Why College Students Need to Get Into Linkedin.

I live surrounded by young people.  I have hired paid interns for ten years and often speak on campus colleges on networking and why young people shouldn’t try to get a job.

That’s how I got this nice poster designed by Kyle Ready when I spoke at CBU in Riverside.

I am amazed by how many college students in their senior year that are looking to enter the workforce aren’t on LinkedIn.  Young people are natives in the world of technology.  I was an immigrant to their world of technology.

I embraced LinkedIn as an early adopter.  My largest client last year found me on LinkedIn.

College students who aren’t using LinkedIn lose their native status and become LinkedIn immigrants. They look like they aren’t ready for business. They don’t speak my language. And guess what?  I don’t want to hire them because I don’t want them to train them on Linkedin.  I want to teach them other things.

As a solopreneur I want an intern to help me from the get go.  That’s my world today.  And the world that today’s college students will live in when they are 50.  There are numerous articles documenting that in the near future a large proportion of the workforce will be consultants, freelancers, or temp workers.

When I speak to students I advise them to go where you want to be.  If you want to be in business then use the social media channel that business uses and that is LinkedIn. The best way to get a job in the field you aspire to is to engage with the people living in that world. Linkedin provides you with that opportunity.  If you want to work in the future communicate with people that may hire you in the future while you are in the past.  You should start your job hunting a year before you graduate or sooner.

I recently met a young man with 500 LinkedIn connections.  He was twenty years old and was soon to graduate from UCI.  I wasn’t surprised. Did the 500 plus connections help him graduate early?  Probably not.  I am sure that his attitude of preparing for the future did.

I have always said some of the worst career advice for students comes from people in the Old Normal.  They focus on resume building.  That’s all good but resumes don’t appear on the internet but your LinkedIn profile does.

Today resumes should be infographics or simple websites.

Young people today will have many jobs in the New Normal or create many companies.

The foundation of their success will be their network.  LinkedIn is a simple platform to build it and amplify your voice.

In the Old Normal there used to be simple insights shared that ran like this.  If you saved a dollar a day starting at 21 you would be a multi-millionaire by the age of 65 based on the principle of compounded interest.

In the New Normal if you connect with one person a day starting in college you can be sure of having lots of social currency and an improved chance of financial currency as well.

LinkedIn can help you get there.

You can connect with Hank on LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter: @hankblank

Like Blank and Associates on Facebook

You might enjoy these articles.

Don’t Let Your Business Cards Weaken Your Personal Brand

The Slash Generation.

Watch this Video on Why Young People Shouldn’t try to Get a Job.

Want to Grow Your Agency? Grow Your People.

Something is missing in advertising today: training.

It used to be the basic foundation of how agencies operated. It provided direction to all. Unfortunately, there is no training anymore. Nada. Zero. Here are your business cards. Here is your cube or office. There is a client meeting next week, and you are going to present. Here is the company T shirt. That’s all, yeah. Often nothing more. I hear this all the time. Today, there are CYA employee handbooks and very little institutionalized training; I don’t think many agencies even know what the curriculum would be.

Today’s agency training course is called Figure It Out Yourself.

In order to allow growth to occur, training needs to be the foundation of your agency’s culture. Your agency has very smart people looking for some paths they can run down. They are looking for reassurance. Everybody needs a little direction, a little confirmation, and a little reinforcement.

I live a life surrounded by Milennials, Gen Y’s, whatever you want to call them. I don’t talk much; I just listen to what they have to say, and their words tell a lot.

I listened to one frustrated soul who really didn’t know what he was tasked with at work. He felt uncertain, and that causes anxiety. Things were changing in the industry. He shared that he wanted to understand more about what he needed to do. The supervisor responded with, “what do you need to know?” How can youth know what is behind the curtain when they never pulled the levers on the other side?

Today in the agency business, many layers are missing. There are only generals and privates. The mentoring layers are gone. Many senior people focus on looking up to protect their jobs versus training down.

I talked to another young person the other day. She got a call from another agency asking her to interview, and asked for my advice. She said she really liked her current agency. Somebody had actually trained her recently, merely for an hour, which to her was a lot better than the place she had worked at previously. Only one hour. A lunch time training session. And these places still wonder why when they lose so many of their employees.

