I am back to blogging after a very busy summer and fall. I hope these posts will be of value.
The other day I received a survey in the mail from service business and one of the questions asked what kind of firm I had. These were the choices:
Media Agency
Promotions Agency
Design Agency
Social Media Firm
Mobile Marketing Agency
Marketing Research Firm
Public Relations Firm
Digital-Only Agency
Marketing Consultancy
Full Service Ad Agency
Direct Marketing Agency
Digital Agency that Also Plays in Traditional Media
Guess what. Most “traditional firms – be they advertising agencies or public relations firms – are doing much if not all of the above.
PR agencies are clearly deriving good revenue from digital; digital firms are hiring PR people for content development; advertising agencies believe they should “own” social media; design firms are getting into mobile apps; research is a “must have” for almost all marketing services firms today, etc. etc. etc.
What’s an agency owner to do?
Positioning your firm and differentiating your firm from competition (all forms of it) is fast becoming job #1 for agency heads. Look to thought leadership and specialization as the only ways to truly be distinctive – and with all the noise it is becoming harder to make any point of differentiation stand out.
It is critical to devote some of your 2012 planning time to address this. To be truly competitive today, your firm has to stand for something that clients value and you have to do a great job of getting that word out.
What do you think? Is the blurring of our business an opportunity or simply a curse we all have to live with?
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Divide Your Marketing/Sales Pie Differently
I talk to a lot of agency owners and I ask them the same question: how do you plan to grow your firm? The answers I almost always get are these:
• “Do a better job of marketing”
• “Hire a marketing director”
• “Win more new business presentations”
• “Get more referrals”
• “Make the agency an account”
Now these answers aren’t totally wrong – they are just not the right one.
What agency owners and CEOs should be saying is. “We have to do a better job of sales.”
After all isn’t business development all about selling and winning?
So why don’t I get the right answer? I think it is because many people are confused about the difference between sales and marketing. So here are my definitions:
Marketing: The process of making a “universe” of potential business prospects know more about your firm and how you think
Sales: The process of persuading a potential customer to buy your services
Now where would you put the emphasis?
From now on divide your sales and marketing “time pie” differently – 75% of your time on sales and 25% of your time on marketing.
Making the time commitment is only the very first step of the sales challenge. I’ll be addressing other challenges and offering potential solutions in future postings.
• “Do a better job of marketing”
• “Hire a marketing director”
• “Win more new business presentations”
• “Get more referrals”
• “Make the agency an account”
Now these answers aren’t totally wrong – they are just not the right one.
What agency owners and CEOs should be saying is. “We have to do a better job of sales.”
After all isn’t business development all about selling and winning?
So why don’t I get the right answer? I think it is because many people are confused about the difference between sales and marketing. So here are my definitions:
Marketing: The process of making a “universe” of potential business prospects know more about your firm and how you think
Sales: The process of persuading a potential customer to buy your services
Now where would you put the emphasis?
From now on divide your sales and marketing “time pie” differently – 75% of your time on sales and 25% of your time on marketing.
Making the time commitment is only the very first step of the sales challenge. I’ll be addressing other challenges and offering potential solutions in future postings.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Agency Owners: Avoid This Mistake!
New business is the lifeblood of any public relations or marketing communications firm. Finding prospects and converting them into new clients is normally the #1 need for most firms. Today’s economic uncertainties make this an even more pressing need.
However, ask most owners how they plan grow and win new clients and they answer, “By doing a better job of marketing.”
What they should say is “By doing a better job of selling.”
As both a former agency leader and current adviser to PR and marketing firms, I believe that most agency leaders confuse sales and marketing and as a result lack a real sales strategy to win business. And, a sales strategy is not just a list of potential new business opportunities,a training program to make your people better presenters, or more impacful PowerPoints.
Here‘s what I mean. For many (perhaps most) agency owners, one of their biggest gripes is the lack of an effective marketing program to make that proverbial phone ring off the hook, generate more referrals and ideally stimulate prospects to simply award them the business.
Do the words “positioning”; “messaging”; new website; “USP”; recognition; reputation; etc. ring a bell? These are the words agency owners often use when either trying to fix their marketing effort or launch a new one.
The reasoning is simple: the better known (and known for the right reasons) the more likely we are to attract potential clients. Once they get to us we can “sell” them. And, they are not wrong – just a little misguided that this is the primary solution to their growth issues.
I believe that the real solution to growth lies with the right kind of sales strategy supported by a complimentary marketing program – not the other way around. If you know to whom you are selling, what they have bought in the past or could be buying now, and what you can offer them that competition cannot, then you have the basis for a strategic sales development program.
