Most agencies can’t wait to get into a pitch.
But how about avoiding the pitch altogether?
“When we developed Access Confidential, our mission was to give agencies a system that would allow them to avoid the pitch by prospecting more effectively,” Access Confidential partner Lisa Colantuono said. Access Confidential is an online service started in 2005 by industry-leading search consultant, AAR Partners, run by Colantuono and partner Leslie Winthrop. “We know what agencies go through every day and developed Access Confidential with that in mind,” Colantuono told us.
AC’s Colantuono: helping agencies avoid the pitch.
Access Confidential provides agencies with three types of critical new business information – comprehensive data, new business insights and a live service center.
AC Partner Winthrop: put AAR USA on the map.
In terms of comprehensive data, Access Confidential provides subscribers with a database of 25,000+ company profiles and 115,000+ contacts. “We like to say our service covers all three C’s of new business prospecting – Category, Consumer and Culture,” Colantuono said. “We provide information on the category, on what companies are looking for, the consumer, and our executive profiles give subscribers a very good picture of whom they’re talking to so agencies can build an effective relationship.” Access Confidential’s New Business Insights come as a result of years of partners Colantuono and Winthrop being in the trenches of agency new business pitches. “We know what it’s like to go through the new business process. We know what clients want and what agencies want.” As a result, Access Confidential includes nine reports that include information on current reviews, historical reviews and other key information. “Some would think that the current reviews report is ‘reactive’ information,” Colantuono said. “But it really isn’t. If a client is conducting a creative review, that means they soon may be conducting a media or digital review. It gives our agencies a chance to get a jump.”
Access Confidential offers agencies an abundance of new biz services.
The Live Service Center is a unique feature of Access Confidential. “Most agency’s new business people are stretched to the max. Our Live Service Center is essentially an extension of a subscriber’s new business team. They can contact us for anything and everything,” Colantuono mentioned. “For instance, if a subscriber has heard rumblings that XYZ Company is in review, we’ll get on the phone and get the facts. If there’s a search consultant involved, we’ll make every effort to get the information. We understand how critical it is to get the facts accurately and quickly.” Additionally, Access Confidential has some valuable “bells and whistles” as Colantuono calls them – including a creative vault, a knowledge center and an alliance with the Ratti Report. The acid test of any product or service is customer satisfaction and Access Confidential has scores of satisfied clients. Subscribers have said things such as “AC is incredibly intuitive, but even better, the service is extremely hands-on and responsive” and “Within 10 minutes of submitting a request today, I immediately had MORE than enough information to contact a major brand.” So it’s no surprise that Access Confidential was voted most effective new business tool by the RSW/Mirren 2013 New Business Tools Survey. To View Stories on Marcom Companies Featured in the Past, Visit Our Wall of Fame
