My question to all who solicit information from vendors is why not reveal what you have to spend on the project upfront! For starters you’ll weed out those that want or can participate from those who can’t. And perhaps more importantly you will have a better chance to evaluate what you can expect for your money, not to mention hidden costs. The last reference is geared more towards the advertising industry where someone will come in with a low bid only to bill you multiple times over the original budget in the form of “change orders” because you know the client will change his mind more than once. It’s almost comparable to a larger service company underbidding a smaller company because they know they can make up the dollars on the service contract the customer will need.

I realize there is a lot of psychology that goes on in business but is this one game we can change so everyone follows the same rules and the customer can make a more informed and educated decision.

With all the competition that exists, the first two C’s are almost a given. If you don’t come across as knowledgeable about your prospective client’s industry and your aren’t cost competitive it doesn’t matter how good the chemistry is. Well at least in most cases. Unfortunately we’ve all experienced a situation where on the surface you appeared to be the winner but then because the CEO went to college with a competitor of yours, you lost the business based on that relationship.

If all things are equal it’s the the third “C” or chemistry that plays such a vital role in trying to win new business. If the company you are trying to do business with or the person working at that company just doesn’t click with you, well you probably aren’t going to do business with them. This is why it is so important to try to understand the prospective client’s corporate culture and to determine how well this culture aligns with your own. If it does, then that could be a good indicator that you might have a shot at the business. It’s this last “C” that separates those who have success in new business from those who do not.  Your ability to get along with the indviual whom you are trying to sell will make the difference between a successful relationship or an unsuccessful one.

As with all good things, developing a relationship that may lead to a successful business transaction takes time. It’s not unlike dating and courting your future spouse. After all you didn’t ask her to marry you after the third date.

This scenario happens more often than it should around the world. This is not just an American phenomenon but a global one. Unfortunately it shows once again how the Client side perceives the work involved with the creative development and execution of their project. Rodney Dangerfield said it best about not getting any respect.

The only way to change this attitude is for the creative partner to help establish the ground rules for how work gets done with the client at the beginning of the relationship. This isn’t rocket science but rather common sense. All too often expectations between a client and the service provider are NOT managed well which ultimately leads to difficulties down the road.

I have advised all of my clients to consider creating an agency binder for their clients which will answer 90% of all their questions and thus avoiding any frustration or misunderstanding between the client and the service provider.  In this binder you might include how work flow is initiated and processed, forms that get used, contact information for the key team members, billing procedure, and other important aspects regarding the day-to-day dealings with the agency.

Everyone appears to be an “expert” in something but they either do a poor job of promoting that fact on their marketing materials or they can’t deliver in a way we would expect them to. I think it’s unfortunate that companies in the marketing communications industry don’t do a better job on their web sites since it represents one of the major avenues for a potential client to inform themselves about the kinds of services and experience that are available. I think the only thing that makes matters worse than having a poorly designed site or lack of appropriate marketing materials is to fundamentally misrepresent yourself!

Unfortunately I have encountered a number of firms over years that state they are experts in a certain area but when I pressed them on the facts it would turn out that I knew more than they did. While I don’t think it’s my job to expose these firms by name I’m more than willing to add my two cents to this topic to make people aware that they really need to do their homework. I’m also sharing my thoughts with the industry to advise them to shape up or ship out.

The reality of today’s marketplace is that most marketers at large brands are often too busy to sit down with you over a cup of coffee for a capabilities review. They have established relationships with agency brands they value or trust or in some cases even admirer. All these agencies have gone through the vetting process by purchasing and are on the all important “preferred” vendor list.  The other advantage these A-List players have is they provide insurance or should I say assurance.  Another way of putting this is if you go with a well known agency and they mess up you may still have a job in the morning. That’s not necessarily going to be the case with a unknown agency regardless of how creative or inexpensive they are.

OK now that I’ve emptied the glass let’s see if we can’t fill it up with water again. Just because you are a small, unknown agency doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to work on a large brand but keep in mind what it takes to get there and ask yourself if it’s worth it in the end. It will take time, lots of hard work, money and luck. You will practically give away the work on the first job and you’ll work through the weekend and maybe past midnight to impress the client. The unfortunate part here is that you won’t make that much money and the client may not appreciate the hoops you jumped through to make him/her happy.

