A View from the Window Seat

By Tom Garrity, Chairman of the PRSA Counselors Academy

The window seat is one of air travel’s great pleasures.  With the raising or lowering of the shade you are able to provide light for the cabin, get a visual weather report or just stare!  The latter is something I enjoy because the vastness provides a great backdrop to meditate, plan for the future while providing a unique perspective from 30,000 feet.

In the season of reflecting, when a lot of us are flying to visit loved ones my CAPRSA 30,000 foot view is the great work of your executive committee.  There are a number of great successes, highlighted with a successful Spring Conference in Seattle.

However, with permission of the board members who remain to serve Counselors Academy in 2018, I want to share some thoughts of the practitioners who will be rolling off of the board to spend more time building their practices, helping clients and contributing to their community:  Ann Barks, Lisa Gerber, Pam Golden and Martin Waxman.

If you don’t know Ann Barks, you are missing out.  She is a solid practitioner who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Her background as a military photographer provided the foundation for her public relations know how.  She served as my Ex-Officio on the board and did a great job with membership and making sure that everyone felt welcome at Counselors. By the way, need a reference on where to get good eats in NOLA?  Ask Ann!

Lisa Gerber is someone whom I had the honor of meeting at CAPRSA in Palm Springs.  She is a digital nomad who lives in Sandpoint, Idaho.  Skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer and making all of us outdoor maniacs jealous year round!  Lisa is the person who helped to bring the CAPRSA.com website and blog to life.  She led the content committee with great success.  Oh, and if you enjoy skiing in deep powder with a penchant for foreign travel, ask Lisa about Northern Japan.

Pam Golden is amazing! Her leadership of the programming committee resulted in our professional development on either side of the Spring Conference.  Quite frankly, it is a tall order!  She led her team to develop informative webinars.  She also did a great job setting up the recent CAPRSA event in Atlanta, which was a hit and helped to oversee coordination of a roundtable event in Chicago.  What impresses me about Pam is how well traveled she is.  Before a recent visit to Las Vegas, Pam shared with me her list of places to go and places to eat.  It wasn’t a google search kind of overview, She was like Wikipedia meets Trip Advisor!

And last, but definitely not least, is Martin Waxman. Conference Chair, Secretary/Treasurer, Chair-elect, Chair and past chair. Yup, he has done it all and throughout has managed to successfully run a public relations practice, participate in a successful industry podcast, host digital media classes through Lynda.com and pursue a masters degree at McMasters University #OverAchiever #unassuming .  To know Martin is to appreciate his dry humor and fantastic storytelling.  While we’ve had a chance to play the board game Sorry in Ashville and attend Jazz Fest in New Orleans Martin’s best attributes are his gift of hospitality and friendship (many times co-existing). Thank you.

From my view at 30,000 feet, Ann, Lisa, Pam and Martin have made a positive mark to move CAPRSA forward and the public relations industry is better as a result of their respective leadership.

Plan To Win More Business

By Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC

Winning new business is one of the most important things you must do for your agency, whether it’s medium sized, small, boutique, or it’s just you and a partner. (Even if that partner might just be a dog.)

And one of the most important things you can do to win that business is to have a written business development plan. (You heard me!) 

I’ve been sharing the “gospel” of the written plan with CAPRSA members for a number of years, via conversations, the Spring Conference Best Of Counselors Academy Pre-Con,  and most recently, a Counselors webinar called “How To Start Winning More New Business, Now!” 

