Vacation Coverage – Summer or Otherwise

Flash Report – August 30, 2004

This BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT information is for agencyfinder.com Certified Agencies, Agency New Business Executives and agency subscribers.

CONTENTS:

1. Vacation Coverage – Summer or Otherwise
2. A Burst of Activity – Our Search Counter
3. The College of Sales & Marketing
4. The New Business Talent Pool
5. Essay Authoring Service

VACATION COVERAGE – SUMMER OR OTHERWISE

August was as expected a heavy month for executive vacations. We’ve discovered more than a few instances where the “boss” is clearly the person in charge, because everything grinds to a standstill when he or she is on vacation, or absent for an extended period of time.

Your agency record in our database identifies the primary new business contact. Then you’re also given the chance to list an alternate contact. When a client selects your firm and we send you their fax invitation, we also send a confirming e-mail (to the primary and alternate) and we also follow by phone.

What does surprise us is when we’re told that no one is really covering for the boss on matters of new business, or we’ll get an alternate, but that person too often doesn’t take full responsibility.

Each and every new business opportunity should be considered as precious cargo. Whether it’s from agencyfinder.com, or from those clients that may contact you directly, may we encourage you to have a new business chain-of-command in place, and a telephone receptionist that can help a caller navigate.

A BURST OF ACTIVITY – OUR SEARCH COUNTER

The summer months have seen “surges” of new business activity, and you can see that as it occurs at our Search Statistics portion in our home page header banner. The Current Month figure represents the “count” of searcher registrations for the current month only.

When these registrants conclude their process, those that go to the “CONTINUE” stage (see Demonstration Search for details) and conclude the on-line portion of their search are posted to the Client Searches total. As this is written, total Client Searches stands at 4,557 and the August month total is 62. Please note that we get virtually NO traffic from Creatives looking for “ideas,” students or the unemployed looking for employment.

THE COLLEGE OF SALES & MARKETING

FREE new business idea for those of you with time or money on your hands – correct me if I’m wrong, but for the thousands of “professional” sales folks who, on a daily basis, try to “sell something”, is there is no substantial curriculum, let alone no college or University that offers a sales degree or anything close?

By example, for each and every advertising agency, each public relations firm, each sales promotion or direct marketing firm, where do the responsible “new business folks” learn to do what is their livelihood? Pray tell, who is teaching agency new business to those that must demonstrate they’ve earned a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in their art? And I don’t mean day-long seminars; I mean semesters or more.

Clients tell us time and again what agencies could have done better, a point or issue that was missed, or a complacency that permeated much of the communication. What a void there seems to be. Who can fill it and how? Anybody interested – with ideas or funds? Talk to me.

THE NEW BUSINESS TALENT POOL

With a recovering economy, agencies are back at a new place on the sine wave of agency business development. Clearly, some agencies are blessed with activity and capacity far beyond their current capabilities. Others aren’t quite so lucky.

Suggestion – strike up relationships with disparate agencies – in size, specialization, geography. Trade and swap out business that doesn’t suit, but help keep things flowing. Some enterprising small and mid-sized agencies have alliances with the “big boys and girls” that keep their pipelines quite full (thank you very much ) with quality leads begging for an attentive candidate.

And, if you need to hire someone, or if you’re looking to be hired, let us know. Maybe we can make that critical connection.

ESSAY AUTHORING SERVICE

Help! Clients ask us again and again – “Why hasn’t “X” agency finished their essays? How can I include them if I can’t read what they have to say? Why would an agency be content to allow a typo or grammar error in their essays?, etc.” We send periodic e-mails to your agency new business contact, and Kaille Padgett, our Manager of Agency Relations, spends a good portion of her day counseling our registered agencies in how to improve the “magnetism” of their records. But we can’t do it for you, until now…

One enterprising consultant told us he’d be pleased (for a fee of course) to write or finish any agency’s essays if they wanted that done. Some days (when she’s really frustrated), even Kaille threatens to take matters into her own hands. Interested in either option? (I hope not)

Thanks for taking time to read this; we look forward
to getting you face-to-face with a great prospect.

Sincerely,

Charles G. Meyst, Chairman/CEO

Business Partnering International, Ltd.
Vantage Place, 4327 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060
Voice: 804.346.1812