When I was a puppy, I received training frequently. Somehow, I felt that agency management referred to the idea that training was a responsibility that companies needed to do. It was not an option, but a formula necessary for success. If you don’t train your people, well, why are you the boss?

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on Twitter: @hankblank

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

You can watch a video by Hank on The Most Powerful Word in Agency New Business is NO.

You can also read some other Hank Blank blogs:

The Three Slide Agency New Business Pitch.

Developing Millennial AE’s.

How Advertising Agencies Can Get More New Business?

Developing Millennial Advertising Agency AE’s.

I had a glass of wine the other night with a friend who runs a large local agency.  He talked how committed his agency was to training its young people really well by rotating them around into all the areas of their product so they would be well rounded.  He lamented the fact that after a certain time many left causing a lot of turnover at the agency.

At first I was a little surprised at the rate of turnover in this economy but then again the advertising agency game has changed.  There aren’t as many layers as in past and often you get senior people stretched over too many accounts and the young worker bees.  Well trained ones are even more valuable today because there aren’t as many firemen around to put out the fires quick enough for today’s client.

Keeping talent in the advertising industry has always been an industry issue.  Deutsch in conjunction with the 4A’s conducted a study on the issue that was reported in Fast Company.  The study found that 25% of people in the business don’t love it.  That sounds high but I recently heard that in the general workforce, 40% of people don’t like their job.  I also know many people in transition who would be more than happy to be unhappy at a job just to have one.

Not only has the number of people in the advertising industry declined in the last decade according to the 4A’s but the average age of the industry has increasing become younger.  According to an IPA study in the UK the average age of an employee in the Mad Men biz is 34 and more than two fifths are said to be thirty or younger. I think it is the same on this side of the pond.

I often blog on today’s Millennials.  I have lived surrounded by them.  I have a number of friends in advertising and PR who are 28 and are working at their third or fourth agency. In a thin margin game even young people can be put on the beach.   Advertising has always been an industry where you get your first job at an entry level salary and then jump to another agency for a salary increase.  The other option is to stay and get promoted to increase your salary.  The first option is more expedient for many when they have today’s college loan debt levels. Rock on Congress.

Some people feel that young people move because they are the entitled generation and are self focused.  I don’t buy into that.  Maybe for a few but not the majority.  I think the entitled generation went away after the world melted.  A 23 year old has lived a quarter of their lives in the great recession.  Many have seen a parent or both parents in transition.  They know what foreclosures are.  They also know plenty of friends who are unemployed or having trouble finding a job.

So how do you foster an environment in the advertising, PR or digital game that Millennials want to work and stay?  Certainly training is important but they want more than that.  I think like most people in a relationship they want to know where they stand. Young people like direction.  In this case what is the agency’s career plan for them?  Not for the next month but the next two years. That provides vision and objectives for them.

They also want guidance. In this case it translates into mentoring and mentorship.  I think that everyone that joins an agency should be assigned a mentor.  A mentor for somebody who is 23 in today’s advertising business can be somebody who is 27.  I have always been a big believer in mentoring up and down and everyone in the Slash Generation has their own set of skills that everyone can learn from.  Capturing that helps everyone grow no matter what their age.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

You can watch a video by Hank on Why Young People Shouldn’t Try to Find a Job.

You can also read some other Hank Blank blogs.

Why Every Solopreneur Needs an Intern from the Slash Generation.

The New Glass Ceiling.

The Three Slide Agency New Business Pitch.

How Not To Be A Vendor Advertising Agency.

I was born an advertising guy. I found the business a playfield of bliss, elixir, quicksand and mire; elation and elevation. It was an industry of magic and alchemy and fact based decision making – that’s why JWT’s symbol of an owl and a lamp always resonated with me. I worked for JWT for ten years in two countries. The owl and the lamp symbolized wisdom and magic which was the quintessential solution. I don’t know if the business is the same today as we chase the Yankee dollar. We chased money then, too, but was it less desperate.

I went to a Think LA Mirren New Business Conference recently. Both consultants and agencies lamented that agencies were increasingly seen as vendors. Some cited statistics such as companies like Kraft have 17 agencies.

