Business Development Archives - Creative Agency Secrets

Sales and marketing CRM alignment

4 February, 2020/0 Comments/in B2B, Data, Sales /by Rebecca Caroe

The old chestnut about “sales-ready leads” versus “marketing qualified leads” never ends – it just mutates like a virus.

I went to a presentation of a sales research project last week and their survey and report were interesting.

If you work in marketing or new business development and are starting to use ABM, take a read – the link is at the bottom.

Results of 2020 sales leader survey

Key 2020 Sales takeaways

Three quarters of survey respondents use a CRM
39% of sales teams are using a different CRM from the rest of the firm
35% monitor website engagement
One thing the sales team thinks they can do better – Business Development

My interpretation of this is:

Absolutely stunning. Why are firms not using a CRM? FFS it’s 2020 folks! Even small firms can afford one.
Why is a CRM not deployed? Are you expecting the sales team to initiate this tech project – because they won’t.
Using a different CRM from the rest of the firm is astonishing. Do the IT department not check why the firm and the sales team are using different software? Siloed data is a giant challenge and this creates and reinforces this problem.
Glad that a third of sales people realise customers go to websites FIRST before contacting sales.
The “wait and see” for disruptive technology reinforces my view of the static nature of sales compared to marketing.
Take the lead, marketing folks, and draw the sales function along with you for the ride to integrating your work.
Business development is the interface between sales and marketing. If this is ONE thing your firm can do better – marketers initiate the project. Sales are gagging for it.
CRM and website marketing are not “disruptive technologies” any more. They are BAU. Get used to it.

Here’s the report – it is on page 10.

Make your B2B proposal stand out

29 July, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B, Pitching, Sales /by Rebecca Caroe

One of the joys of being a freelance consultant is that sometimes I get to act on behalf of my client and hire specialists to work on their B2B marketing campaigns.

I recently advertised a job and was stunned by one of the proposal submissions. As a new business specialist I know how hard it is to make your proposal stand out from others. This one hit all the gold stars for me.

Integrate proposals and CRM

I was sent an unique URL to view the proposal. This makes everything trackable – it was on a sub-domain of the B2B marketing agency’s website and so I know they will be able to track:

How many times I opened it
Which sections I browsed (they are distinctly separate)
How long I spent reading each part
Which sections I expanded to read further

All in all it was a pleasure to read and to be “sold” to. I felt engaged in the process and I know my actions on that page enabled the agency to get better insight into me as a prospect.

Screenshots from the marketing proposal web page.

Welcome screen for proposal, personalised
Background about the company
Details of the work team – set expectations
Detail of project processes
Calendar embed to start the conversation
Reasons to work together
The small print

And a final note, there’s a Squarespace service Qwilr which offers this on a 14 day trial.

What’s the best entrepreneurship / business course?

25 August, 2016/0 Comments/in Strategy /by Rebecca Caroe

A question I answered in Quora forum: “What’s the best entrepreneurship or business course – it can be free or paid”.

The best course of action is to go apprentice yourself to an entrepreneur you respect and learn by working with/for them. I suggest doing this before or at the same time as starting your own business. Experience is worth a load more than book-learning from theoreticians.

I do not recommend paying $$$ for a university course UNLESS it is part time and closely aligned with working on a business you are currently running. Then you get to put into practice what you are being taught immediately.

I teach on a business course here in New Zealand called the Business Leadership Programme – by Love to Grow.

It takes 6 months and is 1 day per month with one-to-one coaching sessions in between formal classroom sessions. I recommend you ask them if you can join it virtually – the next course starts October 2016. It made a gigantic change to my business and taught me a lot about the parts of business entrepreneurship that I didn’t know (and the things I didn’t realise I needed to know!).

Shortcomings of book learning entrepreneurs

I find that any book, magazine or podcast that gives advice is helpful – but only up to a point. The authors never, NEVER talk in full detail about their mistakes, their mis-directions, bad decisions and failures. They may reference them, but you will not get the full picture.

The value is in experiencing these situations and learning from them.

If I were to tell you in public about experiences I’ve had like a bullying client, a supplier who stole from us, a bad person we hired etc you would begin to get more of an idea. But it would be unprofessional to write these things in public and I may get sued. But it is the EXPERIENCE of these situations that helps you to grow as a business person and entrepreneur.

My personal solutions to the need for experience and a fully rounded business education is on-the-job learning (reading / podcasts / business books / mentor advice) supplemented by:

Chief Financial Officer meeting monthly
The Business Leadership Programme educating and honing skills
Mastermind Group of business owners – we meet monthly face to face and share / seek advice in a trusted, confidential roundtable. [We have a vacancy for 2 people to join our Auckland group – please ask]

What is your advice on how to learn entrepreneurship?

