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his is a guest blog post by Heather Baker, Managing Director of Topline Communications
Last night, the PRCA’s SME Group met at the lovely new offices of Tudor Reilly in London, where we had an abridged workshop in ‘how to do new business for PR agencies’ from Alex and Dan at The Future Factory. I took some notes:
In many respects, business development is very similar to PR – it revolves around selling stories, building relationships and is more effective if used as part of a wider marketing campaign. However with around 3,000 PR agencies competing for business in the UK, it is often difficult to differentiate yourself. Indeed if you’re not constantly building your client base, new business agencies are busy luring them away. Nonetheless, using personality, tenacity and a few tips, you will succeed in getting face time with the brands you really want to work with.
Who to target: Firstly, it is important to decide what role you want your new clients to fulfil. Whilst well-known clients will always boost your company’s credentials and revenue is an important consideration, branching out into a new sector can give you experience in a new discipline. Similarly, it is valuable to find areas of business that will motivate your team, giving them something that they can really feel passionate about.
Being focused is key to successfully targeting potential new clients. Make a list of 30 brands and be able to justify why you are contacting each of them.
Getting organised: The Future Factory works for clients 6 days per month. This usually gets clients around three meetings per month - that’s 14 hours of work for 1 meeting on average.
It is vital to set aside time for new business – put it in your diary! CRM systems such as HighRise can also prove to be invaluable, accessible by all team members for £25 per month.
How to target: Source 3 contacts at each of the brands you are targeting. Follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn, looking out for news from or about them. When you’re contacting brands, make your approach is targeted, relevant and personal. Emails should be short and to-the-point and not overly formal. If the objective is a meeting, don’t forget to ask for a meeting!
It takes approximately 10 calls to get through to a decision maker – don’t be put off if you don’t get through after 5 calls - perseverance is key. Be systematic. With each contact, call, email, leave a message then call, call, call. Celebrate the little victories and then move to the next contact.
Make new business the ethos of your agency: This is absolutely crucial – new business can be exciting, reward it! It is important to build looking for new business into your company mindset, making sure that your team is constantly on the lookout for new brands and opportunities. A good way of doing this is looking at the delegate lists and setting up meetings before you go to trade shows.
In-house new business manager: One option is hiring an in-house business development manager to generate leads for you. Having someone operating from within your company can be a cheaper option and means that they are likely to really understand your business and (hopefully!) be excited by it. On the flip side of this, it is often very difficult to maintain motivation and a high level of work when working on one agency proposition day in day out, and many in house new business staff burn out after 3-6 months. As a result, finding people who are great at this role is tough – look for someone with personality who isn’t scared of the phone.
Plan of action: Here’s a plan of action for successful lead generation:
1. Carry out an agency experience audit
2. Get your team involved in suggesting brands
3. List approximately 30 companies to target
4. Get contacts through Google & LinkedIn
5. Put time in your diary for new business calls & emails
6. Call & email!
7. Follow up all emails with a call
8. Add anyone you meet on LinkedIn
You can read more of Heather's thoughts at her blog spot here: or follow her on twitter
