How To Rise Above Your Competition

I recently wrote this article for The UPS Store Small Business Solutions.

In today’s small business environment there is intense competition. It’s a crowded world out there. That is nothing new to the readers of The UPS Small Business Solutions blogs.

But one major change has taken place in the last few years in the new business sales cycle.  Today you can be virtually certain that before a prospect engages with you they will Google you.  Yes your Google presence is your step to growing your business.

In the New Normal you must rise above the crowd or your competitors.  Your Google presence is more important than your elevator speech because your chances of getting on an elevator with the key decision maker are very small.  Your business rises above the crowd through your dominance on search engines.

And what would prospects see today if they Google you? Is your Google presence telling your prospects how smart you are?  How you are engaged in new marketing practices like social media? I would surmise that a Google search would list your website and then probably a hodge podge of listings.  Often a number of business directory listings which only tell people where you are located which isn’t a particularly compelling way to motivate prospects to want to do business with you.

Today it is imperative to own all the listings on the first page with your thought leadership.  Your thought leadership should be based on the things that you do that make your better than your competition.  Think more about the customer’s benefits of engaging with you rather than generic benefits of service and price.  How will working with you makes their lives easier and drive their sales?

So how to you build a strong Google presence.  Well it is a combination of traditional and new media and ongoing updates because Google likes change and activity and engagement.

For me the foundation of a strong organic search presence on Google starts with an electronically optimized press release distributed through a wire service like Business Wire or Marketwire.  Oh sure there are free wire services but they don’t create the same buzz.  You get what you pay for is something that hasn’t gone away in the New Normal.

The next step is to productize your knowledge.  Most small businesses know a lot of things.  In the New Normal you need to turn that knowledge into something you can sell and write about.  In other words content marketing.  Converting what you do into blog posts will help your SEO.  Blogging shouldn’t be perceived as a burden.  It is simply writing down what you around know and getting credit for it on Google.

I am sure that there are many blog posts The UPS Small Business Solutions blog on the advantages of having a strong social media presence for you and your company.  A key benefit of social media campaigns is that it improves your SEO.  Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter among the many others offer you a place to repurpose your content and dominate that first page on Google. Your participation positions you as a company that know how to market itself in the New Normal.  If you are current in that fashion it also conveys that you are current on the most up to date trends in your industry.

Another easy way to repurpose your thought leadership if by leveraging LinkedIn. You can belong to fifty groups on LinkedIn.  These groups should be a combination of peer groups and prospect groups.  I always tell clients go where you want to be.  In other worlds participate in the groups that you want to influence.  Here is an example.  I am Canadian and want to speak on networking and business development more in Canada.  A year ago I made 10% of my LinkedIn groups into Canadian groups.  Today about a year later, 15% or more of my readers are from Canada.  How did that happen?  Well I repurpose my blog on those group discussion pages. That’s an efficient way to tell people about what you do in a way that makes your appear to know your core competencies.

In the New Normal it’s not what you say about your business, it’s what your Google presence says about you.

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

Watch a Video on the Power of Networking.

Enjoy an article on Networking Tips For Those Who Hate to Network.

Are You a Finder or a Grinder?

How to Build A Consulting Career.

Are Solopreneurs the Future in the New Normal?

How’s The Year Going So Far?

So how are things going so far as we enter year five of the New Normal? Having a jolly old time?   The New Normal was created when the world melted in the fall of 2008.  Lehman Brothers went away.   Remember those days? I am sure that the 2.8 million people that lost their jobs that year do. Some may still be looking for the job that they lost. They may be working but they don’t have the job that went away never to return.

Are things getting better? Are your loving things at work?  Doing less with more?  Looking over your shoulder from time to time? Get a little nervous if your boss calls you into their office?  How do you like your recent yearly salary increases? Did you get one?

How’s the job search going?  Is it easier or harder? Do you often feel it’s all in vein? Do you think that everyone thinks that you are too old?  Don’t have enough experience?  Have been on the beach too long? Do you think that the people interviewing you are smarter than you?

How are your New Business efforts going?  Is New Business even harder or are leads coming in and your task is to separate fact from fiction?  Do you feel you even need more leads today? Does New Business take more time and are the budgets smaller?  Do you have to provide more for less?

