1. New Business is about winning new clients. It has nothing to do with advertising.
2. PowerPoint presentations neuter you.
3. Leave the agency posse at home. Fewer is formidable.
4. Blow up your new business template. Solutions aren’t cookie cutter.
5. New business presentations are not meetings. They are performances.
6. Wear a new outfit for each New Business presentation and have somebody younger than you pick it out and dress you.
7. Your agency process is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. They are all derivative. Keep it to one boring page.
8. In your rehearsals make the creative director your prospect. If they are bored your potential new client will be bored.
9. Give your prospects hope for success with solutions.
10. Leave agency politics behind.
11. Shred your leave behinds.
12. Pitch your current clients once a year.
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Hello Hank: Guess I get a rebate because there are 12 great pieces of advice here. Let me add one more: Ask for the business!
Lucky extras. Thanks for this. Take care, Hank
Great tips!
Hank if not PowerPoint then what?
Thanks Hank, I bet its no surprise these tips also provide a viable road map for professional services firms (or any client-driven group) seeking to influence and caputure new business.
I especially like the last one — your current clients are always your most important priority so you should pitch them on new ideas all the time!
#8 and #12 are sublime. At the current pace I’d suggest more frequently than once a year. You should be showing your value, insight and gratitude frequently. Knowing you’re perpetually “competing” for your clients bandwidth and respect should govern how often you get in front of them and prove your worth. Nice post mate.
We absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be exactly I’m looking for.
Does one offer guest writers to write content to suit your needs?
I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating on a number of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome website!