I have been a successful New Business Hunter for many agencies throughout North America. I have also conducted agency searches for clients like Jenny Craig, Raley’s Supermarkets, and Jacuzzi. I have walked on both sides of the street.
I have found that the best network that a New Business person can have is one that saves time and avoids chasing vapor.
New Business pursuits can often be the outcomes of meetings where impulse decisions can be made that create hyperactivity that is largely misdirected. Everybody gets amped to chase a prospect that is not realistic in many cases.
Tribal hysteria leads to the pursuit of low opportunity targets. We all may have been cheerleaders in our past or present lives.
Decisions are made in a few minutes that waste hours and hours of time that could be better spent on liberating the agency from being a Cobbler’s Child.
How do you avoid this Monday morning hysteria? Tequila? The anecdote is a new business person whose networking is focused on developing relationships that give them intelligence. Not by just selling their agency’s wares but by knowing which clients have no budgets or tight existing relationships with their current agencies or are implementing all their marketing in-house. This information for a well networked new business person can come in minutes if they are connected with a wide source of people that provide them with intelligence. The better the info the smarter the pursuit. This type of information is not in any data base or e mail list.
New Business people that can save you time in your New Business program are very valuable. They may not lead to the immediate score but they avoid failures that save time and money in the end. This provides the agency with the bandwidth to pursue what are high opportunity targets if they can remain disciplined.
It also avoids the low probability pursuit of “Let’s just send them something” or “What have we got to lose.” Those words could be the tombstones of ineffective New Business pursuit.
If you want low probability new business pursuit go to Vegas.
If you want high probability pursuit cultivate a network of intelligence that saves you time.
You can connect with Hank on Linkedin
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Here is one about the RFP process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6jEGgVHx_g&feature=related
Hank Blank: Thoughts on Networking, New Business & Agency Searches 
Right on the mark, Hank. Operating with a target or prospect without good context on how they operate or how viable an opportunity may exist (including the timing and influences on the decision-making process) results in misdirected energy.
Also, I would add to not overinvest in the “dream” prospect if you are not a good fit or they simply do not want to consider you. Everyone wants a big win or prestige name as a client but it is not worht it to the detriment of not growing your company with companies that really want to work with you whether they are sexy or not.