I was recently talking to a young person in the business who works in the game in the show of Chicago. The game is pretty fast paced when you have to pay to rent skyscraper floors. She joined her agency recently. Although she is young she is very seasoned and agency wise for her years, she said her agency was luck,y because they have partner clients who don’t treat the agency like a vendor. I wanted to hear more. I was a seasoned pro looking for the wisdom of youth.

When I asked how they go about doing that, she replied with, “I’m not sure.” I was looking for the Promised Land. She explained to me that one thing they do is stay in touch with people that they used to work for, and people that used to work at the agency that went client-side. That’s simple great sense, I thought to myself. Good clients stay good clients when they go work for other companies. It is one of the best ways to build your agency’s book of business. I have always been a big proponent of mining your past in networking, which leads to New Business.

When I worked at JWT, I received a lot of training about the delicate balance between client demands, creative needs, and account management needs. One was a verse of intelligence that stayed with me like a dance in my brain: give them what they ask for, sell them what they need. Once you implemented that Mantra and turned it into a way of doing business, you no longer were a vendor agency, because you had a point of view based on both the owl and the lamp, and it’s hard to dispute fact and creativity.  If they didn’t, you eventually recognized that you were probably not right for each other anyway.

The other way to avoid being a vendor agency is to prune you clients. I know, it hurts. We all know the benefits of pruning to make more hearty harvests in nature (and even in our lives), but it is hard to do in the agency business because of the drug of revenue. When you prune, some things don’t look very attractive at first, but with time come great blooms. It’s challenging, but guess what? So is advertising. That’s why you’re in the game.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch his video on the New Agency Model

You may also enjoy these articles:

How Advertising Agencies Can Get More New Business.

Are Your Agency’s New Business Efforts a Waste of Time?

What Makes a Great AE Today?

Why Agencies Need More Focus in New Business.

I know and meet with lot of agency people in a variety of spaces including advertising, the digital world, and public relations.  Some are small and smart, some fall in the middle and some are large.

I have been a New Business hunter for years and I have conducted agency searches for companies like Jenny Craig, Jacuzzi and Toyo Tires, I sit in rooms with clients without agencies and listen to what clients say, and watch the way the react.  I read their body language and their facial reactions. I know what works.

I am grateful that agencies generally like to work with me because I have been on the agency side and know what agencies have to go through to find the time to do the extra work.  I see my role as one of guiding clients to ask the right questions and evaluate the right things in looking for their next partner.  Shining a spot light on the agencies capabilities if you will.  The fact that I have walked on both sides of the road certainly helps me in my process.

Agencies fall into two camps when I meet with them and start talking about New Business. One group has total clarity and the other group has no achievable focus.  There are the ones that are loose and relaxed and on top of the game. How do you get New Business I ask and they all say the same thing.  “Referrals.”  It is as simple as that.  They planted their seeds long ago and are reaping the rewards.  They also never stopped planting seeds.  Sure in tough times like many recent years it is not always easy.

Just like in real estate where location, location and location is the key, in New Business Referral, Referral, and Referral is key.  You don’t buy a new home on line and you don’t choose an agency online.  Referrals come from knowing people personally.  Face time and not Facebook leads to relationships.

Then I meet with other agency people who have shorter runways often.  They should be trying to hit singles but many are always looking for the grand slams and pursue a low opportunity approach.  I have written before that New Business isn’t about playing the Quarter Slots yet many agencies persist.

Often they want to work with Fortune 500 companies who would never hire them based their experience.  They quickly transfer and usurp the success of other firms that are small and work with such companies as proof it can happen to them.  Possible? Yes.  Probable? No.  Unachievable goals are futility. You don’t get off the couch and start running marathons.

Persistence is key in New Business but it only works if you have achievable visions. Focus is the key.  Focus comes from simplicity.  Some agencies simply need to quiet their minds.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch his video on YouTube on Why It’s Time to Change the RFP Process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6jEGgVHx_g&list=UUEigDTyDiFGXVfyg7sRErOg&index=8&feature=plcp

What Type of Network Should A New Business Person Have?

A friend of mine in Chicago Steve Congdon suggested I write a blog on the type of network a New Business person should have to be successful.  Steve provides New Business Coaching services for agencies.

I have worked for many great agencies in my career.  I have also conducted agency searches for clients like Jenny Craig, Raley’s Supermarkets, and Jacuzzi. I believe I have a perspective from both sides of the street.

