New Business has nothing to do with advertising.  New Business is about the chase.

New Business is like chasing a new romance and advertising is like being married.

New Business people love the pursuit.

The appeal of working on New Business is the stimulation it provides.  You are hunting.

This doesn’t appeal to all.  Some people are outside people and some people are inside people.

Some people are finders and some people are grinders.

Both are valuable to organizations but a New Business person is an outside person.  They are finders not grinders.

The buzz of working on New Business is that you are learning new things in new categories so you are constantly updating your knowledge base.  This provides more career satisfaction than what can be the day to day grind of agency work.

The accumulation of knowledge forms the fundamental basis of the sales process.  New Business is not about hype. It is fact based as you are trying to solve a client’s pain point and most marketing today is grounded in fact based decision making.

One of the key measure that wins New Business is sweat equity.  If a prospect walks into a room and sees the walls literally covered with category advertising, photos of store checks, prints outs of websites, newsletters or whatever it immediately communicates how much the agency wants the client without a word being said.

Every client that I have worked with loves to talk about their business.

To succeed in New Business you need to immerse yourself in the client’s business and walk in their shoes.  If they are retailers visit them and their competitors, if they are an automotive company test drive their products and competitors.  If they are a food brand eat their products.

I once conducted an agency search for a weight loss product.  The agency started their presentation by saying everyone in the room had gone on the prospect’s weigh loss program.  It stimulated an immediate dialogue and started to build chemistry.

The agencies that are best at New Business do not chase rejection and low probability opportunities because they are disciplined.

They have a list of criteria that they measure each prospect against.  If they are not a fit they don’t submit. Weak agencies play the quarter slots.

Successful New Business people are great at building and maintaining relationships.  They remember the little things. Often the personal things. They learn over time what is important to the client in their career and their lives.

New Business people are great networkers and networking comes easy to them. They know that networking leads to relationships and the majority of New Business comes through relationships.  The best New Business enjoy talking to people often strangers. Non New Business people often totally dislike networking.

New Business isn’t for everyone but a successful New Business loves the pursuit and the emotional benefits that it provides.

You can connect with Hank on LinkedIn:

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Watch his Videos on New Business at https://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

Consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion recently reported a boom in consumer lending, with the total amount of US consumer loans outstanding reaching a whopping $138bn, or 17% more than last year.

The UK is going through a similar growth phase and the proof of this is the proliferation of new B2B and consumer banking brands that now seem to challenge the status quo.

TransUnion says that one of the main drivers of this rapid growth is lending by upstart fintechs, which accounted for over a third (38%) of all personal loans issued, a huge leap from just five years ago when they accounted for 5%.

As The Advertist has reported frequently, this flourishing area of the financial sector also offers marketing opportunities, as more Unicorns are born here than anywhere else.

In 2007, the lending sector was turned on its head with many of the establishment that had previously catered to this demand, retrenching and clawing back their lending.

Nature, we know abhors a vacuum and the banking industry’s loss was the fintech industry’s gain and using a combination of technology, flexible underwriting models, user-friendly web and mobile-based customer experiences, and clever customer acquisition strategies, they began dividing and conquering the customer base with bespoke, vertical banking products that fit with the needs of specific business or consumer models.

With physical costs reduced to the base minimum, the fintech players are outmanoevering the big banks, who are now all playing a desperate game of ‘catch up or acquire’ or they risk losing their bread and butter business.

The biggest obstacle for fintech is the law. Fintechs find it harder to qualify to play at the same tables as the big banks.  The temptation to cater to a more reckless business model can cause problems, such as their potential exposure to risk if the economy takes a serious turn for the worse. Everything appears fine as long as the economy is booming, but can the new fintech players withstand a financial Tsunami?

What has become clear is that branding, customer experience and catchy marketing is just as important in the financial sector as it is anywhere else. The opportunities to productize finance into vertical offerings and to create solutions to meet specific demands is where the big banks can learn.

And whether that is through acquisition or evolution, only time will tell but if you are looking for opportunities to sell your agency’s solutions; be it PR, branding, digital, UX, creative or experiential, the financial sector is worth exploring right now.

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