During the webinar, a number of the attendees had wise answers when I asked “Why must you have a written business development plan?” Here’s a selection: 

• “To keep us accountable.” Dory Anderson, Lemke Anderson
• “If you don't know where you're going you can't possibly know when you get there.” Mary Deming Barber
• “To set future direction of the firm” Todd Barish, Indicate Media
• “To set our strategy and work toward goals.” Natalie Ghidotti, Ghidotti Communications
• “If it's not written down, it's not going to happen!” Chris Kuban, Chemistry Multimedia
• “To focus and drive efforts, ensure everyone is on the same page, and approaching the best targets for the business.” Bonnie Shaw, Clearpoint Agency

I agree wholeheartedly. And here’s a recap of nine of the 11 reasons I shared: 

1. It’s Not Really Optional, Is It?  As an agency owner, you’re not just in the business of PR, marketing communications, social PR, content, etc. You’re in the business of winning new business. The sages tell us if we fail to plan, we’re planning to fail. Doesn’t it make sense to have a (written) plan to succeed? 
2. Your Agency Will Be Fired, Due To No Fault Of Its Own. They want a bigger agency. A smaller agency. They’re hiring the agency run by their sister-in-law. It’s a fact of agency life that our firms will be fired. Now we’re starting, from what feels like scratch, to rebuild, to make our annual numbers…
3. Your Budget May Be Reduced, Due To No Fault Of Its Own. Those of us who experienced the “Great” Recession of 2008/9 know that no budget is sacrosanct, and unfortunately, PR/Communications is the first to go. A strategic, active, new business effort allows you to bounce back.
4. What Do Prospects Perceive About You? When you experience #s 2 or 3, we get out there, pitching every piece of business we can. What do prospects pick up about us? The smell of desperation! And if I may quote myself, “The smell of desperation does not new prospects attract!” At best, we sign on with clients who sense that desperate aroma, and haggle over prices, resulting in absurdly low profitability for us. Until they find a more desperate agency.
5. Someday You’ll Want to Fire A Client. The aforementioned price haggler. The one asks for explanation over and over and over. Who never presses the button. Who constantly asks for work beyond the agreed-upon scope or budget. OR worse, is abusive to your staff. They deserve to be fired, and life will improve when you do so. An active business development effort allows you to replace the billings you lose when you say “Buh-Bye,” and then some. 
6. Some Things Worth Having Take a Long Time To Build: If you’ve ever targeted, pursued, created a relationship with, been hired by, and gotten that first check from a dream client, I imagine you’ll acknowledge it took longer than you expected. The time to start this effort is yesterday!
7. Agencies Must Be Like Sharks: I’m not saying they must be predatory. But just as sharks must keep moving to live, agencies must grow to exist. Why? Are salaries and benefits going down? How about your rent, technology, or other capital investments? Plus, if you’re going to retain and attract talented and ambitious staff, you’ve got to grow the agency to accommodate their career paths. Your agency doesn’t have to be huge, but it does need to be bigger than it was last year.
8. The RFP Hamster Wheel Is An Exercise in Futility. I’m not talking about an RFP from a prospect with whom you’ve been building a relationship. I’m talking about the RFPs that go out to a large list of agencies, seemingly without reason.  They may be perfectly happy with their incumbent. Perhaps they just want new, free ideas. If you look at how many of these “open” RFPs you won last year, I imagine you’ll see a very low win rate. So why keep participating in them? Doesn’t it make sense to use methods where the odds are in your favor?
9. Writing It Down Makes It Happen. I’ll share three quotes that prove the point: “A goal without a plan is just a wish,” Antoine de Saint Exupéry; “Well begun is half done,” Aristotle; “It’s only a dream until you write it down, Then it becomes a goal,” Emmitt Smith. 

For the other reasons you must have a written business development plan, nine questions you must ask yourself to build the plan, three rules to follow, and the first six steps to do so, please reach out to me personally at ken@jacobscomm.com and I'll share the complete presentation. And if you aren't a member of Counselors, let's change that! Learn more here. 

Ken Jacobs, is the principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching, which does two things: 1) Helps communications agencies grow and manage business, improve client relationships, and enhance team performance, communications and leadership skills. It does so via training and consulting; and 2) Empowers corporate and agency PR, and corporate communications leaders and executives to breakthrough results by becoming more inspired and inspiring leaders. He is also a strategic advisor to the Prosper Group.  You can email him here.