• Sometimes it’s better to just say no and just walk away.

    The Prospect You Need To Turn Down

    Sometimes it’s better for an agency to just say NO to new business! There are times in every agency owner’s life that a prospect comes in and forces a gut […]

     
  • What’s The Secret New Business Tool?

    What’s The Secret New Business Tool?

    It’s always a little surprising to me when an ad agency can’t figure out what happened. They lose a pitch. Or they lose a client. And they wonder why? Every […]

     
  • How To Win Clients Without A Formal Review

    How To Win Clients Without A Formal Review

    From a Logo to a Complete Brand Study in 48 Hours. It seemed like a simple assignment. A small design agency was called by a national insurance firm asking about […]

     
  • Painful Ad Agency Prospect Presentation Mistake

    Painful Ad Agency Prospect Presentation Mistake

    The head of account service (we’ll call him “Tom”) at a fast-moving regional agency was on a roll. Tom had just closed the largest account in the history of the […]

     
  • The likable ad agency is not luck-of-the-draw.

    Agency Likeability: The Hidden Side of New Business

    Your firm’s likeability, often called “chemistry,” describes the relationship between your firm and a good prospect. Most leading search consultants rate chemistry as the most critical tipping point that either […]

     
  • The key is to break the cycle.

    Common Business Cycles: Find Your Agency

    If new business is the heartbeat of an agency, then new business leads are the pulse. If your agency isn’t seeing a steady stream of prospects who are interested in […]

     
  • Good luck with new business!

    A New Business Quiz

    Ad Agencies, PR, design, and digital firms, creative hot shops and more must become experts at finding prospects and winning new business. The competition has never been greater. Firms of all […]

     
  • A New Business Fable

    A New Business Fable

    Once upon a time, there was a nice advertising agency in an important city far, far away. The agency had four key partners named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. The […]

     
  • Rule 5. Never brag at the new business meeting.

    Overselling Is a Fatal New Business Disease

    A new business win the bag – I was so proud, and couldn’t wait to share the news. I had been following up on a good prospect, a large regional hospital […]