Mystery, conspiracy or just plain busy?

20 July, 2016/1 Comment/in Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

I wrote the headline to a prospect who wasn’t returning my calls.

The goal was to provoke a response – I also left phone messages…several.

When you have new business pipeline deals to close, remember this one thing.

The client does not owe you the business but s/he does owe you an answer.

There are 3 possible answers – Yes, No and Maybe.

Go gettem!

Be ahead of new traffic for your business

6 April, 2016/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

There are millions of people around the globe who want what you have.

They just don’t know you exist yet.

We just need to stand in front of them. Because it’s not always easy for a guy in Timbuktu, Kalamazoo, Ahipara or Middlemarch to just stumble upon you. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t pursuing their dreams and goals without you.

They have gathered with others, in clusters around the internet.

That’s why Audience Industries created their Clusters Marketing Plan.

Have you strategised the year plan for your business? Your niche topics, your challenges, your product launches? Have you coordinated your social media marketing around these ideas?

But most importantly have you structured your marketing so you’re always standing in front of the people who don’t know you exist now?

Chances are: no. Because we all get caught up in the daily activities that run our business. It’s time to get organized! Where do you even begin?

Start Here –> Audience Industries: Clusters

You need to get your editorial, sales, and marketing calendar all sorted so you can get ahead of new traffic for your business. So gather up your ideas, grab a pencil and your calendar, because with the Clusters curriculum we’re going to look at your business, evaluate who your audience is, how to grow it, and plan your path to success.

For marketing specialists, in-house marketing managers and marketing directors, public relations agencies, digital marketing agencies, full service agencies alike, together let’s etch out your plan, analyse the steps and plot the route. It all starts with you and your business.

Down to the details!

Here’s what Audience Industries will cover in the Clusters curriculum:

Start: What is your audience learning? Who are they and what are they focused on? Let’s mine this info, find partners, and learn new ways to do things.
Module 1: Locate the places and audiences where your message is welcome and put them on your marketing calendar
Module 2: Put all your notes and ideas you’ve made over the years, do the keyword research and trend analysis, and build your launch around them!
Module 3: Plan joint ventures into your schedule for the friends in your business niche and get both your audiences to grow.
Module 4: Find out what your audiences needs and wants, build it and work strategically through your marketing and editorial calendar.
Module 5: Don’t get wrapped up in the wrong keyword research tool. Go after the keywords you can win.
Module 6: 80% of your revenue stems from 20% of your efforts: find out what that 20% is and do more of it to increase your revenue.
Module 7: Plot the offers you’re going to make throughout the year against the demand and be smart about it-put it in your calendar!
Module 8: Put everything together in one place. Make room for lead time, pre-sales, pre-launch, follow-up, upsells and coordinate with your content, keywords, audience, hashtags and offers.

By the time you have completed the Clusters curriculum, you’ll have your editorial, sales, and marketing calendar set up for the whole year! You’ll be ahead of the game, just watching your new traffic take the route you pre-planned for them. Amazing!

If you haven’t been following the Audience Industries digital trail…

THE Audience Industries is coming to New Zealand and we’ve been writing all about it. They’ll be trailblazing their way across the north and south islands, spreading knowledge about how to turn your online business into a revenue generating machine. Four curricula in all, four cities, and eight days to learn how to kick your business into gear online:

Sequoia – the place to begin your website marketing. Suitable for website administrators, marketing staff and newcomers to online and digital communications. [1 May Auckland, 3 May Dunedin, 5 May Wellington]
Circles – audience engagement is the only way to keep visitors coming back to your website. What to do, how to do it and when to do it. Suitable for marketing communication managers, public relations, agency marketers and anyone who has done the Sequoia curriculum. [4 May Dunedin, 6 May Wellington, 9 May Auckland]
Clusters – once you know the techniques from Sequoia and Circles, put it into practice in a strategic year plan. Suitable for marketing specialists, in-house marketing managers and marketing directors, public relations agencies, digital marketing agencies, full service agencies. [10 May Auckland]
Escape Velocity – designed for entrepreneurs and startups, this course pulls together everything you need to drive revenue for your business from online/offline integration. Suitable for both bootstrapping startups and established enterprise who have a goal to grow and then sell their business. [29 April Auckland]

With these curricula combined you can be the CEO of your website. Get your tickets booked now.

Is content syndication a good idea for articles?

14 March, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, Content Marketing, Marketing /by Emelie Tillack

Periodically I answer questions on www.Clarity.fm – a broking website for experts and entrepreneurs. This questioner is a startup and wants to know if having his blog articles syndicated will be helpful for his business. The answer applies to established businesses who write articles as well as startups.

