Sanders Consulting Group has trained many marketing firms in a proven and successful process for opening doors, finding opportunities and generating leads. 

new business leads

There are many leads out there, waiting to be found.

Our process builds agency awareness and creates relationships with prospects.  The result is a steady stream of invitations to visit qualified prospects – in effect generating new business leads.  A trained agency should generate an average of one good meeting a week.

Generating Leads Check List:

  • Create a strong prospect pool
  • Set-up a contact management data base
  • Focus on building relationships
  • Nudge to win opportunities
  • Use chemistry to build trust
  • Qualify prospects
  • Discover opportunities
  • Classify the lead
  • Fast close the account

When thinking about generating leads its helpful to have a system to classify the leads that come your way. This way you can focus your efforts and not get wrapped up in wasting time on leads that you have little chance of winning.

Types of Leads:

Bronze Leads

  • Sent RFP
  • Sent RFI
  • Get a request for capabilities presentation to screening committee
  • Receive a request for a written proposal

Silver Leads

  • Receive a request for capabilities presentation by key decision maker
  • Included in review by search consultant
  • Get a lead from vendor or supplier
  • Ask for you to bid on the work

Gold Leads

  • Wants you to stop by and meet one-on-one (quiet visit)
  • Asks to come by and visit the agency (quiet visit)
  • Wants to discuss the account privately (quiet visit)
  • Offers a test project to work on

Lifeblood of the Agency.

If new business is the lifeblood of the agency, then new business leads are the heartbeat. And the best new business leads are the “Quiet Visits.”

Agency people who are untrained in important new business “Quiet Visit” skills see the first visit with a prospect as an opportunity to tell all about the firm in loving detail. These untrained agency people love to talk fast during their detailed capabilities presentations so they can cover more ground. It’s a way of speaking that clients often call the “Vomit Comet.” That’s not the way agency people trained in our process work.

A good new business process should focus on building trust so the prospect will open up and discuss the business situation at hand. Ad agency new business is not about selling the prospect on your firm with this Quiet Visit. The real pros understand it’s not about trying to close the account. It’s a trust-building step, not a selling opportunity. Selling the prospect on the firm takes place when the firm is prepared to close the account, not before.

The best way to make a bright future for your agency is to help create it with your new business outreach. We call this Sparking. If you aren’t generating many leads, at least one a week, then chances are you aren’t doing outreach. A few links to help:

Work to set up a Quiet Visit where the agency can probe for information (interview the prospect) and prepare to Fast Close. Remember the first rule of new business: Speed wins.

I know there are always questions about new business, but we’re also able to often provide some insight into staffing and operational areas. Is there anything we can do to help? As you evaluate opportunities and challenges at your agency, never hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or 412.897.9329

 

Photo by Freak6