Get an expert assessment of your agency's new business performance (and how to improve it) in two weeks or less.


​OBJECTIVE AND APPROACH.
Leverage a two-time advertising agency CEO’s successful, national-level business development experience to help small-to-mid-sized marketing communications agency owners quickly improve their new business outcomes.
 
The New Business BreakThrough: Evaluate selected components of your agency’s new business efforts within a tightly compressed time frame for an affordable, high-value fee.

SIX BENEFITS TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM.
  1. Grow agency revenue (and new business ROI).
  2. Take maximum advantage of what you know (which is unique to you, why you’ll get hired and much more important than what you do… which is generic).
  3. Significantly increase lead generation from larger and more desirable prospects.
  4. Also significantly increase win rate.
  5. Provide clear direction with a repeatable prospecting/pitch process to follow in the future.
  6. Make the agency more competitive (and valuable) long-term by attracting and retaining top talent due to your ongoing new business success.

​MANAGEMENT DISCUSSIONS/INFORMATION AND MATERIALS TO BE REVIEWED AND EVALUATED.
  • One 45-minute Zoom meeting with owner(s) to get your candid input on the agency’s new business performance including specific Q&A. Questions to be provided to you in advance.
  • 30-minute one-on-one Zoom meetings with two senior people to get their candid input including specific Q&A. Questions to be provided in advance. (Ideally includes creative director, head of account management and/or new business director if there is one).
  • Among other topics, discuss biggest barriers to growth and new business success.
  • Written summary of your significant new business opportunities in past two years. For each one: 1) Client’s name and location, 2) approximate date of first meaningful communication with that prospect, 3) known or estimated annual gross income at stake, 4) date of final presentation (or exit from the review process), 5) won or lost and 6) why won or lost (if known).
  • New business strategy and development plan (overall strategy, targets, rationale, efforts to reach them, agency resources applied, etc.) – Ideally, this is available in writing. If not, discuss during Zooms.
  • Agency’s positioning, rationale, areas of deepest knowledge, IP and competitive differentiation.
  • Website (which should be your most powerful branding tool and new business driver) and SEO.
  • Copies/leave-behinds from the two most recent new business presentations (to assess distinctiveness and impact of first 5-10 minutes, overall pace and flow, strategic thinking, fresh insights, any spec work presented and more).
  • The agendas for those presentations (as presented to the prospects).
  • Names, titles, years of experience and speaking roles for the agency team(s) at those presentations.
  • Research (whether proprietary or secondary) conducted for any pitch in past 1-2 years at any stage of the process (including methodology and findings).
  • Lists/databases and technology used for marketing outreach to prospects.
  • 3-4 examples of outbound messaging.
  • Calendars of outbound messaging for 1) past 12 months and 2) next 4-6 months.
  • Existing case studies used for business development purposes
 
Customization – If you have an issue/area you’d prefer to cover instead of something included above, let’s discuss it.
 
DELIVERABLES AND TIMING.
  • Within two weeks (or less) from your approval to proceed, 45-minute Zoom presentation of major findings (including biggest barriers to growth) and recommendations.
  • Within five days after Zoom presentation, I will e-mail a 2-4-page summary with the detailed findings.
  • Ninety days later, 30-minute Zoom review of progress and any remaining questions/issues.
 
This assumes 1) timely delivery to me by the agency of materials noted above for evaluation and 2) accessibility of owner(s)/key people for Zoom discussions.
 
PROJECT FEE: $2,750 (50% to be received upon approval to proceed and 50% within 10 calendar days after online presentation).

WHY ME?
My name is Mark Johnson. I’ve been President/CEO of two very different advertising agencies in Los Angeles (my own successful start-up co-owned with a partner) and Las Vegas (where I led a dramatic turnaround in just 18 months after years of decline).
 
I’ve led many different agency teams while personally contributing much of the thinking to winning almost $400,000,000 in incremental annual billings from blue-chip clients including Nestle USA, PETCO, Target Corp., MGM Resorts International, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Disney and more.
 
Every one of these wins was achieved in competition against much larger agencies (including many of the biggest in the United States).
 
Categories include consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, health and beauty, restaurants, retail, apparel, pet food and accessories, travel/tourism/resorts, casino gaming, healthcare/health and fitness, financial services and entertainment as well as B2B.