Ben Potter, Author at Ben Potter

About Ben Potter

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Ben Potter has created 33 blog entries.

Why do some agencies ‘get away’ with sh*t positioning?

Ben Potter2024-11-14T16:56:09+00:00

Why do some agencies ‘get away’ with sh*t positioning?

“Those guys down the road don’t fit your idea of good positioning and they’re flying. Why’s that Ben?”

It’s a fair question I’ve heard several times when chatting with sceptical agency leaders about niching or specialising.

But before I try to answer it, a gentle reminder…

Positioning is the unique combination of what you do, who you do it for and how you do it, the goal of which is to make your agency distinguishable and identifiable to a prospect.

I often use the words positioning and strategy interchangeably because, in my mind, they are the same. A credible business strategy means you have made explicit choices, not just about what you DO, but also what you DON’T.

A quick look at an agency’s website is enough to judge whether such choices have been made.

Typical symptoms of an ‘uncredible’ strategy include:

Dozens of sector ‘specialism’ pages (optimised to within an inch of their life).
An endless shopping list of services.
And (often) unsubstantiated claims and clichés masquerading as points of difference; ‘results-focused’, ‘transparent’ and dare I say ‘award-winning’ to name just three.

Yet some agencies do appear to ‘get away’ with this.

So, circling back to the opening question…why? What do they have that perhaps others don’t?

A charismatic, ‘out there’ leader

Can you do brilliant marketing without brilliant positioning? It’s not easy but is possible.

For example, sometimes the agency’s people are THE marketing. Think of the charismatic leader constantly out there banging the agency’s drum – a one-person lead machine. Everywhere you go, online and offline, he or she is there.

But before you go and splurge a load of cash on a personal branding consultant, there’s an important angle to this; you need something interesting to say beyond how great (you think) your agency is; a bold – maybe even polarising – point of view about the industry, how you run your agency or deliver your work, is going to help here.

Of course, not all leaders feel comfortable in the spotlight. But when they do, it can trump the need to narrow their agency’s positioning.

An infectious culture

In all likelihood, this is an extension of the above. The confidence of the leader flows through the agency. People (talent and clients) want a bit of it.

This highlights how culture goes way beyond perks and incentives. Ping-pong tables, gym memberships, beer fridges and office dogs might supplement culture. But they don’t create it.

Instead, culture (good or bad) is based on the values and behaviours of its leaders. It is visible in how the business is run and makes people feel as a result.

And if this means an agency can attract (and retain) the best talent, they might also attract the best clients – despite their poor positioning.

The work sells itself

Sometimes the quality of an agency’s work is so good that when marketed well, a steady stream of prospects come knocking who want the same. Think high-profile creative campaigns, ads and film, for example, complemented with excellent PR that sees the work (and agency) regularly featured in trade press and, of course, winning awards.

Whilst positioning an agency as the ‘best’ or ‘most creative’ doesn’t pass as a credible strategy, a few get away with it due to the very public recognition their work receives.

A superstar sales function

Few agencies take sales seriously from day one. Instead, they rely on their black book, referrals and oodles of energy and enthusiasm. New business is typically the responsibility of the agency leader, but, because they are also on the shop floor, it is mainly reactive and lower down the priority list.

On the flip side, I’ve seen other agencies adopt an entirely different approach; new business is the number one priority, from day one. A Midlands-based digital agency comes to mind – even when they were relatively small, they invested heavily in building their sales and marketing team. And it’s paid off. In a few short years, they’ve grown to be one of the largest and most respected digital agencies in the UK (and are now expanding overseas).

Their relentless focus on lead generation and conversion has superseded the need to target a discrete audience or refine their service offering. In fact, they’ve done the complete opposite.

Prepared (and able) to swallow the cost of pitching

In line with the above, for some agencies, especially at the larger end of the scale, pitching is so embedded in the culture that the absurdity of it all is rarely questioned. Chucking a ton of free time and thinking at six all-consuming pitches to win one is just the cost of doing business.

If you’re willing to pitch more to win less (in terms of conversion rate) – and have the resource to give every one of them a decent shot – then to hell with niche or specialist positioning.

A systematic referral machine

69% of agencies cite referrals as the most effective way of generating leads. Yet only 49% of agencies have implemented a systematic strategy to increase the number or quality of referrals (Benchpress 2024). Bonkers, eh?

The 51% of agencies that do have a system in place may find their ‘catch-all’ positioning does little harm. Although they might find it challenging to describe who they’d like to be referred to when their ideal client profile is as broad as ‘ambitious brands’ or ‘growing SMEs’!

Winning one or two game-changing clients

You might call it luck. I prefer serendipity. But every so often, a big opportunity arrives at the door. Some agencies, for good reason, know it’s just too big. Winning it would eat up too much resource and present too high a risk.

Others see it as the opportunity to take the next run up the growth ladder. They know there will be some smoke and mirrors needed to win it. But, by doing so, it’s the catalyst for further big wins and fast growth.

And also a very good excuse to stick two fingers up to specialist or niche positioning.

Highly deliberate account growth

Is this enough to bypass the rules of strategy in itself? Probably not. More likely this is an extension of the aforementioned fixation on sales. Account managers aren’t tasked with ambiguous upselling goals; instead, they have strategic growth plans. And they are coached on how to identify, nurture and close opportunities.

Furthermore, agency leaders are likely to ignore the advice to narrow their service offering. Instead, they add more and more service lines as clients ask for them. So, with more stuff to sell, they increase the value of each account and become ever more entrenched.

There is an important point to consider here: credibility. When your agency website has a drop-down menu listing thirty services delivered by a team of just ten people, it doesn’t stack up. But for some agencies, the size of their service offering and the size of their team are in tandem, so they care little about criticism of their ‘full-service’ claims.

Some agencies do well despite their poor positioning, not because of it

For every agency possessing one or two of the above traits – to the extent it can create a competitive advantage – there are a hundred agencies that don’t.

So, whilst a minority of agencies can largely ignore the positioning advice spouted by the likes of yours truly, the rest of you need a credible, ‘three-pillar’ business strategy that narrowly defines what you do, who you do it for and how.

And this is where I use the term ‘strategy’ very deliberately.

Because I’m starting to think that positioning (ironically) has a positioning problem. There are now so many advisers banging on about the need to niche or specialise, agency owners are zoning out.

I therefore wonder if you’d take this stuff more seriously if sh*t positioning was, well, repositioned. Maybe it’s time to call out poor positioning for what it might highlight about you and your agency: an acute lack of strategic nous.

Which is somewhat embarrassing if you claim to do ‘strategy’ for your clients.

Why do some agencies ‘get away’ with sh*t positioning?Ben Potter2024-11-14T16:56:09+00:00

Lead generation’s silent killer

Ben Potter2024-11-14T17:02:34+00:00

Lead generation’s silent killer

There’s a theory that technology is dumbing down society.

In other words, we are all slowly becoming more stupid.

Other studies demonstrate how technology is also making us more impatient. In a few short years, we’ve become accustomed to a world where everything is on tap: same-day delivery, fast food to my doorstep and on-demand entertainment, to cite three obvious examples.

Everything is now, now, NOW.

Hence, we struggle to wait for anything that falls short of our insatiable appetite for immediacy.

So, it’s therefore no surprise this has seeped into our working lives.

One of the things I enjoy about my job is getting to the root cause of a problem. Take lead generation, for example. Most agencies are on a perpetual cycle of feast and famine. One minute, you’re gorging on a massive new project. The next, you’re wondering how the kids are going to eat next month.

