Questions can be the answer

Questions are key to any successful social interaction. They open up conversations and help to develop rapport. By asking more questions, you show interest and find out new things. Take dating, for example. No one wants to sit opposite their date and be talked at all night. You want your date to ask about you and the things you care about, as much as you want to hear about them. New business is really no different.

by The Hand 23rd March, 2021

The key to a good new business interaction is almost always about questions. If you don’t ask a potential new client the right questions, then you won’t be able to get to the bottom of what their needs are. You won’t understand what the problems are that you can help solve.

Too many people approach a new business interaction on ‘transmit’; ‘let me get everything I have to tell you about our agency off my chest and then we can get into the discussion bit’. But what that does is limit your options and opportunity. By questioning and listening, you will then be able to tailor your approach accordingly and offer a more personalised view of what your agency could do to help them specifically.

That said, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Asking the right questions (and having the confidence to do so) is a real skill. The Hand offer specialist training in this area, so if it’s something you’d like to understand more about, then do reach out to us at natasha@thehand.fandftesting.com

Other News

Body language matters. Reading and giving off the right signals in new business meetings

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by The Hand 19th July, 2023

When you’re pitching for new business it’s often too easy to put the entire focus on ‘what’ you say, rather than how you come across.

It’s really easy to forget that so much of all communication is non-verbal and that it’s the things that you don’t say that can often convey the most information. The way you present yourself in a new business meeting is so important and so it’s worth thinking about how body language can set the tone of both that meeting but also of a future relationship.

Planning to win more new business soon?

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by Natasha Ellard-Shoefield 20th May, 2018

Those agencies that get it right know that new business campaigns should not be short term, but need to be part of a planned, overarching strategy that is employed and measured consistently. They also know that the new business team shouldn’t be sat within a silo, it must be fully integrated in the business of an agency to achieve its goals. It is not necessarily complacency that agencies can suffer from when seeking new business, but not refining the approach.

Here at The Hand, we’ve written before about the culture within the agency environment and the need to embrace the sales process. But we haven’t yet shared the essential tools for getting it right once the culture is addressed.

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