How’s your networking going or is it the same? Do you view networking as an intention or a mission?  Do you connect with people that energize and are totally aligned with you? Are you just networking with people just like you?

Are you living large?  I network with a lot of people. I talk to 2O year old people and have drinks with the people who run multinational agencies. They all share their stories.  I shake the hand of my UPS driver at Starbucks while he sits with Fed Ex Driver and a couple of other guys talking music.  I talk to sales people at the same time that feel they are out of touch for today’s game.

I have lunch with marketing people who wouldn’t have met me in the past but now that their company is changing I appear more valuable because I am a networker with a large network. I am happy to help. Will they?

I text with the President of a prominent local company while I am going for a run.  Presidents are optimistic enough to relax a bit these days.  But bit is a short word.

I meet with marketing people that are looking for their next gig.

I meet with people who are waiting for checks. Are your clients slower to pay?  I can relate to that being a solopreneur in the New Normal.  Balancing the regular pattern of bills versus the irregular flow of checks.

I hear from people who have been downsized seven times. They called themselves a survivor and I certainly do agree.  There are many worst alternatives.

I hear from people who tell me how tough things remain.

I hear from people who tell me how things are good.

2013 is the 5^th year of the New Normal.  This is the future and Leonard Cohen wrote a song about it in the Old Normal. The lyric said “I have seen the future and it is murder”.  But then again this is the New Normal after all.

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 a video by Hank on Don’t Let Your Business Cards Weaken Your Personal Brand.

You may also enjoy these articles:

Are You a Finder or a Grinder?

Why College Students Need to Get into Linkedin.

What Do Agency Review Consultants Do?

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?

Every Advertising Agency Deserves a Yearly Evaluation.

I have heard a lot of stories during my advertising career.  When I did a review for a client a few years ago I remember a client telling me about a meeting they had with their agency in New York before they announced that they were doing a review. They had scheduled a dinner meeting with their agency to tell them they weren’t happy with their service and read them the riot act.  The agency was expecting a total different outcome as they thought everything was tickety-boo.  Obviously the client and the agency weren’t aligned.  I don’t think anybody ordered desert that night.

I remember when I worked at agencies in the show where we regularly conducted yearly evaluations.  To be clear that didn’t mean that the account went up for review, it meant that our performance got evaluated.  I am not saying that it was my favorite thing to do but there were generally very good outcomes.  The process provided some focus for the coming months.  The most immediate outcome was some reinvigoration on both sides of the tale.  In the end no agency is perfect at everything.  No client is perfect at everything.  Every person that works as a client or at an agency likes to know where they stand. It’s human nature.

Also client agency relationships are changing.  Maybe there is not enough romance.  Maybe there is not enough training.  Many agency lament that relationships are moving from being partners to being seen as vendors.  Certainly the Great Recession didn’t help.  Relationships often followed budgets into hiatus.

It is pretty easy to find a template for an agency evaluation but the best reviews don’t come from a template in the New Normal.  It is best to foster a dialogue that gets down to the heart of the matter.  I can’t tell you how many clients I connect with who tell me they want to find a new job.  Today clients and agencies are united in that they both have tough jobs.  Having a clear understanding of the measure of mutual business and career success creates the best course of action.

An evaluation today should be collaborative for mutual success.

Here are some questions for agencies to ask.  What are your career goals within the company?  What politics are you facing?  Who are your friends and foes at your company?  Agencies should always also ask how can we help you more.  Can we pitch you some new ideas every quarter and can you invite other people who will be judging the effectiveness of our efforts to those presentations?

Clients should ask what was the best idea that you showed me that I turned down this year? Clients should ask how do I help you and how do I obstruct you?  Clients should be free to ask can I change some players on the business. Clients should also ask are you making enough money?

Then both parties should ask when are we going to do this again?

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?

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?

The Burden of Undifferentiated Advertising Agencies.

I have met with a many advertising agencies both as an agency search consultant and as a New Business Development person.  I have attended numerous conferences and have heard a variety of client and agency speakers all say the same thing.  Most advertising agencies are all alike.  Agencies listen and nod but nothing changes.  Agencies go back to their same Old Normal when the world is changing rapidly under their feet and the trap door is about to open.