I exaggerate for comedic effect. But only a little.

Seeking out the root cause of this issue, I’d always attributed it to a lack of consistency. As soon as that big project lands, it’s all hands to the pump. Without a dedicated business developer or marketer, lead generation goes on the back burner. And when you lift your head back up a few months later, a blind panic ensues as you take a look at the pipeline report; ‘sparse’ would be a generous description.

I’ve heard this, or witnessed it, time and time again. Feeling quite smug, I’ve often referred to being consistently consistent as the ‘secret sauce’ to fixing this problem. Hence, I try and help people build the right habits so that lead generation is always on, irrespective of how busy they get doing other stuff.

Yet, there are times when the results still don’t materialise.

And this has led me to conclude that there must be something else at play.

If consistency is the hero, impatience is the new enemy

As I alluded to earlier, we have been conditioned to want – and expect – everything NOW.

So, if you run a webinar, attendees should be knocking down the door to work with you, right?

No? Well, that didn’t work, did it?

You get back to your desk after a networking event…surely, there’ll be a flood of emails from people eager for a call?

No? What a waste of time.

After running your first outbound campaign, you only get a handful of responses, most of which are a ‘thanks but not right now’.

Yes? An abject failure – you best fire your lead gen agency!

I could go on, but I think you know where I’m going with this.

Everywhere I look, agency leaders are far too quick to judge a channel, activity or campaign as a flop.

Granted, sometimes the activity just isn’t right. Or it’s poorly executed. But quite often, the activity IS right. And it IS well executed.

Yet, not long after, it gets canned because – yes, you guessed it – the results were not immediate.

I’m increasingly convinced this lack of patience is killing your agency’s lead generation efforts.

So, what to do about it?

One of my mantras is this:

When you break it down, business development is simple. It comes down to doing enough of the right things, consistently well. Always. Even when you get busy doing other stuff.

I’d now add to that with…

And then you need to give those things the appropriate amount of time, so you can form an objective opinion on whether they really work.

I know you are under pressure.

But overnight results and lead generation very rarely go hand in hand; not least because the majority of your prospects are not in the market for your services at any given time.

This means, at a guess, you’ll probably need to do five webinars, attend ten networking events and run at least one outbound campaign a quarter before you can judge their true impact.

And, even then, attribution is an imperfect science. In all likelihood, it will be a combination of activities that result in the right people knocking on your door.

Putting together a lead generation plan – aligned to your target audience, skills and capacity – is pretty straightforward.

The bit that comes after, not so.

Yes, you need to be consistent.

But perhaps this isn’t your only problem.

Maybe you also need to increase your patience threshold.

Lead generation’s silent killerBen Potter2024-11-14T17:02:34+00:00

How your weak positioning shows up in the sales process

Ben Potter2024-11-14T16:59:31+00:00

How your weak positioning shows up in the sales process

Recently, a question came to mind: have agencies conditioned themselves to accept the symptoms of weak positioning as ‘normal’?

And if so, what are these symptoms, particularly where the sales process is concerned?

While you mull that over for a moment, let’s just ensure we’re on the same page with the ‘P’ word. I describe positioning as what you do, why and most importantly, for whom. It brings together your expertise, interests and values to solve a problem (or set of problems) for a discrete audience, thus making your agency distinctive and memorable.

We’ve become somewhat fixated on ‘positioning’ in agency land (me included). But what we really mean is strategy. They are one and the same if you ask me. As such, if you claim to ‘work with businesses of all shapes and sizes’, or you mistake hygiene factors for points of difference (‘transparent’, ‘results-focused’, ‘passionate’, etc), some might say your positioning is a bit crap.

But I’d go further; it actually demonstrates a lack of strategic nous (which is kind of ironic if you also happen to offer ‘strategy’ as a service to your clients).

Anyway, to the main crux of this blurb: small agencies with weak positioning tend to find new business tough. Year after year, it’s cited as your number one challenge. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. I know agencies with laughably poor positioning doing very well for themselves. But for every high-flying generalist, there are fifty others where the process of acquiring new clients – consistently – is a bit of a slog.

Yet, interestingly, agencies don’t always see it that way. ‘Slog? No mate, that’s just how it is, right?’

Back to ‘normal’…are you sure?

The last few years have been quite the rollercoaster – Brexit, global pandemic, great resignation, cost-of-living crisis, sluggish economy and the arrival of AI. It’s been one thing after another. So much so, it’s hard to remember the last time we had a ‘normal’ year.

Each event has, of course, presented its challenges. But they have also resulted in monumental (and, in my view, broadly positive) changes to how and where we work, for example.

But there is one area where not much seems to have changed: the sales process.

Yes, we’ve all learnt to run sales meetings virtually. AI is helping make aspects of selling more efficient (although not necessarily more effective). And we can collaborate on pitch decks with colleagues on the other side of the world, no problem.

But leaving these fairly marginal gains aside, has the sales process really changed that much?

Not from where I’m standing.

Sub-standard briefs are still being fired out to agencies. Consultative sales skills are still in short supply. Proposals are still put together and fired over by email without a second thought. And, of course, ghosting is ever-present.

So, what to do?

Well, we could throw our toys out of the pram and blame those pesky clients for their rubbish briefs, unreasonable demands and disappearing acts. But this doesn’t stand up to scrutiny because, over many years, agencies have inadvertently schooled these behaviours in clients.

Which means we are left with one alternative: to be the grown-up, take responsibility and make change happen ourselves.

But to do this, a large proportion of agencies (83% to be exact) need to start by addressing the root cause of their sales woes: weak positioning.

So, circling back to my original thought, let’s take a look at how weak positioning shows up in the sales process; symptoms you might accept as ‘normal’…but they don’t have to be:

1. You rarely say ‘no’

Without defining a discrete audience you have limited criteria to qualify if a prospect is a good fit for your agency. So, pretty much any prospect is considered a good fit.

This can manifest itself in various ways but perhaps the most telling is your website. The ‘experience’ section has twenty pages, each one dedicated to a different vertical where you claim to be experts (in an agency of ten people…are you sure?).

Ironically, this misguided attempt to make yourself attractive to the widest possible range of prospects has the opposite effect. Educated clients aren’t looking for generalists. They are looking for agencies with deep expertise. Those twenty sector pages dilute your credibility.

2. You frequently bend the narrative

You find yourself changing your proposition to suit what the prospect wants to hear. Yesterday, you were experts in ecommerce. Today, it’s financial services. You scratch around for relevant case studies. Hidden deep on the shared drive is some work you did for a failed start-up in 2013. Use ChatGPT to summarise the latest Fintech trends, stick them in a creds deck and hey presto, you’re an expert.

As David C Baker says in The Business of Expertise, even if you win the business, the client is effectively paying you to learn on the job. Maybe you’re cool with being a ‘fake expert’. I’m not so sure.

3. You take the brief at face value

What a client thinks they want and what they actually need can be quite different.

So embrace a prospect’s brief but accept it’s going to have holes in it. A prospect who truly values your expertise will be open to answering your questions and exploring different ideas or approaches.

But with weak positioning, you lack the deep expertise to challenge the brief. Therefore, you’re more likely to accept their version of events and rush headlong into writing a proposal (bypassing critical conversations in the sales process, as a result).

4. You don’t push back on the prospect’s process

You don’t want to fill in that 15-page RFI document, but you have no leverage.

You’d like to speak to other stakeholders, but you have no leverage.