Now if you have experienced success with well known brands and have made the investment to showcase your success to the point where it gets noticed by others, then you may have a chance at doing some good work on your terms and your pay.

An alternative approach to doing work with well known brands is to pitch the agencies that are already working on those accounts. Yes you heard me right. It’s done all the time and it’s not a bad avenue to take if you need to fill the coffers. You may not be able to take credit for the work but you do make money. And who knows you may get lucky. The client may want to work with you directly and cut out the extra costs he/she is incurring by working directly with the roster agency.

Most small agencies do great work but have a difficult time of branding themselves to the point where they have an opportunity to do great work for large brands. For those who make that commitment, good things will come to you both with large and smaller brands.

I think smaller agencies also have to have a reality check in that they may be better suited working on smaller brands where they will make good money and produce good work without killing themselves. You can still do killer creative for the local tattoo parlor or bowling alley.

I think it’s fair to say that new business development is a concept that as a profession may not be wholly understood by agency principals which has lead to some of the issues I’ve observed in our industry. Just recently I read a question from an agency president in an Ad Age blog about how to compensate a new business person. I doubt very much that the same question would be asked of a copywriter or an art director. I believe that most agency owners feel they know what business development is about but don’t fully comprehend nor appreciate the nuances, tasks, and activities associated with this role. Perhaps the reason for this is that in most agencies the business development person is a non-billable individual and as such is viewed as overhead not unlike a personal assistant or someone in the accounting department.

Since “a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush” I wonder if agency principals forget how valuable a new business person can be and that keeping them informed of everything the agency does is critical since they can use this information to help position the agency with new clients. If the new business person is doing their job then they are ultimately filling the funnel with new opportunities which represent the billable client of tomorrow. Hence why some consider new business the life blood of the agency! Keeping this person in the dark or informed on an as needed bases is wrong and counterproductive. They need to know when things are going well for an agency and when things are not going so well so they can prepare and react accordingly.

Those relationships that are marked by open lines of communication and collaboration between senior management and the new business specialist tend to be the most successful ones in our business.

I recently received a message from this software provider that my license was about to expire and would I like to renew now or later. This was very friendly and very professional message. When I finally opted to renew the software license things initially flowed smoothly. I followed the step-by-step instructions and let the “wizard” do the rest. Half way through the setup process don’t I get an error message which instructs me to contact technical support. Now the simple thing in my opinion would have been to include a toll free number in that message. After all they asked me to contact technical support. But as you guessed there was no number. So I proceeded to follow my intuition to try to contact customer service or technical support. I went and opened the Norton Protection Center to see if I could find a link to customer service and voila I found it. Unfortunately there still was no telephone number. Instead I was faced with several links and an FAQ section. I also saw an option to talk with a live person via the internet (Live Person). Unfortunately for me I am not using Internet Explorer 5.5 which apparently is the only web browser that will support Live Person. I proceeded to check out the FAQ section to see if others had encountered a similar problem to mine and how was it resolved. I saw a link that came close and downloaded what I thought would be a quick fix. Needless to say that didn’t work.

Fifteen minutes later I finally found a number to call. The same number they could have programmed into the error message that greeted me while trying to install an upgrade. You know what happened next. I spent 5 minutes talking with a computer answering questions including putting in my order number. I finally received a tech support person in India and the first thing he asked me for was my order number. Did’t I just key it into the phone.

Now I know that India has received some bad press lately about tech support and how many reps are encouraged to take on US names like Harry and Jane but I’m happy to report that my tech support guy was good and kept his birth name. The bad side to this story is it took him almost 45 minutes to help me fix the problem. In all I spent well over an hour of my time doing something that should probably have only taken 5 minutes.

Unfortunately this is not the first time I’ve had this experience with Norton. At the end of the day they offer a superior product and I will continue to be a customer of theirs but they should consider doing one of two things. Either fix the technical glitches which are causing the set-up error when upgrading a software package, or include the tech support number right in the error message when it does pop up.

At the end of the day people want to do business with people they like and the only way to find out if there is chemistry is to meet in person.

While I know many agency owners and new business people feel it’s important to visit their prospective customer at their home office I think there is something to be said for having the prospect visit the agency! What better way to show off what and who you have.