The Wrong Hire

Worked with an agency a couple of years ago that had just let their head of new business go. Six months in, barely any new revenue. The founder was frustrated. She'd hired someone good, paid well, given them clear targets.

I asked to see the proposition. She sent me two pages that could have described any mid-size digital agency in the country. Full service. Integrated. Strategic. Client-focused.

The problem wasn't the hire. It was that there was nothing distinctive to sell. When your proposition amounts to "we're good at this and we care about our clients", every pitch turns into a features comparison. Three agencies in the room, all claiming roughly the same things, and it comes down to price or chemistry.

The salesperson had been spending most of his time responding to RFPs the agency had no particular reason to win. Hundreds of hours producing proposals for work that could have gone to anyone, and usually did.

They spent about six weeks rebuilding the proposition. Not around what the agency wanted to be known for, but around what they were genuinely better at than the alternatives. It turned out to be something fairly specific involving consumer brands and retail media, which they'd been doing quietly for years without ever leading with it.

The next person they brought in for business development closed two significant clients in the first quarter. Same role, same comp, same targets. The difference was that they had something worth saying when they picked up the phone.