You want to say ‘no’ when they ask for a proposal by Friday (it’s Thursday), but you have no leverage.

The sales process should be collaborative. But the prospect tends to dictate the term of engagement.

When your expertise is truly valued, the opposite can be true. You are more likely to be able to lead (or at least influence) the process. And that matters. According to Blair Enns, ‘winning firms are almost ten times more likely to have significantly affected the buying process than losing firms.’

5. You offer a solution before the client has paid for it

A few years ago, I had an extension built. The process started by spending a couple of hours with an architect to explore our requirements. We were satisfied to move forward, which meant paying her some money. Not in a million years would I have asked her to do the drawings as part of the sales process. But neither did I need to; she had demonstrated through her related experience and expertise that she was the right fit for the job. She didn’t need to do the actual work to prove it.

With weak positioning, the opposite is true. Lacking enough relevant content, case studies and testimonials, your only option is to demonstrate your ‘expertise’ by coming up with the solution as part of the sales process. With no guarantee the client will buy the strategy, idea or design you’ve laboured over.

And you do all of this for free.

Nuts, right?

6. You share rate cards and granular fee breakdowns

I was once asked by a prospect to share a detailed breakdown of a PPC quote. I duly obliged and won the business. I soon wished I hadn’t.

The spreadsheet I shared detailing tasks, hours and fees became the basis of the relationship. Instead of focusing on the great results we were delivering, the weekly call was an interrogation of how every minute had been spent on the account. It was utterly demoralising for the team.

Agencies have inadvertently trained clients to buy services in this way (based on inputs). And because they want to compare apples to apples, you’re asked to share (what should be) commercially sensitive information about your agency.

Your weak positioning makes it more likely the client is buying on price. And therefore, you’ll have no option but to hand over the apples.

7. You regularly discount

When reviewing a proposal for a new client, I noticed a 10% discount had been applied to the fees. When I asked why, I was taken aback with the reply:

“We know clients are going to ask for it so to make things easier we just apply it upfront”.

Eek.

Weak positioning means it’s more likely you’ll be asked (and to some extent forced) to reduce your fees to win the business. It doesn’t matter how passionate you are about their brand. It doesn’t matter how many awards you’ve won. It doesn’t matter how good you say your people are. A prospect won’t pay a premium for something they can buy from ten, similar-looking agencies just down the road.

And value-based pricing? Good luck with that.

8. Your win rate is around 25%

Agency owners are often surprised when I tell them they should be aiming for a +70% conversion rate (from proposal to win).

Why so high? Because when agencies define a discrete audience where their expertise is best applied (and use this ‘ideal client profile’ to qualify prospects), they are better placed to separate those who fit from those who don’t. And spot the serious prospects amongst the timewasters.

Furthermore, they seek to establish this early, way before putting pen to paper on a proposal.

As such, they pitch less to win more.

With weak positioning, you pitch more to win less. A 25%-win rate is considered good. But just think of all the hours wasted on the 75% that don’t go anywhere.

Making the abnormal, normal

Weak positioning isn’t entirely to blame for all that happens during a typical sales process. Other factors are at play that I won’t go into now. But, over many years, agencies have inadvertently given clients the upper hand. And it’s going to take time to redress the balance.

To do that, one of the most powerful things you can do is to narrow your focus. Specialise in solving a specific problem for a discrete audience. Have a point of view. And ditch the clichés.

By doing so, you’re twice as likely to achieve fast growth (increase in fee income of 26%+) and high profitability (gross profit of 61%+).*

If those numbers sound abnormal to you, address the root cause.

You might just find that winning more business, on your terms, becomes your new normal.

*Benchpress report 2024.

How your weak positioning shows up in the sales processBen Potter2024-11-14T16:59:31+00:00

Do you win new business by accident or design?

Ben Potter2024-11-14T16:18:36+00:00

Do you win new business by accident or design?

OK, ‘by accident’ might be a slight exaggeration; new clients don’t just stumble through the front door like a drunk 40-something after one too many (obviously not referring to myself here).

My point is that whilst most agencies win their fair share of new business, it’s not necessarily the ‘right’ business. ‘Right’ is a subtle, but strategically important, distinction to make, defined as clients matching an agency’s specialist expertise, interests, beliefs and values.

So, why do agencies often end up in bed – nursing a nasty hangover – with clients not fitting these criteria?

Well, in my experience, it’s because new business just isn’t given the same level of focus and attention as, say, operations or account management. Policies, processes and templates are aplenty across these disciplines, but new business – despite its obvious importance – lacks similar intent and rigour.

But what does this look like?

Well, in my humble opinion, winning the ‘right’ clients, by design, is evident when…

1. Positioning (or should I say ‘strategy’) sets the agenda

According to the latest Benchpress report, you’re twice as likely to achieve fast growth (increase in fee income of 26%+) and high profitability (gross profit of 61%+) with a clear specialism or niche.

Yet, despite the benefits of narrow positioning, just 17% of respondents describe their agency as having a specialism or niche.

Crazy, eh?

In agency-land, we’ve become fixated on the word ‘positioning’ (me included). But what we really mean is ‘strategy’. They are one and the same.

As such, agencies winning the right clients (by design) have a sound business strategy, defining what they do, for whom and how (and, just as importantly, what they don’t do). As a result, they find everything else layering up from this strategic foundation a great deal easier.

If, on the other hand, you claim to ‘work with businesses of all shapes and sizes’, it might highlight poor positioning.

But I wonder if you’d take the ‘P’ word more seriously if it was reframed as also demonstrating a systematic failure of strategy.

2. You have a small set of services to sell

In the aforementioned Benchpress report, the average number of services offered by sub-million turnover agencies was eleven. ELEVEN! For me, the ratio of headcount to services just doesn’t stack up; can an agency of say, fifteen people, really excel at so many things?

A well-designed approach to new business is evident when you offer a fairly small, complementary set of services. Better still, you combine services or disciplines to create ‘solutions’ or ‘programs’, aligned to the specific problems you solve and the strategic outcomes you impact.

Compare this to the agency with a long shopping list of commoditised services, some of which were made up on the fly just to satisfy a brief.

3. Your marketing isn’t a stab in the dark

Have you ever tried writing a marketing plan to target ‘businesses of all shapes and sizes? No, me neither. Because it’s impossible. So in the absence of a credible plan, you chuck bucketloads of marketing mud at the wall, hoping some might stick.

Or you become easily distracted by the latest ‘silver bullet’, such as the guy on LinkedIn promising ‘20 qualified meetings a month with his innovative use of AI’. Whatever mate.

Creating the ‘right’ opportunities by design is evident when an agency has absolute clarity in how they should invest their marketing budget. Decisions on what to write about, events to attend, awards to enter and so on are straightforward (due to the strategic decisions highlighted in point 1).

4. You make things happen

Even with great positioning and laser-focused marketing, your dream client is unlikely to just land in your lap (not in the short term anyway).

In my agency days, we received a handful of ‘on the money’ inbound leads each year. Otherwise, it was initiative, resourcefulness and patience that got us in front of the brands we wanted to talk to.

As such, new business by design includes proactive relationship building and lead nurturing, underpinned with a CRM. Most importantly, these activities are always on, irrespective of how busy things get with client work or other distractions. I bore myself saying it, but consistency in execution is the closest you can get to a silver bullet in this game.

Compare this to the agency relying almost solely on referrals. With no control over lead volume or quality, the rollercoaster of feast and famine is ever-present.

