Conversations on the art of creative entrepreneurship with David C. Baker and Blair Enns
The Conflicting Ethics of Selling and Negotiating
Blair identifies the differences between the ethics of selling expertise and the three schools of bargaining ethics, and what happens when we don’t adapt our bargaining approach to match our opponents in the game of negotiation. Links “The Conflicting Ethics of Selling & Negotiating” article by Blair Enns on WinWithoutPitching.com
Doing Employee Orientation Right
In an era of rapid turnover and remote working arrangements, developing a structured onboarding process for new staff is more important than ever. David has a checklist to help agencies get their new employees up to speed as quickly as possible.
The War on Payment Terms
Blair sees non-standard payment terms as a two-sided issue, where agencies should be creatively leveraging terms more to their own benefit as opposed to just defending themselves against procurement departments who impose onerous terms. LINKS "Payment Terms, On Your Terms"
What Your Team Wants From You
While analyzing data from his Total Business Reset surveys, David has noticed five significant trends which principals should be aware of to run their firms more effectively, as well as one thing your team wishes you’d stop doing.
How to Ask for Referrals
As a follow-up to the discussion in the previous episode, Blair has some criteria for firms that would beneift from prioritizing and codifying an effective referral strategy as a way to gain new business. LINKS “The Best Referral Machine I Have Ever Seen”
How to Make Referrals
In part one of a two-part discussion about developing a business referral strategy, Blair is surprised to hear that David wants to cover how and why we can get better at giving away business, before talking about how to get more referrals.
Do You Even Need New Business People?
Blair runs through one of his constraint driven exercises with David by having us imagine running our business with nobody dedicated to the various functions under the banner of new business.
Predictive Traits of Successful Owners
David has observed six common characteristics of agency principals that can affect whether or not their business succeeds.
Six Barriers to New Business Success
Even after understanding and trying to adopt the philosophies from Win Without Pitching, Blair sees many creative firms struggling to increase profit because of these six obstacles involving their people and processes. Links Mastering the Value Conversation The Complexities of Commission Culture Innoficiency in Your Agency The Enemy Within The Complex Battle for Margin Debriefing After a New Business Call Is Your Firm Addicted to New Business? Who’s Going to Own This?
Ten Questions I Want to Ask You
This is your intervention and David has some tough questions about the important decisions you should be making to manage and grow your creative firm. LINKS "The Four Types of Employees at Your Firm"
Qualities of the World’s Best Project Managers
David feels like project managers get a bad rap and has tried to raise their profile within creative firms. So he’s gathered a list of traits from the best project managers he’s met in the hundreds of agencies he’s worked with over the years. Links “Understanding Account People”
CRM and the Mistakes to Avoid
A lot has changed since Blair wrote his article about seven mistakes he sees creative firms make with CRM years ago, and David wants to know why Excel isn’t a good tool for managing sales leads.
Why We Suck at Negotiating
Blair has six challenges creative agencies face when it comes to being compensated for the actual value they generate for their clients.
Developing a Client Conflict Strategy
David addresses how vertically positioned agencies can manage a client roster containing multiple companies who are competitors with each other.
Inbound, Outbound, and In Between
Blair has been getting too much spam lately and sees an opportunity with warm leads that lies between inbound and outbound marketing which is not being mined well among the creative firms. Links “Inbound, Outbound & In Between” article on WinWithoutPitching.com