Reading John McTigue’s lovely rant about How to shop for inbound marketing services made us smile.  He is a client side marketer.  He says all the catch phrases we spout “partnership” and “lasting relationship”.  But read carefully and agencies cna learn how best to present themselves to a new client.
He writes

The companies and people who seek our services are woefully unprepared for the relationship building, which starts at the first conversation.

Think back to your most recent meeting with a new prospect.  What do you ‘normally’ do at that event to start building a relationship?

John’s advice is “Listen to your partner.”

Back in the day, every marketing manager loved using an RFP or a competitive pitch as a way of gathering free ideas that they could implement themselves – sometimes without hiring the agency.  But it’s different now.
If you’re serious about winning new business through RFPs you, as the agency, must also learn to listen for the real briefing.

Hearing what the client is saying

John continues in the blog, writing

“They should be telling you roughly what it will take in manpower, time and resources to achieve your objective. They should be able to tell you a range of monthly expenses you will need to get there and what the process will look like”

What this means is you, the agency, knowing exactly what it will take to get the client to the marketing successes he craves – be honest.  Tell them the real cost – and do it before you ask about budgets.

Do you?

My check list for first meetings

1. I need to know how experienced a buyer the new prospect is – I want to know whether s/he really knows what marketing communications can do and can deliver or if it’s just a ‘catch-phrase’ with little real understanding behind.
2. How well does the client know what s’/he wants?  Can they articulate real business goals and what do they know about the different inbound marketing techniques that will achieve the goals?
3. Do they have a realistic idea about the time, effort and costs it will take to achieve those goals?

So, next time you go off for a first meeting – take a little check-list with you and evaluate your own performance!

Good luck

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