5. You say ‘no’ just as often as you say ‘yes’

Agencies approaching new business with intent communicate publicly what their ideal client looks like; a prospect spending two minutes on their website can quickly conclude if they are a good fit, leading to better quality inbound enquiries.

But that doesn’t mean every enquiry is a good enquiry. Their ideal client profile (ICP) acts as a qualifying framework, making the early stages of the sales process more efficient. They say ‘no’ early and often (and enjoy doing so), taking the long view over any short-term, financial benefit.

The opposite is true when a prospect visits your website only to conclude you look and sound the same as everyone else. But they reach out anyway, inviting you to be part of a beauty parade where cost is likely to be their main selection criteria. And despite your reservations, you say ‘yes’.

6. You have the leverage to lead the sales process

When you end up in bed with the wrong client, it’s often because they set the terms of engagement during the sales process. From unrealistic pitch deadlines to fully worked-up design ideas, the prospect says ‘jump’, you say, ‘how high?’. With each concession, you tip the balance of power in their favour.

An agency with a well-designed approach to new business – from positioning to proposals – will show up in the sales process differently. Their specialist expertise provides leverage to lead (or at least influence) the sales process and therefore push back on unreasonable demands or practices that work against their interests.

For example, they’re more likely to gain access to key stakeholders, which is proven to significantly increase the likelihood of winning an opportunity. And they have the deeper know-how, experience, and gravitas to challenge assumptions, ask insightful questions and share unique insights.

All of which leads to a more equal balance of power from the outset.

7. Your proposal is a confirmatory document

Building on the point above, agencies with a well-designed sales process use a proposal to succinctly describe how they will solve the prospect’s problem once they become a paying client, rather than give away the solution (e.g., strategy, creative ideas, etc) for free. Vitally, the proposal acts as confirmation of what has already been verbally agreed, rather than a ‘big reveal’.

Pricing (not ‘costs’, NEVER costs!) is based on outcomes, rather than inputs. And, where appropriate, three options are offered, something Blair Enns talks about here.

On the other hand, an inadequate approach to qualifying and discovery means you agree to write a proposal after a 15-minute intro call. You fire it over by email and hope for the best, only to never hear from the prospect again. I exaggerate for dark, comedic effect. But only a little bit.

Even if you do win the business, your quote broken down into a granular list of tasks and hours becomes the basis of the relationship. Instead of focusing on the impressive results you’re delivering, the client constantly interrogates how every minute is being spent on the account. It’s exhausting and demoralising. Trust me, I’ve been there.

8. You know your numbers

You’ve heard how sales ‘is a numbers game’, right? Well, this is both right and wrong depending on the context. Firing out thousands of generic outbound emails to anyone with a pulse; that’s not a numbers game, it’s a fools’ game. (Even if AI makes outbound more efficient, it doesn’t necessarily make it more effective).

Setting SMART new business objectives (and ensuring adequate resource is in place to meet them) is a numbers game. Tracking leads, first and second meetings, sales qualified opportunities, proposals and conversion rate, is also a numbers game. And using a pipeline weighting methodology to score your win probability, forecast new business revenue and assess the impact on capacity; yep, that’s a numbers game too.

When new business is designed, the accuracy of data and regular reporting ensure you can easily identify what is working / not working and focus your efforts accordingly.

9. New business is everyone’s business

Agencies approaching new business with purpose do so collaboratively. The responsibility for winning new clients doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of one person. As such, internal communication and accountability rule, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities (playing to people’s strengths), along with documented guidelines and processes.

This means investing in training and coaching to help break down barriers and cast aside misconceptions. People only shy away from new business because they misunderstand it. But when you look at the breadth of skills required to promote the agency, build relationships and convert opportunities, everyone in the agency can (and should) play a role, This means successes are celebrated for what they are – a team effort – and losses commiserated likewise.

Compare this to a culture where business development and sales skills are misunderstood or underappreciated. It is more likely the agency lurches from one ‘quick fix’ to the next. A business developer is hired, expected to work miracles but find themselves out on their ear three months later – the agency owner failing to recognise they are just part of the solution. Not THE solution.

10. You don’t rest on your laurels

I speak to a lot of agency owners and business developers who mistake a winning streak for a winning approach to new business; they’ve won a few clients in a short space of time, they’re busy and all is good in the world.

But a couple of months later, the big project comes to an end, the pipeline is looking thin and they’re back to square one.

When new business is designed, the ‘machine’ never stops. Marketing, business development and sales are never nailed. Instead, there is a continuous cycle of ‘plan, do, review’, whilst also staying on top of business development and marketing trends by digesting content, upskilling and networking with peers.

Let’s wrap things up

You might be reading this thinking ‘we don’t tick a lot of these boxes, but we still win our share of new clients, you’re talking rubbish Ben’ (it wouldn’t be the first time).

I accept there are, of course, exceptions to the rule. I know agencies with laughably poor positioning, for example, who are absolutely smashing it.

But for many, this isn’t the case with 40% of agencies stating new business as their number one challenge in 2023, up from 27% in 2022.

So, if there’s ever a time to give marketing, business development and sales the attention it deserves, it’s now.

And what better place to start than by asking yourself…

Do you win the right clients by design?

Or the wrong ones by accident?

Do you win new business by accident or design?Ben Potter2024-11-14T16:18:36+00:00

The key to building resilience? Humility

Ben Potter2024-04-12T15:23:51+00:00

The key to building resilience? Humility

I was recently asked what resilience means to me and how to build it. This is the theme of The Agency Collective’s ‘Future Proofing Your Agency’ conference in April. I’m on one of the panels so to avoid any risk of floundering about on stage, I best get some thoughts down in writing.

Let’s start with the fairly obvious stuff.

I was an agency business developer for 14 years, witnessing the good, the bad and the ugly side of sales. In fact, I was responsible for my fair share of the latter, making a whole load of cringeworthy mistakes during those years.

Over time, I built resilience by consciously deciding not to dwell on those mistakes but, instead, learn from them.

The wins, whilst welcome, were short-lived highs. There was always another opportunity that needed attention, so I had no option but to quickly move on. The losses, whilst frustrating, were equally short-lived. Because, over time, I learned not to dwell on those either.

Resilience came from accepting things were often outside of my control and not taking the knockbacks personally. This is particularly relevant to the current climate, where dither, delay and indecision have been prevalent themes in recent months.

And of course, resilience is also about physical and mental wellbeing. You’ll find it easier to roll with the punches if you look after yourself, which is not something I always did in my 20s and 30s; there was far too much fun to be had in the bars and nightclubs of Brighton and London. But as I’ve got older, I’m much more mindful of what goes inside my belly and mind.

For example, I realised a couple of years ago, Twitter turned me into a raging idiot (as can be the case with even the most mild-mannered of human beings). So whilst I still have a profile, I haven’t engaged with the platform for as long as I can remember, particularly since Musk got his mitts on it. My mental well-being is all the better for it (less rage, more love).

So, in summary, learning from your mistakes, accepting you can’t control everything, not taking things too personally and looking after yourself – all good stuff when it comes to building resilience, right?

But, as I’ve thought about it further, I’ve realised the true source of my resilience is…

…humility (and its close companion, perspective).

Let me explain.

If you’re reading this, you probably run or work for an agency. If that’s the case – and apologies if this offends you – your job isn’t that important.

Ouch.

It might even, in the words of anthropologist David Graeber, be a ‘bullshit’ job.

Ouch again!

Now, before you click away in disgust, remember, this is about perspective so bear with me.

