Creating good chemistry is an art. It doesn’t just “happen.”
Learn how to recognize the unique pattern, or profile, of each prospect.
Many advertisers try to be objective, but “chemistry is probably 50% to 60% of the decision factor,” comments a retail marketing director. In a recent Ad Business Report survey of advertisers who have recently conducted a review, the majority placed the “right chemistry” as a key requirement.
In a formal review, the belief is any one of the agencies can do the work – why else would you be in the pitch? All else being equal, the prospect ends up choosing the agency they like, the one they can see themselves working with, spending time with, the one they trust the most.
Here’s why it’s so important: We tend to like people better who best meet our expectations. Who seem like us. We understand them easier. We don’t get surprised. In short, we want to work with them. Hence we hire them. Chemistry wins new business.
Creating good chemistry with people is not as hit-or-miss as many may think. People’s personalities and how they interact with the world can be categorized into patterns and profiles. Your firm must learn to understand these patterns, or profiles, prospects come in so you can adopt a way of dealing with them to achieve “good chemistry.” We’ve trained many agencies in profiling and have a great one day session that will leave the staff blown away.
Losing the Chemistry Battle.
In many searches, the search consultants or the key client-side decisions makers will realize that “any of these agencies can do the job.” The search process then becomes about which one firm do “we want to work with.” That’s ad agency chemistry.
“There were three hours for each presentation. In that time, we watched how they answered questions, how they interacted with the owners of the company, how they set up the room. Some groups set up barriers — a table between us and them. Others were very close.”
Client Marketing Director
All the search consultants agree that prospects always hire the agency they like best. That means they hire the agency where the chemistry is strongest and nothing even comes in second to that. Not great credentials. Not smart thinking. Not drop-dead creative. If the chemistry isn’t right, you aren’t going to get hired. Period.
And if you don’t know how to get chemistry on your side, you need to take our Chemistry Wins New Business training and learn from the new business masters. We show it all in this session on how to use chemistry to win more new business.
Photo by Lóránt Szabó and used under creative commons.
