Many agencies believe that the role of outbound lead generation should be undertaken in-house by a dedicated resource. That resource will probably have a job title made up of a combination of some (or even all!) of these words – new, business, account, sales, manager, development, client, lead – but let’s call them a “new business manager” to make life a little easier.
Based on our experience in working in the marketing agency new business sector for many years, we’ve seen a particular pattern within agencies that use an internal resource to generate new business. You may even be familiar with it yourself. The first few months are great – they arrive with all the enthusiasm that a new opportunity brings, they learn the ropes, get to grip with the agency’s processes and systems, and they’re building a great pipeline of leads and prospects.
After a while, you start to see their potential and desire for development, so you take them on new client meetings. You begin to relinquish that role to them more, and they start visiting prospective clients on their own. The downside is, of course, that while they’re living it up and loving the excitement of prospect visits, they’re not on the phone or sending emails, so they’re not delivering leads you need to keep that momentum going.
You fix that – you go back to attending meetings and your new business manager goes back to generating leads (the role they were originally hired for). Inevitably their motivation drops and their performance starts to slip.
It’s at this point they start looking for another job.
Towards the end of the cycle, you realise it’s not working out as well as you’d hoped. Your new business manager is now back on the phones calling prospects, but their motivation is at an all time low. You both decide it’s time to part company.
You start the cycle all over again.
