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New Business Tools: The Definitive Guide NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 2 While social media is an extremely popular tool for agency new business (used by 87% of agencies), only 18% think it's effective. And can you guess what the most over-rated of all the social media tools used for new business is? If you guessed Facebook, you're correct. It's too personal and not useful for prospecting. Any guess on the most over-rated CRM? Agencies tell us it's Salesforce. They think it's too complex, too expensive, and not designed for the agency world. And the most over-rated presentation software? Prezi. Agencies complain of it crashing, it being too distracting, and too hard to edit. With so many new business tools popping up every day, how does one know what's best for their agency's new business needs? NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 3 BACKGROUND The 2013 Mirren-RSW/US Definitive Guide to New Business Tools is a must-read resource for any agency employee involved in Agency New Business. The Definitive Guide houses information gleaned from close to 300 agency executives about the effectiveness of different new business tools they use to support their business. The list is deep and it cuts across a variety of different categories, so grab a cup of coffee, or a stiff one and enjoy the ride! The survey used to collect the data in this guide was released to respondents in April 2013. Mirren Business Development's database and RSW/US' database of senior agency executives were used for this study. NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 4 About Mirren Mirren is exclusively focused on new business strategy for marketing services agencies across all disciplines. They work closely with agency principals and new business leaders who are fighting the battle every day at their agencies. Mirren offers three services: New Business Network & Resource Center, On-Site New Business Training, and the annual Mirren New Business Conference. More information about Mirren can be accessed at www.mirren.org or by contacting Brent Hodgins at [email protected]. About RSW/US RSW/US is a full service, outsourced agency lead generation and new business development firm that helps marketing service companies (exclusively) find and win new business. They help Agencies find qualified leads, set meetings, better position them in the market, and help move them closer to close. More information about RSW/US can be accessed at: www.rswus.com or by contacting Mark Sneider at [email protected]. NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 5 The size of the agency responding was fairly consistent with the distribution of agencies nationally. How many employees do you have in your agency? 0-25 7% 14% 26-50 43% 51-99 15% 100-150 21% 150+ The majority of the respondents to this survey were either the President/CEO/COO of the agency or the New Business Manager/Director/VP of the agency. Please select the title that most closely represents your role in the agency. President/CEO/COO 36% 49% Account Manager/Director/VP Creative Manager/Director/VP New Business Manager/Director/VP 11% 4% NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 6 If you would like to reproduce any of our findings in any format whatsoever, please either give Brent Hodgins a call at Mirren Business Development (212.388.9545) or email him at [email protected]. Or you can call Mark Sneider at RSW/US (513.559.3101) or email him at [email protected]. NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Usage of Agency New Business Tools 8 Frequency of Agency New Business Tools 10 Usage Social Media Platforms 12 CRM Software 18 Research Services 22 Presentation Software 26 Prospect Contact/List Building Services 30 SEO Tools 34 Email/Auto-Responder Services 37 Survey Software 41 Social Media Monitoring Tools 44 Inbound Marketing Platforms 48 Marketing/Webinar Platforms 51 Project Management/Collaboration Tools 54 Glossary 58 NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 8 USAGE OF AGENCY NEW BUSINESS TOOLS Usage of new business platforms varies greatly. Social media is by far the most widely used tool for new business development. Inbound Marketing is among the least used - which is not surprising given the relative newness of this vehicle/approach to new business. “Fewer than Interestingly, fewer than half of all agencies use a list half of all service or a CRM, suggesting agencies use that having an organized and a list service detailed program within an or a CRM” agency for new business development isn't necessarily universal. We suspect many agencies are either still living off the referral/networking lifeline or they are piecing together agency new business efforts on an ad hoc or on an "as time permits" basis. We will see additional evidence of this as we analyze the use of specific tools later in the report. NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 9 % of Agency Executives that Use the Following Agency New Business Tools Platform % of Agency Executives Using Social Media Platforms 87% SEO Tools 67% Meeting/Webinar Platforms 65% Presentation Software 64% Research Services 60% Project Management/ Collaboration Tools 59% Email/Auto-responder Services 55% Survey Software 54% Social Monitoring Tools 53% CRM Software 45% Prospect Contact/List Building Services 43% Inbound Marketing Platforms 22% NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 10 FREQUENCY OF AGENCY NEW BUSINESS TOOLS USAGE Not surprising, the use of different new business tools varies as well. We are surprised to not see more frequent use of things that can be vital to a successful new business development program, like CRM, Social Media, SEO, and List. If running a well-oiled new business program, CRM is managed daily, social media is worked at least a couple times a day, you're checking who's on your site with some regularity, and lists are worked on-going. Many agency principals tell us that too often they feel like the Cobbler, whose children have no shoes. While they are doing great things for their clients, it's often their own business that suffers and loses out (rightly) to good paying clients. If, as an agency principal (or New Business Director,) you're going to invest in these types of tools, for goodness sake use them! Or set yourself up so you have the right people in place to use them. Buying Salesforce or setting up a Twitter account (as examples) and not using them to their fullest certainly isn't a great use of your financial resources.
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