3 Mental Blocks That Get in the Way of New Business Success
Whether we like it or not, the end of the year is fast approaching and a new one is close behind it. Have you started thinking about your agency’s new business plans for next year yet? I’ve seen—and created—my fair share of annual new business plans. Some were good, some not so good. The good ones were more recalibrations than wholesale reinventions. They built on successes, plotted a clear direction, course corrected away from mistakes, and had just enough stretch goals to keep things exciting. Plus, they actually offered a plan, not just a statement of hopes and dreams, and everyone understood their role in the plan’s success. The bad ones? They were overly complicated, sank too much time in navel-gazing analysis of the marketplace and competitors, lacked clear direction, and were overly ambitious. And they were likely to be under-executed or not executed at all. What a waste. I sometimes wonder if agency leaders hide behind the activity of planning. It sure feels like you’re moving forward, but there’s a point of diminishing returns where the planning becomes an excuse to postpone the doing. I’ve always been curious about why that is—I’ve seen this tendency in myself as much as I have in others. What holds agency leaders back from the doing part? Time, or lack of it, is the usual suspect. There always seem to be myriad priorities that get in the way of those commitments to pursuing agency business development goals. But I think there are also some powerful mental blocks that we don’t consider enough but should. Here are three that might be standing between you and those big, hairy, audacious goals for growing your agency next year (plus some strategies [...]