There are exceptions, of course, but most agencies work with commercial enterprises. So, irrespective of the services you offer or how you deliver them, your agency exists to help those enterprises sell more stuff. That’s it.

My job is even more ridiculous when I think about it – it involves helping an agency win more (or better) clients, so, in turn, the agency can then help those clients sell even MORE stuff.

Maybe I don’t quite fit neatly into the categories of bullshit job described by David Graeber – flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers or taskmasters – but, let’s face it, I’m certainly not all that important.

And neither are you.

We’re not doctors, nurses, teachers or even bin men – without these jobs, the fabric of society would soon start to unravel (you might argue, here in the UK, it already has). This is why it’s a travesty these jobs are not better rewarded, considering their vital contribution to a properly functioning society.

This is not to say you, your agency (and the marketing industry as a whole) have no value. Far from it, especially economically. But if an ad campaign flunks or another agency bites the dust, is the world any worse off, as a result? Compared to say, a drastic shortage in nurses or teachers?

The point I’m trying to make is: we shouldn’t take this industry of ours too seriously.

And, in turn, you shouldn’t take your job too seriously either.

Because at the end of the day, we do marketing. Not open-heart surgery.

I don’t say this to diminish your achievements – running a business or working in sales, for example, is tough. It requires commitment, perseverance and, of course, resilience. But if you want to build more resilience, start by being a bit more humble about our place in the world.

Every so often, take the time to scroll through your LinkedIn feed and chuckle at how ludicrous – and indeed delicate – this whole ecosystem is, relying on the existence of media behemoths and third-party platforms, which we have no control or influence over.

Smirk at the zany job titles we give ourselves (many that didn’t exist even five years ago).

Marvel at the effort we all put in to get a few more followers and likes.

It’s all taken very seriously. But it’s not that serious, really. Is it?

Perhaps this outlook comes with age. I certainly couldn’t imagine my 25-year-old self writing these words.

But as you get older, you start to see things differently. More years on the clock means more perspective.

And this is where humility comes from with resilience following close behind (in my case anyway).

Thus, it becomes easier to accept you’re not going to win every deal.

You’re not going to smash it with every client.

You’re not going to keep every member of staff happy.

And if it all went to shit tomorrow, you’d be absolutely fine.

That’s what resilience means to me.

What about you?

The key to building resilience? HumilityBen Potter2024-04-12T15:23:51+00:00

14 indisputable benefits of niching

Ben Potter2024-04-12T15:12:09+00:00

14 indisputable benefits of niching

January. Time for a bit of navel-gazing, a phrase I can’t recall using in my writing. A check of the dictionary reveals its meaning to be ‘self-indulgent or excessive contemplation of oneself or a single issue, at the expense of a wider view’.

Inappropriate for this article, I thought initially. But then realised it’s pretty spot on. Because sometimes in moments of reflection, we’re not particularly good at seeing the bigger picture.

For instance, your lead numbers are well down on where they need to be. If your navel-gazing focuses only on this single issue – at the expense of a wider view – you might end up with a sticky plaster solution. So you hire a lead gen agency, hoping (or preying) they’ll fill your pipeline with a load of ready-to-buy prospects.

Maybe, in time, this moves the dial a bit.

But it won’t address the root cause of your new business problem…

…positioning. Yes, I’m on about the ‘P’ word. Again.

But hey, you already know this is the real issue. After all, there are enough agency advisers to fill a cruise ship banging on about specialising and niching.

So, you don’t need to be told your agency looks and sounds like every other.

You are already well aware those forty sector pages on your website (optimised to within an inch of their life) are masking a fundamental strategic failing.

And your transparency, focus on results and, of course, passion – whilst admirable – just don’t cut it.

You know all this.

But it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything about it. Because whilst the status quo might not be to your satisfaction, the thought of specialising or niching still brings you out in a cold sweat.

And that might be because…

‘Niching’ gets a bad rap

People often assume ‘niching’ means focusing on a single sector.

Not true.

Niching by age-old sector categories (banking, automotive, retail, etc) is one way of doing it. And like any strategy, there are pros and cons to this approach, which I won’t get into now.

But besides sector (vertical positioning), there are numerous other means of niching, for example: service offering, methodology, technology / platform, problem (horizontal), point of view and so on.

It might even be a combination of these, for example, TikTok strategy for medical practitioners (I’m not suggesting this is a good idea, it’s merely to illustrate a point).

So moving forward, a small request, please. When idiots like me keep banging on about niching or specialising, don’t assume we are only referring to sector.

We’re not. Well, not me anyway.

Right oh, so why should you niche?

Now that’s out the way, let’s get to the point of this ramble. If you suspect it might be time to narrow your focus, but still need convincing, here are fourteen compelling reasons why you should take the leap. Most of these are viewed through a new business lens. Because I firmly believe – in fact, I know – niching makes every aspect of the new business process easier.

It’s worth noting, these benefits are not necessarily exclusive to specialists. Generalists might well experience some of these. But they tend to be the exception, not the norm.

Here goes…

1) You have greater clarity on where and how to invest your marketing budget. There’s far less, ‘let’s throw some money at this and see if it works’.

2) One of the outputs of the positioning process is an ‘ideal client profile’, clearly distinguishing between the prospects who fit and those who don’t. This acts as your qualifying framework, making the early stages of the sales process more efficient.

3) In line with the above, stakeholders, including your team, strategic partners and advisers, know exactly who the agency is targeting, driving better quality referrals and introductions.

4) You don’t have to ‘bend the narrative’ to suit what the prospect wants to hear. Yesterday, you were experts in eCommerce. Today, it’s financial services. A narrower focus allows you to avoid the mental exhaustion (and, let’s face it, blagging) that comes with trying to be everything to everyone.

5) Specialisation provides leverage, making it more likely you’ll be able to lead (or at least influence) the sales process and therefore push back on unreasonable demands. ‘I want a proposal on my desk by tomorrow afternoon’ says the prospect. ‘That won’t be happening, and this is why’, you reply, as you talk them through the steps in YOUR process.

6) More specifically where the sales process is concerned, you have the deeper know-how, experience, and therefore gravitas, to challenge a brief, rather than take it at face value. When you push back and suggest a different path, the prospect listens, trusting your advice and counsel.

7) Leverage makes it more likely to be able to gain access to key stakeholders during the sales process, which is proven to significantly increase the likelihood of winning a new business opportunity.

8) When it comes to the proposal, you can focus on describing how you will solve their problem once they become a paying client, rather than giving away the solution (e.g., strategy, creative ideas, etc) for free during the sales process.

9) You can deliver more value during the sales process, for example by sharing your unique insights and perspective, thus giving you a distinguishable advantage in competitive situations.

10) You can justifiably charge more for your specialist expertise and experiment with differing pricing models (positively impacting margin). On the other hand, when there are thousands of other agencies offering pretty much the same as you – only cheaper – it’s inevitable you’ll have to drop your price to win the business (negatively impacting margin).

11) You pitch less to win more, thus reducing the time, headspace and money wasted on ill-fitting prospects. In my experience, conversion from proposal to win is circa 60-70% for the specialist agencies I’ve worked with, compared to a significantly lower industry average of around 30% (which, we’ve conditioned ourselves to accept as normal).

12) The onboarding process is smoother. The team already understand the problems to be addressed because they have seen them many times before. They aren’t learning on the job, which inevitably happens when you take on a client operating in a sector where you have limited, or no, experience.

