The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Advertising

5 sales hacks for new business meetings

Author

By Jessica Davis, Consultant Journalist

September 13, 2016 | 4 min read

Every ambitious agency wants the same thing; interesting, solvent clients who have problems, and the opportunity to help them successfully nail ideas. Ideally, creating a raised, impressed eyebrow when we name check them in the pub as our client.

Future Factory

Getting that magical mix is not as easy as some agencies portray. They are like the cool kids in school who never revise but seem to come out with straight As (yes, they are a myth). The agencies who do have that enviable client list make it look easy, but there are things they do and excel at to make it happen.

Last week, The Future Factory held it’s latest breakfast session at Forge & Co. Shoreditch where Louise Hedges discussed her sales hacks for new business meetings. Here are five of Louise's key tips (or hacks) that agencies should consider before approaching any new business meeting with a potential client:

Have a client centric reason to meet

Communicating who you really are is the first step, but this needs to be paired with well organised self-discipline if you don’t want to end up with clients that choose you. If we want to choose our clients, we need to identify a genuinely reasonable purpose to a conversation – one that will be a good use of their diary time – and then invite them to engage in that conversation. Finding that purpose takes time and effort; showing them your past work won’t cut it unless it teaches them something genuinely useful to their current situation.

Engage and reinforce credibility

We can’t tell credibility; we have to demonstrate it. Therefore, you must engage without coming across arrogant or self-orientated. This is about immersing yourself in the conversation, rather than trying to sell the agency. You need to have genuine curiosity and listen with an intention to help. Think process, not outcome. Working to understand their issues is more likely to land you writing a brief for them, than thinking about what brief you would write.

Make others want to share their issues

Look to build trust with your potential client. A worthy agency is one that can get to the root of the problem and offer a solution; persuade them to share what they are attempting to get done and where they might be struggling. Flattering a client or being patronising of their ideas is unhelpful. Great new business people find a way to explicitly say “tell me your problems and let’s see if I can help”.

Find the best next step

Okay, so you have heard about their challenges, listened with all your generous intelligence and helped them to prioritise, clarify and organise the issues. Before the end of the first meeting, get another date in the diary. Offer a solution that is genuinely valuable to the client and demonstrates your commitment. Leave them knowing that they are in control but you are the one brimming with valuable guidance.

Make yourself a future reference

It may be that now isn’t the time that they need you or that they have no budget. Nonetheless, the great new business person is brilliant at maintaining non-salesy, genuine, interesting contact. Having a calendar of actions and meticulous follow-up habits is essential for those opportunities that might not be immediate.

Louise Hedges is a partner at management development & business strategy consultancy Hownow.

Advertising

More from Advertising

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +