Having worked in several advertising agencies over the course of many years, I can attest to the fact that new business is both the lifeblood of an agency and its biggest nightmare. It’s very difficult for an agency to say no to new business. Why would they? New business means more revenue and more revenue means more success.
New business can breathe new life into an agency that, perhaps, has become stagnant with current clients. On the other hand, new business, poorly chosen, can wreak havoc on an agency’s inner workings, its culture and its people. We thought it might be interesting to ask a few agency executives how they approach new business and how they decide it might be best to just say no.
Crafting an article I wrote for Central Desktop, I spoke with several ad industry executives to get their take on how they view and approach new business, why they pitch, why they don’t and how a piece of new business can affect an agency both positively and negatively.
