Why every ad agency needs a new business director

The IAS is launching its "Winning new business" course for agencies in the next month and this has come about as a result of it becoming more and more obvious to us that there is a need for dedicated senior people to play this role in the agency environment.

A phenomenon of the 80's and 90's, new business directors were tough, senior, often female executives, whose role it was to market the agency to prospective clients, lead and motivate the pitch team, manage the process.  I wonder what happened to those individuals - there seem to be less and less of them now - and hardly any here in South Africa.  I can think only of one individual - who happens to be female and senior - who has this dedicated role.

It is impossible for the day to day teams in agencies to also think about new business and most CEO's have full diaries of agency management issues along with existing client meetings.  Sadly we see the new business role delegated to a level too low in agency management structures to be forceful.  A junior marketing or PR person cannot lead the new business charge. 

New business people are hunters of note - their key characteristics being:

* understanding that the odds of winning are stacked against them but see these odds as a challenge
* volunteering rather than waits to be drafted
* seeing the obstacles of prospecting as challenges around which to manoeuvre rather than as  justification to abandon the effort
* understanding when to hunt alone and when a team effort is required to achieve the goal
* exalting in victory and recovers quickly from defeat

These characteristics are typically found in senior ad agency people who are resilient and able to motivate the people around them.

I am noticing more and more agency recruitment ads looking for new business directors as agencies start to recognise the importance of the role and why this cannot be part of the role of an account director or business unit director. These "farmers" are far more inclined to look after and grow their portfolio of clients and will often see new business as a distraction to be avoided.

Winning agencies recognise that the funding of a new business director is essential for external marketing and new client growth. We applaud and encourage this move.