I have sat in numerous meetings at agencies with client prospects or new clients.  Often the clients have parity products with no differentiating product benefits from their competition in a cluttered category where the consumer has plenty of choice. They don’t engineer anything of their own and have no proprietary advantages.  They say things like we are currently sold on price but want to take it another way.  There is nothing to take anywhere.  There is no point of difference. It’s a fruitless journey but if they have a budget the train will leave the agency station.  The Choo Choo of revenue.

The agencies all say the same thing.  We’d love to help you.  This could be an interesting opportunity or our agency thrives on challenges. Lots of smiles and bobbing heads on both side of the table.  That’s great the client says. The monkey dances for peanuts. It is the burden of an undifferentiated agency. The agency smiles and walks the client to the door.

When the client leaves the agency gathers around for the debrief. What are we going to do with this?  They’ve got no point of difference, they have nothing to sell. Let’s see what we come up with is the conclusion of delusion. The agency will go away and launch a campaign that has very limited chance of success.

Agencies attract those types of clients because they are those types of companies as well.  They do not have a unique positioning because they don’t spend time marketing themselves. They are the same commodity only in different categories. Since they have nothing unique to sell they often just differentiate on price.   They also drop their drawers often and give away their ideas for free because they have no choice.

They are on a path to extinction because this strategy isn’t sustainable in the New Normal.

I remember visiting an agency in Lincoln Nebraska when the world was melting in 2009.  I was speaking to the local AMA Chapter but stopped in for a visit.  I met one of the agency principals and I asked him how many people work here?  120 he said and we haven’t had to let another go. That was a great achievement in those days when almost 3 million people lost their jobs in 2008.

So what do you attribute your success I asked?  We have expertise in these four categories and that is all we chase.  I had read his Linkedin profile and pointed out that he had experience in the healthcare vertical I said.  Do you chase that?  No is what he said.  We focus on our differentiated four verticals of expertise.  Nothing else.

I didn’t think that focusing on vertical expertise was the top tier of uniqueness but it was enough to make them a success. Most agencies just focus on nothing and just let things ride.  It is going to be a short journey.

The Most Powerful Word in Agency New Business is NO.

The most game changing word in new business is one that advertising, digital and PR agencies rarely use. It is NO.

Yes. NO.  Agencies need to say NO more often in New Business.  I can’t do that you say.  I am a yes person.  It’s time to change.  The industry has changed.  Technology has changed.  Marketing has changed.  But many agencies haven’t changed.

I went to a very interesting New Business Conference recently sponsored by Think LA and Mirren.  I wrote about some observations in an article called To Grow Agencies Need to Focus on Things that Clients Can’t Do.

So here are suggested ways to respond to the New Business inquiries your agency may receive from companies, start ups, etc.

We are looking for an agency that can invest with us.

Say NO.

We would love to meet with you guys and get some new ideas.

Will you pay us for our time?  NO.

Then say NO.

Or you can also send them a ten page agreement with lots of legal terms saying a bunch of mumbo jumbo outlining you will own your creative and their children.  They will go away.  A proportion of clients save their careers by using agencies and have no idea how to conduct an agency search.

You may think that there is a ray of hope.  It is a mirage if people that don’t value your time, your work and your product.

Our budget is small but we are looking for a partner to help grow our business and then we will invest more.

Say NO.

When the calls come ask them if they are doing this review because it is mandated?  If they say YES. Then you say NO.

We are anxious to go to market.  Our timeline is aggressive and our budget is small but we are looking to grow.

Say NO.

All misguided New Business efforts aren’t just stimulated by untrained clients.  Most badly planned efforts at agencies start internally.

Here are some ways to respond to the internal amped up, often politically riddled New Business meetings you may have each Monday morning after the your status meeting.

This could lead to something.

Say NO. It will lead to nothing.  It is a low probability opportunity and New Business isn’t about playing the Quarter slots.

We should just give it a shot.

Say NO.  The person who said that had too many shots on the weekend.

Here are some things you can say YES to in New Business.

Say YES to growing your existing clients.  It is easier to grow your existing clients than winning New Business.

