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Rule #1: “There’s No Such Thing as a Bad New Business Meeting”
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When I was working in the New Biz group at Y&R, we had this slogan – “There’s no such thing as a bad new business meeting.” It sort of became a mantra among members of the team. Now what did we mean? Obviously, it was meant to be sarcastic. We were mind-boggled at how everyone in the room from the agency side would grasp onto every possible cue – no matter how miniscule – to read positive signs in the tea leaves. Did you see the way the CMO chuckled at our Creative Director’s joke? That’s serious bonding taking place there. How about the wink in the eye of the Marketing Manager when we presented that third case study? Didn’t the client Media Director absolutely ogle when we showed the chart with our CPMs? And this affliction – the ability to extract good vibrations from virtual sub-atomic quivers – cut across all disciplines, from media to creative to research to account management, and all levels — from the lowliest intern to the mightiest CEO. During the post-meeting euphemistic high – when we’d all compare our notes from the “killer” meeting – we tended to forget that the agency immediately preceeding us shared in this same euphemistic narcotic a few mere hours earlier and the agency next up at bat would undoubtedly fall victim to this same elixir. So my point is this: given this veil of self-satisfaction that overwhelms us immediately post-meeting, we should challenge our instincts and strain to uncover any negative cues. If you can find more than one, usually you won’t make it to the next round.
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