Starting an agency-client relationship is vital; a good first impression sets the tone for everything you do together. There’s no single solution to getting this right, but a few small tweaks can add up to make a big difference to your pitches and your people.
In episode 11 of Word on the Street, Katie is joined by Head of New Business & Marketing at iCrossing UK, Martina Lacey, who shares some top tips for guiding your agency to success, as well as explaining iCrossing’s ‘One Marketing Team’ concept. They discuss the effectiveness of sharing the responsibility for attracting and pitching to potential clients and employing a mix of short and long term strategies to keep the work coming in.
They also discuss how to persuade new business to buy into the whole team, not just the person responsible for attracting them.
This episode covers
- Sharing the responsibility of attracting new business
- Maintaining a range of tasks to avoid burning out
- Practicing what you preach to clients
- iCrossing’s One Marketing Team system
- Maintaining inquiries through lockdown
- Balancing short and long term acquisition strategies
Word on the Street is sponsored by Just After Midnight, supporting your websites and applications 24/7. They provide managed cloud, 24hr monitoring and support and DevOps. Get a month free here: https://www.justaftermidnight247.com/street
Links & references (include in Blog Post)
Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/
Martina Lacey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martina-lacey-20968611/
Get in touch: [email protected]
Episode highlights
“I think there was a point where I said “No more COVID content”, but actually, when we looked at the COVID content, it was driving so much traffic to our website. So maybe people do still want it. I think you can get so stuck in your lane and sick of what you’re doing, but actually, people might be finding it quite useful. ” Martina Lacey – 9:34
“Now’s the time for us to look at our offering, how are we talking about ourselves? Are we talking about the right things? We’re also going through that same process as well, and trying to figure out why we do things.” Martina Lacey – 12:59
“I’ve always preferred the smaller sessions and been a fan of a breakfast or lunch briefing, I think it’s always quite nice. And I’ve always done them invitation only so I’m trying to make it a bit smaller and a bit more exclusive. ” Martina Lacey – 18:23
“Often when we have had an event and we’ve been talking about something that’s really helpful and we’ve really helped the audience, straight away we get opportunities, and we’ll have meetings booked in because they want to know how they can do that, because they need help. It’s not just a long term strategy, there are short term opportunities that will come to you if you’re talking about things that the market needs.” Katie Street – 21:31
“Agency life is so simple, you’re either really up or really down, and you seem to not remember when you’re in the middle. So when you’re going up high, you’re probably thinking ‘No, no, it’s fine, everything’s okay’. But you do need to still make sure you’re still talking to the market because when you’re down low again, you need to have something to be talking about, because it’s just the way it is.” Martina Lacey – 22:13
“I’ve worked at quite a few agencies. And it’s so interesting how agencies are usually pretty crappy at doing for themselves what they tell clients to do.” Martina Lacey – 23:47
“I often find that in smaller agencies, the team members – and I can say this about my team because we’re only six people – are so enthusiastic and so bloody helpful. Everyone will roll their sleeves up and help you generate content, own our social channels and want to be successful. New business has to be in your culture, a shared responsibility and something that everyone understands is a
shared responsibility.” Katie Street – 29:21
“When I’m having a preliminary chat with a client, I usually will do that meeting or call by myself. But if I know going in that there’s a specific area, then if I can bring a lead with me or can bring some from my team with me, I’ll bring them in from the very beginning. So it’s like ‘these are the people who are going to do the work for you’, but I’m the fun jazz hands that go alongside it.” Martina Lacey – 35:51
“Winning the pitch, or pitching your business – it’s only the beginning of the battle. Once you start transitioning, and if you’ve got some always-on stuff, that’s when it gets tricky.” Martina Lacey – 41:24