Say YES in taking the time and money that you would invest in fruitless searches and apply it to marketing your own agency.  The majority of you don’t do it very well.  I have seen it countless times as a search consultant and new business development person.

Say YES to NO.

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 Power of Networking.

You may also enjoy these articles.

When is it time to Fire Your Agency.

Peeling the Onion or New Business.

Winning New Business Is Easy.

Advertising Agencies Need to Focus on Things that Clients Can’t Do.

I went to a very interesting New Business Conference this week sponsored by Think LA and Mirren.

A number of speakers from different agencies focused on the common problems facing the industry.  The move to more project based assignments versus AOR relationships, declining revenues, the shift to clients having multiple agency relationships, etc, etc, etc.  It wasn’t pretty.  A sea of laments.

There was a very interesting presentation by Tim Williams from Ignition Consulting on New Emerging Business Models for Agencies.  He outlined the days when agencies did things that clients couldn’t do.  Setting type, preparing mechanicals, producing TV commercials. Yes agencies did things that seemed like magic potients for clients.  Elixirs of creativity. Then came the computer which changed the playing field.

Certainly agencies very quickly jumped on the benefits of technology and the new creative software that accompanied it.  But clients could also buy computers and do many of the same commodity things in house.  Maybe not originally with the same degree of creativity but how many clients really want creativity?  It is more a platitude than an attitude? Most companies aren’t Nike or Apple.

The next day I had an early morning coffee with the CMO of a pretty significant company in Orange County.  He had started his long and successful marketing career in the advertising industry.  He felt that he could do in house most of the things that agencies could do and do it better.  He could do social media, videos, produce ads, hire photographers for product shoots, and update his web site. The 22 year old AE wasn’t going to take him to the next Marketing Valhalla. He really didn’t need to pay an agency to resize ads. Then he said one thing that stopped me.

He said the one thing that had great value for him was ideas. That sounded good for agencies.  Then he said something else that wasn’t good.  He said that agencies gave their ideas away for free.  Now I don’t know what agencies he had talked to or what his agency experiences were but he was right that agencies often give things away for free.  I wrote about this recently in a blog called Why Agencies Need to Stop Giving it Away.  I have painfully learned in my business that giving away your knowledge for free is not a great way to pay the mortgage.

The conference and my breakfast left me with the conclusion that to grow agencies really need to focus their future services on the things that clients can’t do.  I think that menu may change based on the clients you encounter.  There is a good chance that what many clients can’t do is to live at the forefront of today’s dynamically changing technology.  Many clients don’t have centers of innovation for instance.  I certainly believe that agencies have the creative fire power to develop these services and productize them.  The scale of agency innovation surpasses most client organizations in my opinion.  I still hear plenty of client ahs when I do agency searches.

The problem is that many agencies have commoditized their offerings and can offer little more than their clients can do at less cost and probably with more insight. It’s time to stop billing for low hanging fruit and go to a higher level and get paid for it.

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 Networking Tips for Young People.

You may also enjoy these articles.

How Many Agencies Are Submitting.

Why Small and Smart is the New Agency Model.

How Agencies Can Get More New Business

Is Networking A First Thought or an Afterthought?

I had a light bulb moment one time.  The switch was turned on by a great guide that helps from time to time. Like all self employed people during the Great Recession I was chasing the Yankee Dollar.  I was going through the desert looking for the oasis of money.

My guide asked me how my personal marketing was going?  I basically said that I was too busy chasing money to market myself.  As the words came out of my mouth the light bulb came on and my brain said you are stupid pretty much at the same time as my friend did.

You see marketing yourself is a core element of your business success.  My number one marketing tactic has always been my networking.  No total strangers have come out of the blue and said I want to work with you. My network created my river of opportunities.

I often get emails from people saying things like please accept my apology for the delayed response in accepting your connection request.  I have been pretty busy lately and I am behind on my Linkedin requests.  Today I think you have to drive down both sides of the road to succeed.

Networking needs to be a parallel path to your work activities and should not only occur only after you have finished your busy work.

So what path is your networking on?  Is it a first thought or an afterthought?

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 How to Rise Above the Crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkO7efleWX4

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