13) Your retention rate is higher. As you and the client work together, you continuously demonstrate that it isn’t easy to find the same depth of expertise elsewhere (making you increasingly irreplaceable).

14) In line with the above, your new business objective is to win a few, on-profile (and highly profitable) clients a year, rather than having to acquire many more due to a leaky bucket.

Sounds good, eh?

Hold on. Caveat time.

These benefits don’t necessarily come easy. That’s because, in some ways, choosing how to narrow your focus, specialise or niche is the fairly straightforward bit.

The harder part is following through on the decision.

How come?

Well, repositioning – a change of strategy, in other words – is a journey.

In the beginning, your new positioning is likely to be half reality, half ambition. Half reality because you have some relevant experience, expertise and a genuine interest in your chosen field. Otherwise, why would you have chosen to specialise in it?

But it’s also half ambition because you do not yet consider yourself a fully-fledged specialist. And, in all likelihood, neither do your clients, prospects or team.

Getting to that point – and realising the benefits above – demands tangible change and action across the entire agency, from lead generation to recruitment (if it doesn’t, then your new ‘positioning’ is nothing more than superficial).

It’s this period of transition that requires time and perseverance. It might be a year or two before you walk into that room to meet your dream client, quietly confident that you properly know your stuff. And that you’ve got the content, case studies, recognition and team to back it up.

I don’t say this to put you off but to manage your expectations.

Wrapping things up

For many agencies, last year was tough. But the start of a new year means all of that is forgotten. We start afresh. Positivity and enthusiasm are abound.

But, without wishing to be a killjoy, I suspect 2024 will present its challenges.

Events well outside of our control – here in the UK and globally – will continue to make our lives (and sales pipelines) unpredictable this year.

Maybe a sticky plaster solution, attempting to fix a ‘single issue’, will get you through.

Or it might be time to take the ‘wider view’ and address the real problem.

14 indisputable benefits of nichingBen Potter2024-04-12T15:12:09+00:00

Eight sales mistakes that eat away your profit

Ben Potter2024-04-12T14:54:46+00:00

Eight sales mistakes that eat away your profit

Be honest, when do you really start thinking about the profitability of a new client?

I’m guessing it’s when you start the work. Comparing the number of quoted hours with those recorded in that god-forsaken timesheet, you pray they marry up.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s taken you less time to deliver the work than you quoted.

Working with agencies, I’ve noticed how profit only tends to come into sharp focus in this way once the work kicks off. But profitability is really determined by what happens – or doesn’t happen – earlier in the engagement, namely the sales process.

Now, I don’t pretend to be the world’s foremost expert on pricing. But I do bear witness to how agencies typically sell their services. And, unfortunately, they are too often on the back foot. Poor positioning, inadequate sales skills and desperation all play their part. Thus, the ability to price fairly – and profitably – is undermined.

So, with this in mind, let’s explore some common sales mistakes made by agencies that can negatively impact margin. And tips on how you can avoid them.

1. Failing to talk about money early in the process

There’s a good chance you find conversations about money slightly awkward. So much so that you might avoid the topic altogether, especially in a personal setting.

But in business – and sales specifically – your reluctance to tackle the money conversation head-on means you’re more likely to waste time on prospects who aren’t the right fit. Separating the tyre kickers from the serious buyers requires the courage to discuss money early (and often thereafter).

Granted, often a prospect won’t divulge their budget. Before progressing to the next stage in your process, you must seek to understand why. Are they simply unsure how much they need to invest? Or are they playing a game of cat and mouse, refusing to reveal their budget for fear your price will conveniently match it?

This is where you might state a preliminary price range (‘our clients typically invest between X and Y’) or a minimum spend threshold (‘a typical size project for us starts at X’) to encourage the prospect to open up. Be mindful, however, the first price you state becomes the ‘anchor’; any future price you put forward will be compared to it.

If you still can’t get a figure out of them, seriously question whether you should progress any further. If you’ve developed the courage to be direct in discussing money, you’ll also be brave enough to walk away.

2. Using proposals to reveal pricing

If you neglect to talk about money upfront, you’re more likely to use a proposal to communicate your price. Big mistake.

This tends to happen when you commit to writing a proposal too soon. Which, in all likelihood, means you’ve not conversed enough with the prospect during the process.

To prevent this ‘premature proposal syndrome’, follow this simple rule:

A proposal should be confirmation of what you have verbally agreed with the prospect.

How would applying this principle change your approach to the sales process? Top marks if you’re already thinking you’d slow things down; speak with the prospect more frequently; seek to involve more stakeholders; and discuss pricing options well before putting pen to paper.

Ultimately, the sales process should be collaborative. The solution, including pricing, should not be a ‘big reveal’.

3. Not aligning price with desired outcomes

Most agencies price based on inputs i.e. the hours required to undertake the work. For brevity, I’m not going to discuss why this model is broken, especially with the arrival of AI (over to you Tim Williams).

Instead, I want to focus on a specific flaw in the model, namely that the buyer’s attention is directed towards the time required to deliver the work, rather than its potential impact.

Your price should always be positioned in context. The wrong context is a list of features, deliverables, hours and rates. The right context is a set of benefits, or better still, strategic outcomes.

Therefore, always explore and prioritise the problem(s) to be solved and the prospect’s desired outcomes before committing to a price. This is also one of the key principles of value-based pricing i.e., solutions are priced based on their anticipated impact, rather than the time it takes to complete the work.

In exploring this with the prospect, you might ask…

“In addressing (DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM), what would a successful outcome look like?”

And then…

“What are your expectations in terms of investment to achieve those outcomes? Can you share with me how you arrived at that figure?”

The second question emphasises the relationship between investment and outcomes. It’s remarkable how naïve people are to this – I can’t tell you how many conversations I had in my agency days where a prospect aspired to 10X their business before revealing a shoestring budget to do it.

As an aside, notice the word ‘investment’, as opposed to ‘budget’ or, worse, ‘cost’. The latter is a particular bugbear of mine when reviewing agency proposals. If something costs me time, money or effort, I don’t feel particularly enthused. It’s got negative vibes. Maybe it’s just me, but ‘investment’ feels more positive; it tells me I’m going to get something in return.

4. Inaccurate scoping

If you take a brief at face value or rush through the sales process, then it’s doubtful you’ve built a deep enough understanding of the underlying problems to be solved, desired outcomes or the views of all stakeholders.

In turn, this increases the likelihood of not scoping (and therefore pricing) the proposal properly. You might win the work, but then a whole load of things come out in the wash during the onboarding process. All of which bring unwelcome, downward pressure on your margin.

Again, this reinforces the importance of slowing the sales process down, running effective discovery meetings and involving your subject matter experts once the opportunity has been qualified.

But even then, things can change later. Agreeing a contingency budget upfront and building in milestones to review spending at regular intervals, can help counter the unknowns.

5. Sharing rate cards or granular fee breakdowns

Many years ago, I was asked by a prospect to share a detailed breakdown of a paid search quote. I duly obliged and won the business. I soon wished I hadn’t.

The spreadsheet I shared detailing tasks, hours and fees became the basis of the relationship. Instead of focusing on the impressive results we were delivering, the weekly call was an interrogation of how every minute had been spent on the account. It was utterly demoralising for the team.

Agencies have inadvertently trained clients to buy services based on time. And because prospects want to compare apples to apples, you’re asked to share (what should be) commercially sensitive information.

So, irrespective of how you price (day rate, value-based, fixed fee, etc), avoid sharing the intricate details in your proposal. Speaking from personal experience, it will come back to haunt you.

