We Now Work From Two Directions to Find You New Clients
1. We Now Work From Two Directions to Find You New Clients
2. BTW, Your Agency Didn’t Make the Cut (and Here’s Why)
3. Great, Another Search Consultant With a Clever Angle …
4. No E-Auctions or Reverse Auctions at AgencyFinder
5. Check Out Our PitchCast Activity
WE NOW WORK FROM TWO DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS TO FIND YOU NEW CLIENTS
Ever since 1997, our elaborate search engine algorithms pluck your agency to the surface if your data fields equal or exceed what the client says they want. But if you haven’t updated your profile to reflect that new client from last week or last month, (worst case last year or two) that unchecked data field could have you outside looking in.
That’s why we now give you and other agencies in the region an opportunity to evaluate a current client opportunity and come forward to claim interest. We send you our PitchCast Invitational Brief – and when you identify one in your sweet-spot and ask to qualify to participate in that review, you need to act promptly. Your profile must be current, your Power Index (AFPI) should register 90+, you’re asked to author a special PitchCast Essay
or send relevant samples and you need to be fee-paid on the initial $500 portion. When that’s the case, we’ll present your agency credentials for client examination, coupled with those that surfaced in the initial algorithm search.
This way, if you slipped through our search filter, you still have a chance to participate. This feature was introduced earlier this year.
BTW, YOUR AGENCY DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT (AND HERE’S WHY)
This is “Important Agency New Business Topic # 1.” And I’ve mentioned this more than a few times before. When your agency first surfaces as a qualified candidate because your profile lays claim to desired category experience, we guide the advertiser (as in the searching client) to your profile and then your website. And I promise you – they are expecting to find some evidence on your website to confirm why you surfaced in the first place. Specifically, if the client search outline specified they wanted an agency with Healthcare experience, they better find something about healthcare on your website or you’ve lost them!
It’s not hard to make your website “search friendly” and not just for AgencyFinder searches. Good bets include a “Client Tab” with recognizable healthcare brands and logos; a “Work Tab” where they can find your work for healthcare (but label each as such); a “Client List” with equally recognizable names; a “Legacy” client list for clients not current; a “Client Category Tab” where I encourage you to copy and paste that list from within your AgencyFinder profile and post it; and finally, keep your client list in your profile up-to-date. In managing the review and supplementing what our search engine does, our staff look there to see what we can find as confirming evidence.
Just last week, for our first pass, we furnished a client with a robust list of 42 qualified candidates so they could select the 15 or so they wanted to invite. The client identified 12 and wrote this: “I checked out the websites and unless I’m missing something, the majority of them appear to have no experience with our target market – architects, design firms and spec writers, or experience in our category ‘building materials’. But to move the process along I’ve selected the following:” The client asked us to select agencies to finish out their list (just in case you wondered if we get involved).
Find time to check out your firm’s website – if your experience is not clear and evident, please make it so!
GREAT, ANOTHER SEARCH CONSULTANT WITH A CLEVER ANGLE …
Let’s call this new consultant CarFinder. Following his advocacy, rather than “level the playing field” and ask what you want in a car, and rather than learning about your family, your work, your education, your income, your favorite recreations and lifestyle, he’ll present what he thinks you might like. Consider his potpourri of metal and rubber. A Rolls-Royce convertible, a Volkswagen, a Hyundai, a Shelby Mustang, a Fiat, a McLaren and a Harley Electra Glide to mix it up. He’ll take you into his CarFinder Search Suite (twin 58″ flatscreen monitors) where each dealer gets a chance to play his “E-Auction Dollar-for-HorsePower Game” – a Skype-enabled low-bidder-wins scenario! Imagine the tension, excitement, the electricity and ups and downs as Rolls and Beetle each slowly lower their price to $18,500. OMG, you want the Shelby price to come down … Why won’t Ford ever haggle!
Yes, another clever angle on the agency search, designed to give each agency the enviable opportunity to prostitute itself when there’s excess capacity to sell. I sense this will be an overnight sensation. More details here at AdAge (may need to be a subscriber)
NO E-AUCTIONS OR REVERSE AUCTIONS AT AGENCYFINDER.COM
Ironically, and the timing was probably just an accident, AdAge drops another blockbuster (Another Wrench in the Pitch: Agencies Lament Rise of E-auctions) that prompts these comments …
Back in early 2000, my now-deceased partner came to me all excited. His was a website-building company and their new client ran an “art” auction. Dick came to me back then, all smiles but lacking advertising industry experience. He outlined this “really neat auction model” where we’d post the client specs and give our registered agencies the chance to bid on the business. That would have made us the first search consultant to use a Reverse E-Auction, but after I took time, with patience and purpose to explain you don’t EVER bid on creativity, Dick and I put that plan in the trash.
My suggestion for dealing with the “Auction” model? Either refuse to participate, or win the business and then give the client what they paid for.
