Good job. You’ve won a key new piece of business. You have worked hard to achieve it. Now what? It’s a fair question and one that many agency people get wrong. They are generally so euphoric after the win, they forget to cement the deal. Following is a partial list of things you need to consider to onboard a new account once they’ve said yes.
New Business Out, Service Team In
Get the new business developer out of the client relationship as soon as possible. Move in the daily account service team immediately. You may have already done this during the pitch period; but if you haven’t, or if you’ve left your top people in too long, you must act quickly. The new business developer should be moving on down the road to hunt for more new business. The agency principal should not act as a daily service person, so at some point, you must introduce the client to their daily service team—the account executive, creative director, production manager, etc. I know in many smaller agencies you only have one team, but to the extent that you can, you need to start strong with a new client by letting them know who will service them each and every day.
Here’s How to Work with Our Agency
One of the smartest things we ever saw an agency create was a booklet titled Here’s How to Work with Our Agency. They used this booklet during their initial “get started” meeting with every new client. The booklet contained samples of creative briefs, workflow schedules, client contact reports, invoices, estimates, payment terms, ownership language, etc.… everything needed to begin the relationship in a very professional way. The meeting and the booklet helps to get the relationship started, and may extend the agency-client honeymoon period.
The Download Meeting
The new business pitch process is filled with hyperbole. This is what it takes to win an account. But if the truth be told, very seldom does your spec’ work cut it as the real work clients need to succeed. Enter the critically important “download meeting.” This meeting covers target audiences, competition, industry issues like innovation and regulation—anything that helps the agency work more professionally and effectively. In essence, the client “downloads” all of their knowledge to the agency so the agency can quickly get up to speed.
Executive Attention Right From the Beginning
We have written that agencies need to make sure clients are not only covered by proper account service, but that agency key executives pay personal attention to each and every client. It is this combination of daily service and high-level contact that retains business. This starts right from the beginning, so make sure agency principals and other top management people cultivate relationships with any new client.
It’s tough to win. Make sure you learn how to retain all the new business you win. Don’t let it begin to slip away during the first few weeks of the relationship. Honeymoons are awfully short these days.
