If I had a pound...

You can tell it’s January. BD people in creative agencies all across the country, full of energy from their New Year breaks, are hitting the phones, emails and Linked In hard as they work their way through their contact lists.

We all know from our personal lives that sinking feeling when you realise the person on the other end of the phone is trying to sell to you. For experienced communications professionals it’s no different.

“Hi, can we meet up to explore how we might help you with your communications challenges for 2015?” or words to that effect.

Having been in this business a while (and worked agency side as well) I understand the importance of getting ‘the meeting’ but I also strongly believe in good long term relationships. I don’t tend to chop and change suppliers that often if I don’t have to. My best work, work I’m insanely proud of, has always come as a result of working with people who know me, and my company really well. So why would anyone think I might just drop existing relationships to work with someone new? And what are the odds that you happen to call at that very rare moment, truly once in a blue moon, when I might just be thinking about bringing considering someone new?

Come on agencies you can do better - and if you can’t then I‘m just not interested.

The chances are that any senior in house communicator will be juggling hundreds of balls at any one time. Meeting new agencies is unlikely to be one of them.

And then, even if you get my attention what are you actually offering me? Do you know what I’m working on? Or the real challenges my company is facing? Have you researched to see who in your company might know me – or one of my colleagues – and what can they tell you to make me interested?

Great that you’ve done some work for one of my competitors once upon a time but is it relevant to me? Remember simply getting the ok to send me your credentials doesn’t mean I’ll remember you the next day let alone when I actually have some work I need help with.

Do your research. Have something that will make me take an interest. Tell me about a relevant survey you’ve recently completed, or an event you’d like to invite me to.

Oh and if I’ve worked with your agency before (even if it was several years ago) then trying to introduce yourselves to me as another new ‘hot’ company isn’t going to be a long conversation. And please don’t send me a Linked In connection request if we’ve never met.

I recognise that taking sales calls or emails are a necessary part of the job. I also understand that having started a new job relatively recently means I’m probably getting even more calls than normal but unless you have something really compelling (and none have recently) then it is highly unlikely you are going to get a meeting let alone some work. And that means you are wasting your time as well as mine.

If I had a pound for every agency sales call I receive…