Beyond the daily challenges of creativity and client satisfaction, an agency (advertising or public relations) must constantly be managing the new business process. Though nobody's fault, clients will come and go, and since agency income and the ability to manage payroll is directly related to client enrollment and activity, each agency must always be developing and nurturing relationships with new prospects. The same can be said if and as the agency has plans to grow.
There are two components to agency new business development - prospecting (the outreach component) and pitching (the meetings, the final presentation). The final presentation can be edgy, but it's like "opening night." Almost everyone at the agency enjoys and wants in on the final presentation; however few individuals are up for the outreach assignment.
Over the years, and much to their chagrin, agencies have alternatively assigned the new business outreach task to the most experienced, the most personable, the most assertive, the least creative (said tongue-in-cheek) or they fall back to the often rotating assignee - the agency president. Agency people, by and large, are creatives by nature. They enjoy and thrive on ideas, concepts, visualizations, presentations. For that reason, they take rejection, which is normal in the world of sales, very hard. They find it difficult to distance themselves personally from the majority response (No thanks, we're very happy with our current
agency) and they struggle when confronting a new prospect for the first time.
The better agencies have installed some form of formal new business development process. Typically, they maintain a prospect database on computer. This gives them the capability to automate regular promotional mailings, to semi-automate the telephone outreach process, and to prioritize prospects as to interests, timing, and other notable delineators. The objective is to strike up pleasant but relevant conversations with prospects, then arrange for first meetings. First meetings are meant for informal introductions, but when managed properly, serve as valuable fact-finding and needs-assessment events.
These meetings set the stage, either for further discussions and meetings meant to lead to a "final presentation" or to the conclusion that this prospect and this agency are not meant for each other (at all or at this time).
Wise agency management has also learned to post their agency information at any and all web site services that introduce clients to agencies. Some are free (though of limited value); others charge as they should. But in each case, the Internet match-making models are meant to make it easy (easier) for clients to find and identify just that handful of advertising agencies that claim the vertical market experience and the attributes they seek.
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UK & Europe 
Other
