Understanding how to get leaders to start fishing for new business has stumped agencies for many years.
Trying to grow an agency without senior management is like fishing without bait.
Many agency leaders tell us their senor leaders don’t do any proactive new business activities. Oh, they’ll happily jump on any pitch opportunity. And they work hard to keep the current clients happy – that’s their job after all. But try and get them to go out and generate any new leads? To really help grow your agency? Good luck. And everyone knows there is a direct line between the lack of prospecting and the lack of growth at most agencies.
The sad truth is most agencies haven’t taken any steps to show their senior management team how to do new business – targeting and closing decision makers. These agencies are content to let the management team drift along with only the occasional opportunity to present or participate in a new business pitch. This is a lost opportunity and a waste of your best talent.
Your senior talent should help you take a big bite out of new business. And they will if you train and motivate them the right way.
The Process To Follow:
- Set up a process that’s easy to understand:
- Who to go after?
- What to say?
- What to send?
- What’s my role? (Focus should be on getting first visits)
- What do I get?
- Build a team to support them (which adds important peer pressure to the process)
- Get input on building the right system that works for everyone
- Give them training, teach them the skills to give them confidence
- Provide lots of support with the critical first steps
- Add metrics along the way (monthly) to keep them on the track
- Show clear rewards that make it important for them to play the game
- Keep it competitive
- Keep it fun
- Report regularly on progress (at least monthly)
We call it Sharking: How Top Managers Fish for New Business.
Sharking teaches your most valuable assets why it’s so important that everyone within the management team actively participates in the new business process. The Sharking program outlines how your leadership team can become Sharks, always on the prowl for new growth opportunities, both organic and external, in the course of their normal business day. Specific skill sets are taught that show the leadership team how they can move from being lost in the open water to being new business Sharks by incorporating simple steps and procedures into their normal business routines.
Set up your management team to reel in the big ones!
The good news is that your senior management team can be developed, with good processes, leadership and encouragement, into new business sharks. But before any effort can take effect, you have to invest in them, invest in your agency, and create a culture that supports growth at all levels. Set up a training program now for your management team so they can learn how to really help your agency grow.
Hook photo © Carolyn Franks | Dreamstime.com