Do you have a sales strategy or just simply a marketing strategy? Or, perhaps neither.
However, ask most owners how they plan grow and win new clients and they answer, “By doing a better job of marketing.”
What they should say is “By doing a better job of selling.”
As both a former agency leader and current adviser to PR and marketing firms, I believe that most agency leaders confuse sales and marketing and as a result lack a real sales strategy to win business. And, a sales strategy is not just a list of potential new business opportunities,a training program to make your people better presenters, or more impacful PowerPoints.
Here‘s what I mean. For many (perhaps most) agency owners, one of their biggest gripes is the lack of an effective marketing program to make that proverbial phone ring off the hook, generate more referrals and ideally stimulate prospects to simply award them the business.
Do the words “positioning”; “messaging”; new website; “USP”; recognition; reputation; etc. ring a bell? These are the words agency owners often use when either trying to fix their marketing effort or launch a new one.
The reasoning is simple: the better known (and known for the right reasons) the more likely we are to attract potential clients. Once they get to us we can “sell” them. And, they are not wrong – just a little misguided that this is the primary solution to their growth issues.
I believe that the real solution to growth lies with the right kind of sales strategy supported by a complimentary marketing program – not the other way around. If you know to whom you are selling, what they have bought in the past or could be buying now, and what you can offer them that competition cannot, then you have the basis for a strategic sales development program.
Do you have a sales strategy or just simply a marketing strategy? Or, perhaps neither.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
New Revenue Generator for PR Firms?
After reading Steve Cody’s entertaining and thoughtful RepMan blog the other morning, it just confirmed my feeling that helping clients develop outstanding customer service programs could be a big new revenue generator for public relations firms. It’s wonderful to improve one’s own client relationships – but why stop there.
Great agencies are always looking for new ways to become more valuable to their clients – and increase budgets at the same time. Harold Burson has said that the chief internal public relations officer must be the conscience of the company. Well, how about the public relations firm becoming the conscience of their client’s customer relations function?
It’s possible. Agencies need strong client relationships at senior levels to sell-in their value and expertise to the right decision-maker; true expertise (e.g. someone who’s been there/done that for a corporation) to give it credibility and knowledge of best practices; and the creativity to develop programs that improve what has to be one of the weakest areas of company/brand/user communication.
Here are just a few possibilities for agency customer service programs for their clients:
• A Customer Service Assessment Program to develop new policies and procedures based on an in-depth audit of the customer relations function (agencies help clients develop social media policies, why not customer relations policies).
• Customer relations training (agencies “train” clients for a variety of needs already. This becomes one more training tool in your toolbox).
• Role playing workshops and involvement programs with a client’s CR managers/staff
• Strategic integration of social media tools (e.g. twitter) with the customer relations function.
• Strategic counseling in the agency’s role as “customer relations conscience.”
• “Mystery” customer programs to assess and measure impact.
These are but a few. And they may not be the right ones. There are a number of great corporations who put a premium on excellent customer relations. Study them and adapt their techniques to your clients.
Be one of the first to carve out a niche specialty in customer relations communication.
Great agencies are always looking for new ways to become more valuable to their clients – and increase budgets at the same time. Harold Burson has said that the chief internal public relations officer must be the conscience of the company. Well, how about the public relations firm becoming the conscience of their client’s customer relations function?
It’s possible. Agencies need strong client relationships at senior levels to sell-in their value and expertise to the right decision-maker; true expertise (e.g. someone who’s been there/done that for a corporation) to give it credibility and knowledge of best practices; and the creativity to develop programs that improve what has to be one of the weakest areas of company/brand/user communication.
Here are just a few possibilities for agency customer service programs for their clients:
• A Customer Service Assessment Program to develop new policies and procedures based on an in-depth audit of the customer relations function (agencies help clients develop social media policies, why not customer relations policies).
• Customer relations training (agencies “train” clients for a variety of needs already. This becomes one more training tool in your toolbox).
• Role playing workshops and involvement programs with a client’s CR managers/staff
• Strategic integration of social media tools (e.g. twitter) with the customer relations function.
• Strategic counseling in the agency’s role as “customer relations conscience.”
• “Mystery” customer programs to assess and measure impact.
These are but a few. And they may not be the right ones. There are a number of great corporations who put a premium on excellent customer relations. Study them and adapt their techniques to your clients.
Be one of the first to carve out a niche specialty in customer relations communication.
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