Business development is a challenge on many levels. If you don’t have every base covered…being good at all the other aspects may not be enough.

  • Many agencies have not defined their sweet spot client — so they don’t bother chasing after prospects that aren’t a good fit
  • Most agencies don’t have a consistent new business machine that is actively and regularly touching prospects and working a targeted list
  • The lion’s share of agencies have a great win rate with smaller, less profitable clients but struggle to win with “stretch” prospects that could really change their agency and help them elevate their game
  • About 50% of agencies do not have a retention program to actively and intentionally keep and grow their best clients

A weakness in any of these areas can really compromise your efforts overall. As you begin to plan for 2020, having a holistic business development plan of attack (with action items, a calendar and most important — regular accountability meetings) may be one of the most important aspects of your vision for the next year. It’s not too early to start working on this.

If you’re getting at-bats but not winning or if you’re not getting invited to the pitches/opportunities that you think you should be, we’ve got a great two-day workshop for you. AMI is partnering with the agency search firm Mercer Island Group to help you work all the bugs out of how you chase new business. These guys see proposals, RFP responses and live pitches from agencies big and small. They’re going to give you a sneak peek into the mistakes that you’re making, the missteps of agency positioning and so much more. This is a very hands-on, work ON your agency workshop.

The workshop is January 28-29 in Orlando — check it out.