Notes

How to Find a fresh Business Agency
It is essential to keep an excellent stream of customers and clients. It is very an easy task to get complacent when you have enough clients - but if among those clients disappeared would your organization feel the effect? Or worse would it crumble?? Working with a fresh Business Agency can help you win clients and grow your organization. There is no denying that home based business / lead generation could be time consuming, hard work and expensive but overall it can be worthwhile and affordable.

Many Creative and Marketing Agencies work with New Business Agencies; it really is an effective way to get your work before companies you would like to use. I wrote this article after to speaking to the Directors of Creative Agencies and other Business Development Managers. This article is for small Creative and Marketing Agencies new to new business and looking to work with a HOME BASED BUSINESS Agency for the first time.

I believe it fair to say in the world of new business you do get what you pay for. You may get a telesales person to call thousands of companies and pay a minimal fee, or it is possible to choose an agency that approach new business intelligently. The second will undoubtedly be costly but is it possible to afford not to?

New Business Agencies specialise to find you clients in order to grow your business. Although agencies work in various ways, the long and short of it is that, they'll phone companies in your stead with the view of setting up a meeting between you and the potential client. Sounds simple enough, but the home based business process is more than merely cold calling.

Before you jump in at the deep end here are a few factors to note when choosing a New Business Agency. They are all different and can all have diverse ideas concerning the way new business ought to be conducted. Below are a few questions to ask your brand-new business agency before you use them?

Question 1 -Results or Numbers?

If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Agency promises to focus on 500 companies a week and guarantees you five meetings, take note. This can be a potential time waster for some agencies. If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager is pressured to get you in front of x level of clients, they will. If the meeting is worthwhile or not, isn't their problem they just have to reach their targets.

If the person handling your brand-new business account is really a really good sales rep with a hard sales technique they may be able to force a potential client to get a meeting with you if they have work, or you are suitable. They are good sales people, however they may not be producing qualified leads.

For example, if you're a design agency who specialises in content managed websites for smaller businesses, you do not want to end up at a meeting to rebrand Kellogs. Yes, this might be considered a fantastic opportunity, however in competition with top branding agencies do you stand a chance? In the event that you only work with big brands similarly you might not want to arrive to a meeting to go over a �300 website.

A good New Business Manager ought to be keen and results driven but additionally able to evaluate a qualified lead. By giving way too many targets you're ultimately pushing them into a corner to produce meetings. You do not want to attend any old meeting. A perfect meeting is a potential client who's looking for a company for a specific project or looking to change their roster of agencies. A good meeting is also a simple credentials meeting with one of your wish list companies, who you intend to impress with solid ideas.

Rather than an agency driven by numbers, consider an agency driven by results. Unfortunately, but realistically, new business isn't always about getting work now. It is about creating a pipeline and raising your profile. If your Account Handler has a good conversation with a Decision Maker in regards to a suitable project which will be commissioned later that year, that is much better than a credentials meeting. After that you can keep in regular connection with the decision maker until that project comes up. By the time you have the meeting you will end up talking about a specific project rather than running through a portfolio.

Look at the pipeline around how much meetings.

Question 2 - How Targeted is their New Business Approach?
Are you attempting to reach as many companies as possible to provide your services to? For a few businesses this might work but I doubt if this works for most. A FRESH Business Agency which implies a highly targeted approach will probably receive better results. For example a design agency seeking to build up litigant list does not want to target 'any' business with "we do design" it really is not going to stand out, and it simply becomes a game of chance.

A web site design agency who mainly works together with restaurants producing content managed websites could contact other restaurants with an identical offer. However, you don't need to limit yourself to restaurants, always turn to expand your market but do it with careful consideration. If you work with restaurants you could then aim at hotels, pubs, bars and clubs. Of course, you can always expand your market but showing a potential client experience in your field will probably be beneficial. (My next article will go further into this subject).

Look at the size of the business enterprise - in case you have only ever caused SMEs build this up gently don't suddenly shoot for Coke. Consider the location of businesses, are you experiencing enough time and money to visit from London to Glasgow for a gathering or should you stay local. An excellent New Business Agency will generate a database tailored to your organization capabilities. So that you can tailor a database it is advisable to initially work with your brand-new Business Agency, they should be able to give advice to you. But you have to know which direction you are heading with your business, and w here you sit, and wish to sit on the market place.

