5 New Business Resolutions to Make (and keep!) in 2017

Matt Chollet,

EVP Agency Development

• Sales and Marketing Professional

• Business development process expert

• Entrepreneur

• Triathlon, Sailing, Mountain Climbing, and

outdoor enthusiast

mattc@catapultnewbusiness.com

@agencysquared

Today’s Agenda:

01 – Get the most out of our New Business Development time02 – Make a more compelling impression via email03 – Leave a voicemail someone might actually respond to04 – Get social referrals from prospects that you are actively prospecting05 – Write better content for our website

01

Get the most out of our New Business Development time

• Rather than setting aside time for “New Business”, we want to break down our time by individual activities involved with new business.

• Email

• Phone

• Social

• Create “non-negotiable” blocks of time for these activities.

Our time is everything

Emails

We want to break emails into two distinct camps, based off of timing:

• Content Emails

• Action Emails

Most likely to get an open/read between the hours of Noon to 4PM M-F

Content Emails

These emails are most likely to get a response

6:00 – 8:00 am or after 8:00 pm

Action Emails

Social Media

TwitterGreat for Lunchtime prospecting, most often used during down times like commutes and breaks

LinkedInUsed more during work hours, post at 10 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to maximize views, shares, and clicks.

Phone

• Avoid Lunchtime

• Morning is your sweet spot• DM’s are typically the first in the office in the AM, less

receptionists, which leads to a higher probability of direct contact.

• If they aren’t there, voicemails are checked when first arriving

• Afternoon• 4 – 6, todo lists are normally done for the day, tying up

loose ends and organizing for next day

ScheduleTime

8:00 Phone followup

Phone followup

Phone followup

Phone followup

Phone followup

9:00 Action Emails Action Emails

Action Emails

Action Emails

Action Emails

10:00 LinkedIn –Referrals

LinkedIn -Posts

LinkedIn -Posts

LinkedIn -Posts

LinkedIn –Referrals

11:00 Misc. Misc. Misc. Misc. Misc.

12:00 Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter

1:00 Content Emails Content Emails

Content Emails

Content Emails

Content Emails

2:00 Content Emails Content Emails

Content Emails

Content Emails

Content Emails

3:00 Misc. Misc. Misc. Misc. Misc.

4:00 Phone FU Phone FU Phone FU Phone FU Phone FU

5:00 Planning Planning Planning Planning Planning

Immediate Actions

1. Define all New Business Activities

2. Create half hour to 1 hour “non-negotiable” time blocks for each activity

3. Associate those time blocks with best times of contact based on activity

4. BEGIN.

02

Make a more compelling impression via email

Designate your email roles

• Content Person vs Action Person

• Should be different individuals at the agency

• Content role is delivering value via case studies, webinars, curated content, but NOT asking for a meeting

• Action role is actively looking to connect via networking opportunities, LinkedIn, and phone calls

Content Emails

• Quick Tips• Do NOT kill your email with creativity

• Deliver value not a mystery

• Embrace large lists of prospects, but make sure they are targeted

• Pay attention to active vs inactive readers – begin to segment your list this way in order to provide applicable info

Content Person

• This person will likely be:• Senior in your organization

• A content matter expert

• Able to provide valuable insight into the content being created or help create it themselves

Action Emails

• Quick Tips:• Too many Call To Actions are confusing – ask for a

meeting or a click, only one.

• Offer up a specific date or time to meet, not the old “do you have 10 minutes?”

• Get to the point – take your email and cut it in half. Now cut that in half.

Action Person

• This person will likely be:• Dedicated new business person

• Most active in prospecting efforts and initial meetings

• Active on social media – both in content and connections

• Unafraid to approach new and cold conversations

Other content webinars

Content That Actually Drives Agency Growth

How to Amplify Your New Business Strategy with Content Distribution

Immediate actions

1. Have quarterly Content Calendar set and open for all to view

2. Designate an Action Person for outgoing activity emailsa) Ensure that they are aware of schedule of any activity

emails and interesting pieces of content sent in order to do one to one follow up.

3. Designate a Content Person and loop into the larger proactive content calendar in order to ensure content being generated is on a realistic timeline with total teama) Sync their social media account schedules with larger

agency wide accounts in order to maximize amplification efforts.

03

Leave a voicemail someone might actually respond to

In the age of text messages andemails…

Voicemail brings a human touch to those endless marketing/sales emails someone receives.

The fact is, email is killing deals every single day.

Over dependence on email (especially bad email) is preventing new business directors from getting in the

door with prospects.

Be Prepared – This isn’t a time to tryout for your local improv group

Have cadences of VM designated and named so that you can track in your CRM which VM you are leaving

Timing – keep it to 20-30 seconds

No – you are not “just checking in”. You are calling for a REASON!

If you are just checking in, they are just checking out.

Empathy – talk about their problems, not your solution. This

should follow the structure of your emails.

Be yourself, personality is a good thing (most of the time!). Robotic

reading of a voicemail message is an immediate deletion.

