I do a lot of consulting with ad agencies and creatively driven organizations. A good deal of my time is spent helping them win new business pitches and re-structure their creative departments.
Growing your business is no easy task in this pressure filled economy. Agencies spend a great deal of time and energy in an effort to find new clients and pitch their business to varying degrees of success.
What I try to instill in them is that a great deal of new business can come right from your own client list.
Oddly enough many companies are willing to spend a great amount of effort in pitching clients when they are involved in competitive pitches where their chance of success might be one in three or four.
My advice is to spend half that amount of time and review your own client list. As agencies, we often fall into the trap of providing a service where the client requests work and we respond by providing them with thinking and executions based on their request.
Instead, why not try brainstorming new ideas for existing clients without their prodding. Take a client and invent a need for them. Maybe it’s a Thank You program for their customers. Or how about a local booster campaign to help your client stand out in their local area?
The project is less important than the attitude and culture is will develop in your organization.
New business costs money and time. Developing the business you have takes less of both and the results will only please your clients and endear your agency.
Sussmancreates Blog 