, how the basic tenets of new business, specifically building relationships, hasn’t changed since the 90s. This isn’t surprising; human brains haven’t changed (much), even if culture, society, parlance, speed and communication channels have.
The advice that we give to our clients today is the same. Build relationships through being useful. Drive mental availability for your agency brand with key audiences. Listen and build on the intelligence you unearth. Approach new business systematically and strategically.
Let’s get to it. You’re gearing up for Q3 ‘21 and what everyone hopes will be a gold rush of new business.
Where do you start? Before you consider your cold strategy, go to LinkedIn, or if you’re a bit more old-school, dust off that Filofax / grab that out of shape Google sheet / refer to the ancient excel spreadsheet. List out all the people you know. All of them. List who they are, note down the background so that anyone can make sense of these notes, segment and categorise your information so you can work this list efficiently.
A contact could be anyone from a lapsed client, a supplier, an ex colleague, a journalist, a fellow judge at that awards thing you attended last year, a freelancer that you interviewed, an intermediary, someone to whom you recently pitched, a LinkedIn connection. You get the gist.
Get into the details. Build the list at both a company and individual level. You’ve made great connections and you are likely to have some background with not just a company but with specific brands, categories, marketing and procurement teams. You might think ‘but that was 10 years ago, the whole world has changed’. Yes, it has, but you still have relevant experience; a heritage that’s likely to have a bearing on your expertise today. If you contextualise this angle vs striking up a conversation with someone completely new, suddenly that project you created for that famous whisky brand feels more relevant than you thought.
Sitting back looking at this list, you can feel pretty delighted with yourself. You know who your most important prospects are. Major tick on the to-do list.
Share this list with your team. Who can they add? Overall, this list now represents your golden goose of contacts. These people know you. They are in the industry. They will all have something relevant and interesting to share. As do you.
Now that your list is humming with possibility, what next?
Do your research. Nobody has lost out because they were over prepared. Equip your sheet, or CRM - at all costs, ditch the Filofax - with the latest insights, strategic direction and agency arrangements. This will give you a good update and flavour for what might be interesting to mention or at the very least, be aware of. The best sales practice is all about not selling. It’s about positioning you in the mind as a credible partner who can help that person, company or brand achieve their ambitions. You will help them get there.
What might your approach look like? It will be low key and helpful. To help you with this next stage, segment your list further. Is there a sensible way you can break-down your list to help prioritise and give a clear sense of what content or conversational angle you might take? It’s important to take the right approach that reflects the maturity of the relationship. It’s crucial that you aren’t impersonal to someone you know or where there is a backstory. If you don’t have a clear reason to approach or stay in touch, they shouldn’t be on your networking list.
What kind of engagement might you suggest? Perhaps you’ve set up Google alerts, as identified in the last issue of The Goods, and you can see a theme emerging that you’d like to use as a kick-off discussion point. You can arrange coffee catch ups, ‘quarantini’ 5pm Friday Zooms to share the woes, invite them onto your podcast or to participate in a survey on a hot topic, where you’ll be sharing the results with your participants.
Don’t be sheepish about making contact. If you are useful, and you’ve established that you can be, you’re not selling. Liberate yourself with this fact.
People can find it unnerving striking up a conversation from a colder start. To help get you in the right mindset, and by this we mean relaxed, think about what you’d say to this person at a dinner party (remember those?). You wouldn’t start yapping about your achievements. Well, you could, but they’ll want you gone before the main course arrives. You are saying, hi, how are you? What strange times we’re in. Let’s chew the cud.
Make it happen and build the best ‘pipeline’ you’ve seen in years.