Blair Enns:
12 Revolutionary
Proclamations
for Ad Agency
New Business
Michael Gass
How to win new business without
pitching, reclaim control of client
engagements and stop giving away
your thinking for free.
My friend, John Sharpe, has spent nearly forty years in
the ad agency business and the last twenty in business
development exclusively. He is a personal friend and mentor
with an impressive resume. So when John tells me that he has
just read one of the most influential business development
books in his lifetime, he had my attention. The book John
recommended was, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto,
written by Blair Enns. I immediately ordered a copy.
We Will Be Selective: When given a choice to operate from
the position of power that comes with deep expertise or to
pursue work outside that area for clients who will not allow
him to lead, the expert will refuse.
We Will Build Expertise Rapidly: We will build a culture of
continuous learning by hiring for skill, by developing it
through training, by empowering our people to form their
own professional development plans that we will approve
and fund, by holding them accountable to these plans, and,
most importantly, by leading with our own example.
We Will Not Solve Problems Before We Are Paid: Our thinking
is our highest value product; we will not part with it without
appropriate compensation.
After finding the time to thoroughly digest its contents, I agree
with John, this is an excellent book. Business development is
the lifeblood of any advertising agency and this book should
be a “must read” for every person in your firm.
We Will Address Issues of Money Early: We will resist putting
ourselves in a position where we have overestimated in the
buying cycle only to find the client cannot afford to pay us
what we are worth.
Blair is calling on agencies to once again reclaim the high
ground in client relationships. He lays out a clear path on
how to do it through 12 proclamations of a win without
pitching firm. This is a guide that will transform your agency
and the way that you go about doing new business.
We Will Refuse to Work at a Loss: We will leave to our
competition those cl