The advantages of Content Syndication

I would say that it is 100% a good idea with a couple of caveats.

First, your syndication destination should already have an audience who aligns closely with your startup’s desire clients / customers.

Second, the syndicator must allow link-backs to your website.

So definitely go do it – if it builds audience with prospects and also if it can be made to drive traffic back to your website.

The key to appraising whether these things are appropriate, are all about building audience, testing the market and getting early adopters.

So consider your articles and whether a call-to-action can be added to the bottom of each one that drives the interested reader to your website. When they get there, can you capture their details by offering something to the reader?

Improving your local SEO is an important part of your business marketing. It’s all part of Getting your website working hard for your business [there’s a free ebook telling you how].

Read more blog posts about Profile Raising by clicking the icon below. It’s one of the steps in our 8 Step Methodology

Business not working effectively? Have you considered a business relaunch?

4 December, 2015/0 Comments/in B2B, Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

If your business isn’t working as effectively as it once was, a business relaunch might be for you. Relaunching a business is a proactive decision taken to ensure that your business stays relevant and engaging in this new fast-paced, dog eat dog world. If a business is relaunched successfully, it can shed its old, ineffective face – and usher in it’s new, more successful era. Here are our tips for business relaunch, to make sure you nail it.

Our Tips for a Successful Business Relaunch

Do Your Homework

The first step of any major change is to work out what isn’t working. Analyse your business, and work out what was effective, and what wasn’t. Recruit someone to give you a hand with this; preferably someone unbiased who won’t sugar coat the truth. From here, go deeper and work out why your business wasn’t working; have your customers changed? Has your market changed? Is your product still what it once was? This is the defining moment of a relaunch decision – carry it out accordingly! Having extensive knowledge of both your own business and the wider market is key to a successful relaunch.

Learn from your Mistakes

Now that you know what wasn’t working and why, it is time to make some changes. In front of you there are two ‘piles’: the good things and the bad. Keep the good things – be it your software, product, or even your business cards, and take the lessons from the bad things. These lessons are the most important part of a relaunch – learn from, and don’t forget them. Make positive decisions based on what you learned – this is where your business has its grand rebirth – it is a landmark moment. You have an effective business again – go you.

Spread the Good Word

Now you effectively have a new business – but no one knows about it. This is your time to share your business with the world (again). If you can signal the relaunch of your business with an event, and promote it in such way as to get people talking about it, you’ll put yourself in a strong position to start well. Your main aim here is not only to promote your business, but also to differentiate it and shed the image of the old one. If you can express the fact that your business is leaner, meaner, (maybe cleaner and greener), and here to stay – then you might be onto a winner.

Want to read more?

This article focuses on business relaunch options, and introduces the concept of pivoting your business
While slightly older, this article shares some fantastic war stories of businesses that have relaunched.
Look here for a quick relaunching guide from Marketing Donut.

Failure of the creative agency business model

20 August, 2013/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C /by Rebecca Caroe

Reading a great post about the lack of scalability in the creative agency business model is a great reinforcement for me and validation of the business that we run here at Creative Agency Secrets.

Years ago I realised three things

No agency staff are trained on how to do biz dev
A process must underpin successful, reliably consistent new business
Only by getting buy in from all the senior team can it work in the medium term

Our new business methodology underpins all our work and that’s why, like Blair, our recommendations from past clients fall into 2 camps. The politely nice and the ecstatic. For the latter, we succeed in embedding a process that has continued long after our consulting assignment ended. That is the difference the Creative Agency Secrets team makes in new business development.

Follow our 8 step New Business Methodology in the categories on the right side you’ll see articles listed on each step that can help your business embed, codify and practice new business development successfully.

Contact Forms: New business development copywriting

16 April, 2013/2 Comments/in Copywriting, Marketing ideas, Sales /by Rebecca Caroe

Encouaging prospects to reveal their interest in your business is one of the hardest-to-master techniques for online new business development copywriting. You know you have website visitors, the analytics show the passage of traffic but it’s all anonymous.

You need to get better at contact forms:

Here are the symptoms

lots of people visit your website (probably)
few get in touch to find out more
fewer move up the funnel towards purchase
pipeline does not get many new enquiries from the website

How to Copywrite contact forms

Be economic with words
Only ask for information you NEED
Seek originality in your wording

We found a great example from Markitors – they offer a neat free tips service. Using the one free tip offer encourages action by the reader and recruits an email address to an autoresponder series.

And take a read of our earlier article on Best Practice Email sign up Forms

One Free tip button encourages action

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