Win Without Pitching®
Thinking
FEATURED ARTICLE BY BLAIR ENNS
I’ve become aware recently that when I’m speaking to creative and marketing firm owners or other advisors in this space, we can sound like we are describing two entirely different industries.
Can We Change the Way Clients Buy?
Win Without Pitching’s mission is to change the way creative services are bought and sold the world over. Our focus has been on the sell side of the equation, teaching creative firms how to get better at selling their expertise without giving it away for free in the process. Last year I started to think more about the other side of the equation: is it possible to change the way clients buy creative services?
Inbound, Outbound & In Between
Is there any way to do outbound lead generation without giving up the expert high ground, or does any solicitation taint you with the stench of a needy, powerless vendor?
Think Big. No, Bigger.
Let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s try on outrageous success by moving to the outer range of what you have already proven is possible for a firm like yours.
The Magic Email
I think together we can make a few million dollars this week, quickly, simply. Use this simple email template that you can use to raise deals from the dead.
Play the Game of Constraints
I’ve been using constraint-driven exercises for years to think creatively about my own business and to help our clients free themselves from the mental models in which many have become trapped. Try these six constraint-driven exercises.
Three Steps to Surviving and Thriving in a Crisis
I’ve lived through two previous recessions as an entrepreneur and what we are experiencing right now is not a recession — it is an economic crisis. The recession is what comes next after things stabilize.
Seven Positioning Mistakes to Avoid
Blair and David discuss the seven most common mistakes firms make when positioning themselves.
Navigating The Seven-Year Chokepoint
Business is a game with hidden levels. By succeeding at one level, you get invited to play the next. The common mistake is to bring those first-level tools to the next level. Not only do they not work here, but they also work against you. Many of the habits you learned you will now have to unlearn. Accepting this inevitable obsolescence of tools is the key to obtaining all the advanced levels of success.
Is The Design Firm an Endangered Species?
I imagined that there is a line among design-based businesses that separates those who see themselves as in the business of design from those who see design as just one of the tools they use, in the service of whatever business they are really in. I wondered if this line was moving, squeezing out the traditional design firm.
The Ultimate Test of Your Positioning
When we’re working with owners of independent creative firms on the positioning of their firms, we separate the exercise of choosing a focus, from the exercise of articulating a claim. The first is an act of sacrifice, which most people in the creative professions struggle with (even more so than the average business owner, I believe), and the second is an act of communication, something creative professionals revel and delight in.
Alternative Forms of Reassurance
Blair and David analyze and then look beyond the requests for reassurance potential clients make during the late stage of a sale to address their underlying motivations.
Seven Strategies to Grow Accounts
David disagrees with Blair’s model for growing existing accounts in the post-AOR era and then offers his list of 6 ideas on the topic.
The Seven Masteries of the Rainmaker
Blair offers seven mindsets that any seller of expertise needs to master so that they can behave like the expert in the sales cycle.
Four Segments of New Business
Blair and David come up with descriptive words that help clarify each of the four parts of what David calls the “pantheon” for new business: positioning, lead generation, sales, and pricing.
Beyond Good, Better, Best Pricing
I’ve written for years on the impact that three-option proposals can have on your closing ratio and your average selected price. Providing your clients with three or four different ways to engage you—at different price points—might be the simplest and fastest path to improving profit.
Should Your Firm Launch a Venture Fund?
If you have the appetite for it, consider investing in a venture unit where one success has the potential to generate the equivalent of years of profit.
The Five Levels of Pricing Success
In this post I lay out the five levels of pricing success and ask you to do an assessment of where you are now. Then I identify the best resources to help you move up from your current level.
The Enemy Within
In this 2Bobs podcast, Blair addresses the internal struggle for margin that happens in many firms between delivery teams and business development teams due to their lack of distinction between cost and price.
Is The Agency Model Suffocating Your Business?
I’ve become aware recently that when I’m speaking to creative and marketing firm owners or other advisors in this space, we can sound like we are describing two entirely different industries. The agency owner is biased in thinking that the industry is made up of firms like theirs, and advisors like me are influenced by the types of agencies that we’ve most recently worked with.
What’s In Your RAB Fund?
Everyone likes games. I have a fun one for you. There’s a simple financial metric that you might want to use throughout the year. Once you start measuring it, you will become addicted to improving it.
Is Your Firm Addicted to New Business?
Some firms are black holes where accounts go in and seemingly never come out. Other firms are new business development machines, consistently generating 40%-50% (sometimes more) of their revenue from new clients every year.
6 Barriers to New Business Success
Over 20 years, I’ve heard a lot of success stories from people who have implemented our advice. This post is for everyone else—those who haven’t been able to make Win Without Pitching work for them.
Inbound, Outbound & In Between
Is there any way to do outbound lead generation without giving up the expert high ground, or does any solicitation taint you with the stench of a needy, powerless vendor?
Seven Strategies to Grow Accounts
David disagrees with Blair’s model for growing existing accounts in the post-AOR era and then offers his list of 6 ideas on the topic.
Four Steps To Lead Generation Success
When I think of the firms that drive numerous inbound leads they all have one very clear thing they do. Their lead generation efforts are as focused as their positioning. They’ve resisted diluting their efforts across numerous channels, avoiding Warren Buffet’s admonishment that “Diversification is for people who don’t know what they are doing.”
Managing Bad Referrals From Good Clients
It takes a lot of work in fact to generate a steady stream of good referrals and it’s no surprise that very few firms ever get to this place where the business is sustained and growing entirely by doing great work for good clients and systematically asking for and following up on referrals. It is however the highest form of “marketing” that we should all aspire to.
Open Book Management
Blair gets David to admit that he was kind of wrong about open book management being just a fad when he originally wrote about it almost two decades ago, and David offers ways that it can actually improve relationships with both employees and clients when used appropriately.
Alternative Forms of Reassurance
Blair and David analyze and then look beyond the requests for reassurance potential clients make during the late stage of a sale to address their underlying motivations.
Seven Strategies to Grow Accounts
David disagrees with Blair’s model for growing existing accounts in the post-AOR era and then offers his list of 6 ideas on the topic.
The Best Ways to Disrespect Account People
Blair remembers what it was like when he was an account person himself, and David shares five ways firms can treat their account people better.
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