Email 1

• Content intro to our agency site

Voicemail Intro

Email 2

• Content specific blog post

Voicemail Follow Up

Email 3

• Direct ask for specific meeting

Voicemail Meeting Request

Possible VM and Email flow

Email 1

• Content intro to our agency site

Email 2

• Content specific blog post

Typical VM and Email flow

Email 1

• Content intro to our agency site

Voicemail Intro

Email 2

• Content specific blog post

Voicemail Follow Up

Email 3

• Direct ask for specific meeting

Voicemail Meeting Request

No reply after these 6 touchpoints?

Immediate Action

1. Write a series of three short voicemails1. Intro

2. Content follow up

3. Meeting Request

2. Name each voicemail and have them easily identifiable in your CRM

3. Practice them in a recording and listen to yourself before you begin calling anyone

04

Get social referrals from prospects that you are actively prospecting

Referrals

• Close at highest rate

• Often don’t get a say in who that referral comes from

• Build a process to get referrals from the brands we are prospecting most

Steps to create a referral machine

Targeted Brands

• Find and list your brands that you are proactively targeting

Target Prospect

• Search the brand in LinkedIn, find the most applicable prospect target based on degree connection and position

Linked Contact?

• Who do we know that is our 2nd degree connection to this prospect?

Referral Message

• Custom message to Linked contact requesting them to forward a message on

Spreadsheet example

Target Brand

Coca Cola

Home Depot

Google

Apple

Spreadsheet example

Target Brand Target Prospect

Coca Cola John Smith

Home Depot Jane Doe

Google Steve Johnson

Apple Betty Bettison

Spreadsheet example

Target Brand Target Prospect Degree Connection

Coca Cola John Smith 2nd

Home Depot Jane Doe 2nd

Google Steve Johnson 2nd

Apple Betty Bettison 3rd

Spreadsheet example

Target Brand Target Prospect Degree Connection Linked Contact

Coca Cola John Smith 2nd Dan Mottern

Home Depot Jane Doe 2nd Marissa Martin

Google Steve Johnson 2nd Joe Jefferson

Apple Betty Bettison 3rd Stan Wilson

Target Brand Target Prospect Degree Connection Linked Contact Referral Message

Coca Cola John Smith 2nd Dan Mottern Sent

Home Depot Jane Doe 2nd Marissa Martin

Google Steve Johnson 2nd Joe Jefferson

Apple Betty Bettison 3rd Stan Wilson

Messaging for Referral

• May be to someone you rarely speak with or is a stretch contact via LinkedIn – don’t worry about that. I’m an optimist and most people are looking to build good will.

• Be specific on our ask to the connected contact and clear on everything you would like from them.

• Create the message for the connected contact, so all they need to do is copy and paste.

• Have something timely/relevant that the prospect needs to see.

Sample referral message

Hi (First Name),

I was hoping you could help me.

You’re connected to (John Smith) of (Company) and I have some (Valuable Marketing Intelligence) that I’d like to put into their hands, and it’s a bit time sensitive.

Since you two are connected on LinkedIn, I hoped you’d be open to introducing me today with the message below? Feel free to edit as you desire:

(First Name),

It's been a while since we last connected – hope all is well! I thought you'd be interested in this introduction to Matt Chollet (cc'd) who has competitive market intelligence on (Company) that he wanted to ensure got into your hands today -it's time sensitive and may impact your competitive media investments in Q3.

I'll leave it with you both from here, hoping this is a valuable connection for you.

Best,Matt

Immediate Actions

1. Create your spreadsheet

2. Get a list of your top target companies (including your exec team’s top targets)

3. Begin your research on connected targets

4. Construct an outline for referral messaging that can be customized for each outreach

05

Write better content for our website

Content Tip #1

• Understand your audience• STOP WRITING FOR YOURSELF – your content is not for

your enjoyment, it is for your audience to learn and gain knowledge

Content Tip #2

• Create and write from your niche perspective• Define that perspective and then make sure all content

created comes from that viewpoint

Content Tip #3

• Utilize different voices from your team. • There are so many subject for all of our businesses that

it doesn’t make sense to only have one person’s voice represented.

Content Tip #4

• Be yourself in your writing. • People want to be spoken to (or written to) like a human

being, not a robot, so show some personality.

Content Tip #5

• No blog is better than an empty blog.

Content Tip #6

• Evergreening. • How easily can we take this piece of content and

repurpose on other channels?

Recap

1. Schedule and organize our time as “non-negotiable” time blocks that revolve around each activity’s ideal timing with our prospects.

2. Designate email roles that focus on the ideas of content vs action and utilize best practices for each of those types.

3. Leave a voicemail that is concise, strategic, compelling, and personal.

4. Aggressively create and manage a referral machine via our LinkedIn connections that we have made throughout the years.

5. Write content on our site that our audience can better identify with, by using our unique viewpoint and mixed voices from our teams.

February Webinar

Guest Speaker: Charles Fallon - SI Partners

Growth and Building Value

• What drives value?

• What attracts a premium?

• Finding a strategic growth partner

Questions??

Thanks for attending!

If you would like any further information, calculator, or just a chat, contact me at Mattc@catapultnewbusiness.com!