6. Providing a shopping list of options and prices

When numerous options and add-ons are included in a proposal, it’s a sure-fire sign you haven’t worked collaboratively with the prospect to come up with (and agree) the right approach.

It’s also cognitive overload for the prospect. Their brain cannot handle so much choice. So they choose to do nothing at all.

If you apply the principle above – where a proposal acts as confirmation of what has been agreed verbally – there should be no need to provide numerous options.

This is not to eliminate the idea of options altogether. Proposals offering three options, for example, can work incredibly well in increasing revenue and profit, something Blair Enns talks more about here.

7. Dropping your price without realigning the scope

2023 can best be described as sluggish; there’s been a lot of dithering, opportunities put on hold and greater price sensitivity.

So, even if you’ve collaborated with the prospect throughout the sales process and agreed (in principle) on the price, you may still experience pushback during the latter stages (especially if you have to contend with procurement).

When asked to discount, the temptation will be to say ‘yes’ – the fear of losing the business is just too great to push back, right? But if you agree to deliver the same scope at a lower fee, it makes over-servicing almost guaranteed. And, in turn, puts a decent margin at greater risk.

As such, negotiation should always start with the scope. Based on everything you have learned during the sales process, explain how you believe the proposed price is the right level of investment. Refer back to the strategic outcomes you’ve agreed on. Explain how a reduction in price will mean a reduction in scope. And a reduction in scope may put those outcomes at risk.

If that doesn’t work, explore alternatives to a price reduction, such as negotiating on payment terms.

To protect profit, reducing price should be the last resort, not your default.

8. Forgetting to take account of commission or referral fees

And finally, a simple – but often overlooked – mistake.

If you have a salesperson who is paid commission (there are arguments for and against this, by the way), you must ‘bake’ this into your pricing.

Likewise, any fees you pay to referrers, such as other agency partners. Let’s assume you pay 10% of the deal value. If you fail to account for this in your pricing, that’s a 10% hit before you’ve even kicked a ball.

Your golden ticket to higher prices (and margins)

It’s unlikely you’re going to have much leverage in the sales process when offering a multitude of different services to clients of all shapes and sizes.

Where pricing is concerned, this ‘broad-brush’ attempt at positioning makes it nigh on impossible to charge a premium or experiment with different pricing methods.

On the other hand, when your specialist expertise is truly valued, the opposite can be true. You are more likely to be able to lead (or at least influence) the sales process, thus avoiding the missteps I describe above.

Specialisation is the key to this.

Solve a specific problem for a discrete audience.

Have a point of view.

And please, ditch the clichés.

By doing so, you lay the foundation to justifiably (and confidently) charge higher prices.

And run a more profitable agency, as a result.

This article was originally published in The Agency Growth Book, alongside content from a whole host of brilliant agency coaches and advisers.

Eight sales mistakes that eat away your profitBen Potter2024-04-12T14:54:46+00:00

Are you screwing up your first sales meetings?

Ben Potter2024-04-12T15:14:48+00:00

Are you screwing up your first sales meetings?

There are two types of ‘intro’ sales meeting.

The first is one requested by the prospect. She has a need, does some research and reaches out (hopefully only to you but probably to a few of your competitors as well).

The second is one initiated by you, the agency. For example, you meet your dream client at an event, send an email shortly after and he agrees to a follow-up conversation.

Typically, when a prospect reaches out to you, she has already decided something needs to change; she isn’t getting the desired results doing things in-house. Or her current agency isn’t up to scratch. As such, she is a member of the ‘5% gang’ – a small collective of B2B buyers who are ‘in the market’ at any one time.

Now, this doesn’t guarantee she will actually follow through and move to another agency, for example. And it certainly doesn’t mean she has correctly diagnosed the problem she faces or how to fix it. But there’s enough of an itch for her to at least explore doing something about it.

When you initiate the meeting, on the other hand, the prospect is typically in a different place. He’s interested enough to hear what you have to say, otherwise, he wouldn’t have agreed to meet you. But, in his mind, there isn’t a problem requiring immediate attention. He’s in the ‘95% crew’ – a far larger group of B2B buyers who are not actively in the market.

Put another way, the first prospect is already at the start line.

The second is not – he’s five steps behind it.

Enough with the analogies, so what?

Because these prospects are at very different stages of the buying journey, your first meeting with each of them needs to be approached very differently.

For example, a qualifying-style conversation might be appropriate in the first scenario. The prospect has a need and has shown some interest in working with your agency. The early exchanges are primarily about establishing if there is a good fit (‘fit’ is broad enough to cover a whole range of criteria, from the suitability of the brief to whether there is cultural alignment).

However, jumping into a qualifying-style conversation is definitely not appropriate in the second scenario. The prospect doesn’t have a live requirement. He hasn’t expressed a particular interest in working with your agency. In fact, before you bumped into each other at the event, he’d never heard of your agency.

So perhaps you should start the meeting by presenting your creds. After all, if he’s not familiar with your people, clients, case studies and, of course, awards, this is the best way to get him up to speed – and closer to that start line – right?

I don’t think so.

Why not, prospects love our creds presentations!

Do they?

Ask yourself this question: how often does a creds meeting result in a second meeting, where you actually start getting into the meat of how you’re going to work together?

I’m guessing not nearly as often as you’d like. Our friend from the ‘95% crew’ is more likely to thank you for your time and say he’ll be in touch when something comes up. But he never does, despite your repeated chase emails.

This is, in part, because most creds decks just regurgitate information on your website. Or they include stuff the prospect just doesn’t care about (not at this early stage, anyway). For example, I’m sure your ‘unique methodology’ is fantastic. But, for an out-of-market prospect, I doubt it’s going to do much to challenge the status quo and therefore provide a compelling case for change.

I’d actually go further by saying in most instances, a creds presentation is a complete waste of time. Primarily, this is because it delivers no value for the prospect. And, from your perspective, it therefore fails to separate you, and your agency, from all the others attempting to ‘sell’ in this way.

OK, so what’s the alternative?

Particularly for those in the ‘95% crew’, you need to build a case for change.

That’s highly unlikely to happen if you only spend time talking about how brilliant your agency is (don’t fret, there’ll be time for that later).

Instead, you need to be genuinely insightful, teaching a prospect something new about themselves, their business or market. Just like you and I, he is bombarded with vast amounts of information, much of it contradictory. His world is also in constant flux.

You therefore create value during these early interactions by demonstrating you understand the problems he is facing. But, more importantly, you are able to shine a light on their root cause(s). After all, the REAL problem always exists below the surface.

Another way you might create value is by helping him to see into the future; to make sense of emerging trends and how they will affect the business, for example.

If you’ve ever wondered why a prospect goes dark after a first meeting – whether you get your creds out or not – it’s because you didn’t share anything genuinely insightful. No insight normally equates to no value. And if there’s no value, there’s no reason to continue talking to you.

‘I am consultative, honest guv’

This is where agencies need to up their sales game.

People like to call themselves ‘consultative’ but, in reality, I’m not sure they are.

Consultative selling involves being a trusted adviser; sharing insight, challenging assumptions and offering advice.

As I alluded to earlier, it relies on you already having a good idea of the problems faced by your prospect because you have seen them many times before. In The Challenger Sale, they call this ‘hypothesis-based selling’.

So, rather than whipping out the creds and talking about your agency for an hour, you instead use insight to build a case for change. Remember, change can be hard, scary and uncomfortable. It is much easier to do nothing, hence in sales, your biggest competitor is usually the status quo.