I remember often seeing recruitment ads for New Business people saying things like “Must Have a Strong and Deep Rolodex from A to Z. It is important to have a strong network but New Business pursuit isn’t always linear and not always an A to B game.

I believe that a New Business Person must have a very broad and deep network and that depth and breadth isn’t always who you would expect.  A strong New Business Person must have presence both in online networks and personal networks.  When I run into a New Business Person who has a limited number of Linkedin connections I know they aren’t hunters.  They are probably working at an agency that gets a steady stream of RFP’s and doesn’t have to leave their embassy which will be an eventual mistake.

So here are some letters in my Rolodex that I think are important.  First is the C Suite.  That’s pretty predicable. That’s the Keith Ferrazi approach.  The bigger the Fish the better. There is no doubt that the higher up the person is the more influence they generally have it you can get to them.

I have met more CEO’s and Presidents in the last five years than I met in the previous decade.  I often met them while they were in transition.  I was valuable to them when they were looking because I have a very broad and diverse network. I can help them find that job because I probably have some contacts at their target companies.  That is one way to build up your C Suite Connections.  The other way to meet people in the C Suite is to help their children find jobs. I wrote a blog called Why Graduates Are Looking for Jobs All in the Wrong Places that sheds some more light on this.

Then there is the Z Suite. The people not at the top of the company org chart but they may turn out to be very important parts of your network. During my entire career I have always cultivated a relationship with the Z Suite because few do.  Many of these people have provided me with great insight and have opened many doors on my New Business Journey.

You also have to be connected with the T Suite.  This suite is comprised of successful career achievers who happen to be at a stage in their journey that they are in transition.  I have written a blog in the past called Why I Network with People in Transition.  I have worked and been compensated by many clients that I met while they were in the desert but they emerged and remembered me.  If you are pitching a piece of business and want some insight into that company find some people who used to work there and are currently in transition.  You will get much more insight than a Google search.

Then there is the F Suite or Future Suite.   I have been speaking to PR, Advertising and Marketing classes and groups at local colleges for over 10 years now.  Guess where those students are now that I met when they were 19 or 20.  Do they remember me?  You see youth can provide a better residual stream of income than multi level marketing.  If you don’t find that you will certainly find a lot of social currency.

And then there is the S or Serendipity suite.  You see to be successful in New Business you know an assortment of diverse contacts as closely connected to the street as possible.  In all sectors. The strength of my network is in its diversity as well as its breadth.  There are people in my network who are 22 and extremely well skilled in technology with the vision of youth.  They lack some experience but that is relatively easy in the end.  And there are people like John Vrba who is the Patriach of Media and is 93.  You can connect with him on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Google +.

In the end your network, no matter how large is not very powerful if you only have contacts.  You need to have connections not contacts. A network is like a fire that needs to be stoked or it will go out.  You need to have those people thinking of you and to do that you have to be thinking of them.  That means being out there at networking events, reaching out to them, checking in with them, informing them, and helping them.  That’s how you make your network organic and powerful. And that is how your get New Business.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

Here is one about the RFP process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6jEGgVHx_g&feature=related

Chasing Strangers Doesn’t Really Work in Job Hunting.

I have spoken to many job hunting groups on Networking including CafeNet, ExecuNet, Challenger Networking , and Costa Mesa Connectors among others.  Been doing it for years.  I am also one of the Cofounders of Laguna Niguel Connectors.

Often I get an e mail introduction from people I don’t know introducing me to somebody in transition.  The e mail often goes to other people as well.  The person tells me that they are trying to help “A brother in need.”  I call this the Networking Handoff.  I see it all the time. Why not just pass this person along to somebody that has a large network.  It doesn’t seem very sincere to me. It is superficial help.  If this person really wants to help his fellow brother he should spend some time walking in their shoes.

Strangers passing people along to somebody they don’t really know doesn’t really help anybody.

Many people are quick to volunteer other people’s time rather than spending their own.  It is a little like that old Let Mikey Try It Commercial.

Sure I believe in the Paying It Forward but there needs to be boundaries to everything. I am a consultant.  I have less time than most people that work because you see in many ways I am perpetually unemployed.

