Once a quarter we gather the brightest from agency new business teams for an evening of discussion, learning and development at our X-Series events. Agency business development is not a discipline spoilt for choice with formal training opportunities, yet these hard-working agency professionals are a critical component for a healthy and growing business. The X-Series is for them.
Our latest event featured a wide-ranging discussion with Oya Mustafa, Chief Growth Officer at Not Normal Group and Rich McHardy, co-Founder of the BD100, chaired by Oystercatchers’ MD Becky McKinlay. It was an honest and open look at the challenges and opportunities for business developers.
Here are some of the key highlights:
Characteristics of a Business Development Pro.
The discussion kicked off with a look at how Oya and Rich got into agency new business roles. Neither pursued this career path, which according to Rich is fairly common to many working in growth roles. This feels like an obvious miss, given the importance of growth for agencies -“shame it’s not a more dedicated career path.” Is there more agencies can do here?
Rich started out working on building sites, then got into conference sales and ultimately stumbled into business development for an experiential agency. Oya studied integrated marketing and communications before landing in media sales and then working for big holdco media agencies.
Both agreed the key characteristics of great agency sales professionals are the ability to build relationships and resilience – the ability to be happy to fail and bounce back from the inevitable rejection.
According to Rich, “it’s like sports people who always want to win but often don’t; agency growth professionals need to get used to losing. This will help them to handle defeat more easily and learn how to improve for the next pitch.”
Oya agreed with Rich on resilience and relationship building, emphasising that everyone at an agency is in sales, so just get your ego out of the way and get on with building relationships.
Toughest Parts of The Role.
The conversation moved onto the toughest parts of working in growth roles and the fact that “people don’t know what we do” seemed to be a common feeling in the room. “It’s a tough job and feeling lonely can be a tough part of the job”, according to Oya.
Rich talked about cold calling and his approach that with the right preparation, it means you’re actually ‘warm calling’: “you’ve got to believe the people you are talking to should hear you out, that way it’s not really a cold call”, citing work he secured from Puma during the London 2012 Olympics.
A key tip here was to catch your target the moment they walk of the stage after a speaking gig – “that’s when they’re often most receptive.”
While discussing the toughest parts of the job, a question from the audience centered on how to manage prospects overstepping the mark – particularly for females in business development. Setting clear boundaries from the outset is critical. As is ensuring when you’re qualifying leads into a pipeline, you use gut feel to aid in decision making. Is the prospect the right fit for you and your agency? If not, get them out.
Don’t waste time chasing opportunities that just don’t feel right.
Tackling Imposter Syndrome.
We then explored the topic of confidence and how it’s easy to feel like you’re in the wrong place, or not worthy of being in the room. This feeling is often commonly referred to as imposter syndrome and we all have it at one time or another.
But how do you manage it?
Oya’s advice: “play to your strengths and focus on doing what you enjoy” but importantly, “re-frame the language and get to know your weaknesses so you can always play to your strengths.”
Becky added that we should call imposter syndrome our inner coach – “it’s not about failing it’s about how do I do it better.”
We all make mistakes and sometimes that’s because we’re tired and burnt out. According to Oya – “it’s okay to be honest and say you’re not coping, and you need support. If you don’t then get support, you’re not in the right place.”
The Importance of Teamwork
We moved on to looking at what it takes to build a great team and the approach from Not Normal Group is “good people, great work, great culture” and how bringing these three together consistently enables them to align the agency with right fitting clients.
It is important for business development teams to push back against clients or projects that don’t feel right, and using gut feel, or intuition, can sometimes pay dividends. It helps to take the team with you in making these decisions. Ask how the client will fit with us as an agency”, said Rich, “it’s okay to use gut feel.”
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t space for a process or framework for qualifying leads too. This could be something simple, like assessing whether an opportunity works financially, or because it’s fulfilling or simply fun.
Business developers need to develop a culture of questioning and qualifying leads and being okay with pulling out where appropriate. We can’t and shouldn’t chase every opportunity that crosses our desk. We touched on the idea of a lead scorecard and how this is a useful mechanism for qualification.
When qualifying leads and deciding whether to pursue an opportunity, it’s critical the whole team buys in. It’s important that the whole agency team shows up like you’re going to win it. It’s a team game after all. This requires clarity on roles and responsibilities, who is doing what in the process and ensuring you hold everyone to account.
Once there is a qualified lead, you need to develop a strategy to win that engages every member of the team.
What would you do Differently?
Closing the session off, Becky posed the question as to what Rich and Oya would do differently. “Whatever you do, be yourself and back yourself” said Rich. Oya focused on the importance of being authentic and learning to get over seniority quickly – “we’re all just people after all”.
As always, our X-Series finished with some networking and an opportunity to share stories and experiences with other agency professionals. It’s always a real delight to spend time with the business development community and on behalf of the Oystercatchers Team, thank you for coming (and reading this far).