Although this may sound as if I am stating the obvious, some of the home based business managers I spoke to explained stories of how their clients took little fascination with the strategy and simply left to them to obtain meetings without direction. These clients then refused to leave London to wait meetings and refused any project under �5000 (although they had never completed a project for this much money).

Question 3 - How do they find the Decision Maker?
When your New Business Agency is going to send your information to the business, how are they likely to find the right person? There is a lot of information available on the web these days on Marketing Directors of companies. Although it would be wonderful to get a meeting with someone so high up in the company how likely is this?

The Marketing Director of Nike is not generally likely to interview agencies for a microsite. Typically it could be a waste of time and money attempting to reach them on the phone to set up a gathering. Aim lower. Nike is a huge corporation and it will take patience and careful research to obtain the person in charge of commissioning microsites and it won't be the Marketing Director.

Especially lately a lot more new roles are appearing in companies, new media managers, advertising managers, mobile managers, interactive managers, account directors, creative directors - who are you looking to use? Aim for less companies as research could be time consuming, but make sure your representative is speaking with the proper person. Letters simply addressed to the Marketing Director are hard to check out up with a telephone call. Find out how and who your brand-new Business Manager will undoubtedly be trying to contact.

Question 4 - Who else may be the agency working with?

It is great to utilize an agency that has skills in selling everything you are offering, better still to get a New Business Manager with one of these exact skills. But if your New Business Manager is working with three Mobile Marketing Agencies is your account being kept separate? What's your agencies ethics of sharing potential clients?

Your brand-new business account ought to be, if at all possible, separate to any other companies. You do not want to paying for someone else's home based business. It usually is all too easy for a fresh Business Manager to find details of a company looking to rebrand almost all their marketing collateral... and keep two design agencies happy.

Question 5 - Who is your Account Handler?

Always ask to meet the person handling your account. It really is your business, and they are representing you, be sure you like the way they run into. Your New Business Manager should not really read from the script and really should be confident and knowledgeable enough to hold an in-depth conversation. If you are a fresh Media Agency does your New Business Manager know their augmented reality from their rfId barcodes, and what lengths can they continue with this conversation?

And discover common ground with a potential client it really is good to know about their business before having a conversation with them. This means your brand-new Business Manager needs to be proficient in the sectors they're targeting.

New Business Mangers should be versatile. They should be good researchers, communicators and able to grab information quickly. Providing a New Business Manager has already established experience in marketing or creative agencies they'll understand the processes and jargon and can generally adjust to other industries which have specialist interests. Someone however, who does not have any background in design, marketing or creative industries in general will probably think it is harder to learn everything from scratch and find out about niche markets.

If your New Business Manager has generated a relationship with a choice Maker it could be an idea to take them along to the meeting as part of your company. Does your New Business Agency allow this? In an ideal world your Account Handler should feel they are a part of your team.

It is important so that you can head to meetings prepared and know what is expected from you at the meeting. It really is down to one to give your New Business Manager all the information they need. You understand your market also it never does any harm to keep them updated together with your understanding of industry events. Once you launch a new project let your brand-new Business Manager know, keep them involved.

Question 6 - How does one prepare to utilize an New Business Agency?

Be prepared to be engaged. Most New Business Managers spoken to because of this article said, "The closer they have worked with clients the much more likely they are to achieve results." Usually do not expect a fresh Business Agency to start work and come back to you a week later with plenty of new work - it rarely happens like this. If your New Business Agency is starting conversations with the right people be sure to have the supporting materials. Many potential clients will ask for a contact with links to your projects, PDFs, show reels or brochures - it is down to one to provide these. When attending the meetings, you have essentially paid a lot of cash to get, be sure you are prepared for the presentation. Your New Business Agency can only just take you up to now. Remember that if you run your business you should really function as best person to undertake your new business you may already know your business inside out, your capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. If you fail to get hold of a �500,000 contract don't expect a new business agency to. Be realistic

Many creative agencies I spoke to had caused at least several HOME BASED BUSINESS Agencies before locating the one they felt they might work with, hence the reason for this article. There are obviously many questions to ask before undertaking the expense of a fresh Business Agency but I am hoping this article covers several! Please see more suggestions about handling your own home based business on my website http://www.kerinewman.com.

Keri Newman - Freelance Web design and marketing for smaller businesses.
My Website: https://cnnislands.com/how-to-handle-it-while-camping-try-these-types-of-top-10-tips/