When I get requests introducing me to somebody that I don’t know asking me to go into my Rolodex to find this person their next opportunity I wonder if these people have any clue about what I do.  They see me as a big data base.  I have a large network for sure but it is not a public domain. It is valuable because I have spent years earning it.  Asking me to give it away is a little like shop lifting.

I got an e mail recently from a person I couldn’t visualize.  I went to her Linkedin profile but there was not photo so that made it very difficult to recall her.  She provided a list of target companies and asked me to forward the message to three people in my network with ties to those companies.  Is this really an effective job hunting tactic?  Was this taught somewhere?  That is why college students need to take a course on what to do when they get fired.  Not if.  When.

I don’t have any problems finding people in transition that I know.  There are plenty to help.  There are also many people standing at the exits from Costco, Home Depot, or Vons with their signs asking for money.  We are all surrounded by need.

To make your job hunting networking efforts effective you need to have a connection with people.  A connection on Linkedin isn’t it. A contact in a data base isn’t it.  When people email me and tell me we are connected on Linkedin it doesn’t make us college roommates. When I read “Dear Linkedin Friends” from a stranger I think well there is your first mistake.

There is no doubt that networking is still the best way to find a job but as Etta Jones sang,  “Don’t Go to Strangers.”

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Watch a YouTube Video talking about The Power of Networking.

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch some other videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

When’s the Best Time to Build Your Network? The Desert or the Oasis?

I have spoken on networking and personal branding to numerous companies and organizations across the country and in Canada where I started my career.

I have been networking for decades even before it was the current social and business rage and rave.

So when is the best time to build your network?

By far the best time to build your network in these times is while you are working.  Harvey McKay wrote a book on it a few years ago called Dig Your Well Before you are Thirsty.

Many people quite eagerly try to build their network during the desert of unemployment or financial need but rarely network in the oasis of employment and limited needs. They are too busy to be planning for the future in the New Normal.

Here’s what I see.  I know some people who during the great recession that started when the World melted beginning in August 2008 or before have now had one or two or maybe three short term jobs during that time. Things change quickly in these times.

I only hear from them when they are in the desert between those jobs.  When they are working they don’t reach out to me to see if I can help them.  They aren’t thinking of me.

When they are in the desert they reach out very quickly because they know I have a very large and substantial network and often hear about jobs.  But I am not a public service funded by the government.

Quite frankly I don’t really feel very compelled to help.  There are many people out there and I only have so much time.  I speak often to people in transition so I know that I have satisfied my pay it forward quotient.

Then on occasion I meet people doing it another way.  I meet them at events like Laguna Niguel Connectors.  They are working.  I ask them why they are at a networking event largely populated by people in transition.  They say they remember the desert and the promise they made that if they ever got to the oasis they would remember those times and try to help in any way they can.

These people are rare and they stand out.  I may never do business with them but if they were ever in the desert and reached out to me I would immediately help.  They have a measure of sincerity which is compelling.

If you want people to be thinking of you when you are in the desert you need to be thinking of them when you are in the oasis.

It is as simple as that.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

What’s Wrong with Client Agency Relationships? There’s No Training.

I walk both sides of the street in the advertising and marketing worlds.  This comes from my years as an agency person pursuing New Business and my experiences as an agency search consultant.

It is no secret that sometimes these relationships can often be strained and not optimized.

According to a recent study by RSW/US only 44% of Marketers are truly happy with their primary Agency.  That’s worse than the divorce rate.

Why is that?  Why are things so dysfunctional in the advertising, public relations, PR and Marketing arenas?  Inevitably poor relationships can’t lead to the best execution and stewardship of the billions of dollars that are spent on advertising and other disciplines.

I had my gut feeling but I wanted to validate it. So I went out to my social network and posed the question that I wanted to validate an assumption.  My belief is that most marketing people do not really receive any formal training on how to work with their advertising, public relations, or digital agencies.

This is the feedback that I received.

On the high bar, Diane commented “I received training when I was with General Foods (which is now Kraft). And I know when I worked with P&G, they also received training on how to work with Agencies, as well as how to judge Creative. I don’t know of anywhere else where this type of in-depth training took place. I was lucky enough to get it.”

