The Hand Talks

Having an action plan — you might call it a Roadmap, Critical Path, New Business Plan or Marketing Plan — in place for the months and potentially years ahead is crucial for your business’s success. But so too is having the flexibility and ability to change it, if and when necessary.

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.

Five things design clients REALLY want (but are probably too afraid to ask)

Keeping clients happy is vital to the success of any design agency. Their endorsement of your services and personal recommendation is the easier and quickest way to win more business. But how do you do it?

We recently asked our clients a question: How do you make your business stand out from the crowd so that people will choose your agency?

Here are the top ten responses that we thought we’d share with you.

It has long been accepted that creativity in business is a good thing. The idea is brought home to us every day: creativity will benefit our careers and personal goals. We all have to think outside that box. Those of us who are not ‘creative’ by trade, whether visually or in the written word, will all see and recognise this, wherever we personally think we may be on the ‘creative’ spectrum.

So, why is it that within the creative agency world, there is little similar reflection about deploying business techniques and processes?