This is why – when fortunate enough to get that first meeting – you’re wasting it if your case for change is built on the shaky argument your agency is more ‘passionate’, ‘results-focused’ or ‘creative’ than your competitors.

‘If we could just get in the room with more prospects…

…we’d win more clients.’

I’ve heard this so many times.

And it’s a fallacy, I’m afraid.

Those who say this are blind to the fact they’ve only ever converted prospects from the ‘5% gang’ (who, to make things even easier, have likely come via a referral).

That’s a relatively straightforward opportunity to win. But put them in a room with a member of the ‘95% crew’ and they haven’t a clue how to build a case for change.

So out the come the creds instead.

It’s also why lead generation agencies often get a bad rap – ‘well, they got us some meetings, but the prospects weren’t qualified’ is the common feedback. Translated, this means the prospects weren’t in the market. And the agency wasted the meeting by not having the insight, skills or patience to change that.

Let’s wrap this up

Most agencies have a pipeline problem; there are just not enough live, qualified opportunities at any one time to meet their new business objectives.

I’m convinced this is because agencies either wait for a tiny pool of prospects to be ‘in the market’, by which point they have probably already decided who they want to work with AND / OR agencies do not possess the skills to bring about change when a prospect is not really looking.

The underlying reasons for this?

A combination of poor positioning, a lack of genuine thought leadership and a dated approach to selling.

So to finish, a few questions to ponder that might help you start to fix these issues:

– Have you defined a discrete audience for your agency offering? And got this down on paper in the form of an ‘ideal client profile’?

– What are the most common problems faced by this audience? For each of these, what do you believe to be the underlying issues or causes (that your clients and prospects are normally blind to)?

– What are the current or emerging trends impacting your audience? What is your opinion on these? Are they threats or opportunities? To what extent, is your audience up to speed on these trends? (clue: not very)

Insight can come in many shapes and sizes. But if you only start by working through the second and third questions above, you’ll already have some pretty juicy stuff up your sleeve.

And, as a result, you’ll deliver a lot more value in your next sales meeting, especially when chatting to our mate in the ‘95% crew’.

Afterwards, he may even want to join your crew.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

And not a creds deck in sight.

Are you screwing up your first sales meetings?Ben Potter2024-04-12T15:14:48+00:00

When the positioning is right. But the proposition sucks.

Ben Potter2024-04-12T14:16:06+00:00

When the positioning is right. But the proposition sucks.

You’ve done the hard bit. After years of trying to be all things to all people, you’ve made a strategic decision to narrow your focus.
With your positioning sorted, it’s time to turn your attention to the proposition.

Before we go on, just to clarify the difference between the two…

In agency land, we use the word ‘positioning’ but what we really mean is ‘strategy’; a conscious decision to do a specific thing, for a specific type of client. The proposition is how you articulate this in a relevant and compelling way, so it resonates with your newly defined ‘ideal client’.

I like to use the analogy of marriage; positioning is deciding who you are (hopefully) going to spend the rest of your life with. The proposition is how you pose the big question, in the hope your partner says ‘yes’.

But rather like a nervous, future groom dropping to one knee and then tripping up on his words, a sound positioning decision doesn’t always translate into a great agency proposition.

In my experience, this is typically down to…

1) A fear of alienating existing clients or scaring away prospects who are no longer the right fit (forgetting this is the whole point). Messaging is caught halfway between the old and new proposition.

2) A tendency to put services front and centre of the proposition at the expense of the agency’s problem-solving abilities.

3) The use of inward-looking (‘we’, ‘our’, ‘us’) and cliché-ridden language (‘results-focused, ‘transparent’ and ‘passionate’, to name just three examples).

For the purposes of this article, let’s explore how you can address the second point.

What do clients really care about?

Whether you do creative, design websites or run digital marketing campaigns, most clients don’t give a hoot about your services. Clients work with agencies because they want to get from A to B. But something is standing in their way.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, your proposition should lead with client aspirations and / or problems. It should succinctly talk about your expertise and solutions in this context. It should also be outcome-orientated, highlighting how you positively impact the people, companies and markets you serve.

With this in mind, a simple framework for crafting a snappy proposition might look something like this:

We work with…(audience)

…helping them to…(aspirations / problems)

…by delivering…(solutions)

…that provide...(outcomes)

Where that all-important second line is concerned, after working with a number of similar clients for some time, you will have seen the same problems crop up again and again. Indeed, these observations have shaped your positioning decision.

But what if you want to validate your thinking? Or, better still, deepen your understanding of the problems faced by your target audience, feeding that insight into your proposition?

The simple, but often overlooked, solution is to talk to your clients. When working with an agency on their proposition, client interviews are an integral part of my process. The conversations provide a platform for the agency’s client to do some naval gazing, often bringing to the fore underlying or unresolved issues – and even specific language – to incorporate into the agency’s proposition.

Leading questions I ask include…

When you first approached AGENCY, what was the specific problem you were seeking to fix?
In your opinion, what sets AGENCY apart? What are their strengths?
What are your goals and how does AGENCY support you in meeting them?
In trying to meet those goals, what has typically stood in your way (or is standing in your way right now)?
What worries you about the future? Are you looking for anything new or different from your agency partners to address these challenges?

At a guess, I’ve conducted around 100 client interviews on behalf of agencies over the years. They never fail to reveal a new or unexpected piece of insight – aspirations, goals, challenges or underlying problems you don’t normally find in a brief or RFP. From experience, you only need to speak to four or five clients, although you’ll probably find these conversations more fruitful when you use a third party to conduct the interviews (uh um!).

So, having validated your assumptions or gathered new insight into the key problems faced by your clients, how can you use this to create a richer proposition?

Solutions before services

Clients need solutions to problems. Yet, as highlighted earlier, most agency propositions lead with services, most of which – in isolation – can’t address a thorny business problem. Furthermore, most services have become highly commoditised and are therefore subject to downward price pressure.

An alternative approach to leading with your services is to highlight the three or four key problems your clients face. You can then design a solution or ‘program’ that addresses each of these problems. A program differs from a service in that it combines your strategic thinking, problem-solving skills and several disciplines to address a client challenge, an approach that Tim Williams talks more about here.

With respect to your website, you can then extend the ‘problem’ element of your proposition, as in this example:

Notice how the three content areas across the middle aren’t promoting services as you’d find on a typical agency website. Instead, each box relates to an aspiration or problem: poor productivity, for example.

Details of the solution or ‘program’ – sold at a premium price point, by the way – are found by clicking through to dedicated pages describing the agency’s approach to solving each problem, supported by relevant case studies, testimonials and articles.

This is a very different approach to a shopping list of commoditised services. And reflective of how more discerning clients are looking to engage with agencies.

Rounding things up

Ultimately, clients need solutions to problems they are unable to fix themselves.

But few agencies I come across have defined what those problems are, let alone thought about how they can reimagine their service offering as a set of programs to address those problems.

Inspired by the likes of David C. Baker and Tim Williams, this is something I’ve been working on for my own business, so if you fancy chewing the fat on this, just shout.

P.S. The insight gathered from client interviews can also be used to create a number of simple buyer profiles, outlining the specific goals, problems and desired outcomes for each of the stakeholders involved in purchasing your services (or should I say ‘solutions). These allow salespeople to adjust their approach (questions, language, proposition, etc.) to the sales process accordingly.

When the positioning is right. But the proposition sucks.Ben Potter2024-04-12T14:16:06+00:00