From across the pound, I also received a comment from the UK from Annette saying,  “Here in the UK, the Chartered Institute of Marketing has been a force for good in helping new and existing marketeers understand the different marketing communications disciplines, what works when, and how to ensure that integrated campaigns are developed, including digital marketing!” http://www.cim.co.uk/tandq/qualifications/qualificationDetails/whichqualification.aspx

Thank God for England.

The majority of other people said that they have never received any training in this area. That is pretty scary to think that you have to figure out those relationships managing that kind of investment by the seat of your pants.

Many said that companies expected that Marketing people would have an innate understanding of how to work with their agencies.

David wrote, “Hank, I concur with your observation. Many other aspects of Product Management and/or Product Marketing are assumed to be innately enabled when one assumes the respective title.”

How did those skills get into their DNA and wiring?

Some clients wrote back that “ You learn as you go.”  Glad that they aren’t pilots.

Training certainly doesn’t seem to be happening in college.  Karen was kind enough to send me this. “ I just finished my MBA with a marketing focus and in all of my marketing classes I don’t think this was discussed once even in my advertising and promotion class which was taught by someone with decades of experience on the agency side.”

Surprising those on the agency side said they had the added responsibility of training junior clients in all areas of advertising including how to work more effectively with their agencies.  Thanks for that Chris.

Others said, “I was able to work directly with advertising/branding and digital agencies during my internship.  The experience was great and I appreciate the individuals who took time to train me.”

I got another comment saying, “…They show up. We hope they know what they are doing.”

As a shareholder would that increase your comfort level and want you to increase the marketing budget?  I don’t think so.

Does the lack of training lead to poor fundamentals, a variety of approaches that change with each company and eventual frustration?   If a client is burned by one agency does that legacy go with them to other positions and other agency encounters.  I think so.

In this recessionary environment I think that most agency people that I talk to would say that their people receive little training and that good AE’s are very hard to find.  From clients I hear that within many organizations that training is a bad word.

That doesn’t make me feel more assured that this situation will change in the near future.

How about you?  Where did you get trained?  Did you learn to just tolerate a frustrating client agency relationship?

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

The Things Agencies Should Stop and Start Doing in 2012.

The Things Agencies Should Stop and Start Doing in 2012.

I know a lot of advertising, public relations and digital agencies.  This comes from my years as an agency person pursuing New Business and my experiences as an agency search consultant.  I have also spoken to many AAF Chapters on Networking Your Way to New Business and Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business.  I also constantly network.

Here are some thoughts on What Agencies Should Stop Doing in 2012.

• Stop being Cobbler’s Children.  Enough from me on that topic already.  All agencies that fit this profile recognize it but few are make any changes. They accept it.  Why are people who are innovation agents and constantly advocating that their clients change accept being poor self marketers?
• Stop comparing yourself to agencies you are not. The tactics that destination agencies can use don’t apply to you because you are not them. Most clients don’t even know you exist. That feeding frenzy can get you to commit to activities that are outside of your scope of capabilities and resources and waste your time.  It is just a game of internal machismo that leads to low opportunity pursuit.
• Lofty goals are pie in the sky for most agencies.  There are very few David and Goliath success stories in advertising.  Minnows rarely swallow whales.  Why try?  You will win New Business by a high probability approach not long shots.
• Stop sending boxes to strangers saying you would be perfect for them.  I often ask clients if they get unsolicited packages from agencies.  “Yes is what they said.”  Do you look at them?  “No is what they say.”
• To win in New Business you need to use many channels and knock on many doors.  You need to blog, use direct mail, call, speak at events, implement PR, and have a strong social media presence. Maybe even consider some advertising.  SEO and PPC for sure. You have to be there when prospects are ready to listen.
• Stop staying in your office and not going to AAF Chapter meetings.  If you want to be an industry leader, act like it.  You need to network everywhere constantly to be seen.  Agency principals need to be outside people not inside people.  They need to be finders and not grinders. They need to be on top of the business versus in the business.

• Join an agency network to learn from your peers.  Quit talking to yourself, your spouse and your friends.  Learn how others do it and learn from those exchanges.
• Talk to consultants.  When I go to any city to speak to any organization I always reach out to agencies saying I am going to be in town.  I tell them I do agency searches and would be happy to sit down with them while I am in town.  I reach out using the contact info on their sites.  I rarely hear back. That’s OK.  They may never hear back from me.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

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