• by Mark Nathanson , November 9, 2010

The new business climate for agencies is as fierce as ever. Agencies are competing for share of (sometimes shrinking) client budgets. Agencies are challenged to justify that their work drives measurable results, and further challenged to clearly communicate the value of ever more complex marketing and advertising programs.

So how do we ensure that our proposals will make the cut? The key is to diagnose before you prescribe. Understanding a client's objectives, metrics, and challenges before you start pitching ideas or presenting credentials forms the basis of what is commonly referred to as "Solution Selling." The obvious benefit of this approach is that your proposals will be rooted in an understanding of the client's business and will more clearly demonstrate how you will impact their business.

If you want to try the more consultative Solution Selling approach, here are some basic steps to help you get started:

• Prioritize objectives
  By framing a sales opportunity as if it were a process improvement initiative, we clearly define our key objectives in order of importance, along with an understanding of the metrics and KPIs that the client uses to measure each objective. It may also be helpful up front to understand the client's organizational structure and decision-making processes.

• Understanding challenges
  For each key objective, we want to identify performance gaps to be closed or levels of incremental impact to be made. We ideally want to gain enough of an understanding of the client's business (and the basic data points) to be able to show the quantifiable impact that our proposals will generate. Furthermore, identifying any marketplace or organizational challenges will help to make recommendations relevant and actionable.

• Crystalize insights
  The insights we garner about a client's business are the building blocks for innovation and competitive advantage. Whether through proprietary tools and methodologies or agency culture and approach, revealing opportunities to gain market/customer share or illuminating unmet needs within the category that may be exploited are the cornerstones to creating impactful proposals.

• Present strategies simply
  While volumes have been written about presentation techniques, the main point here is that we want to make it as easy as possible for clients to see the value that our proposals will bring them. The growing complexity of marketing technology and analytics has made it even more important to present proposals in clear, understandable language -- what it is, what it does, why it is of benefit, and how it will be measured. When you understand the client's business you can have a higher-level strategic discussion, while providing a sense of the impact, ROI or benefit your strategies will deliver.

While it's OK for your consultative approach to be skewed toward the services your agency offers, by staying true to the client's objectives, metrics and challenges, you'll always be talking about them and what you can do for their business. If you try Solution Selling, you'll hopefully find yourself having an easier time proving the value of your proposals and ultimately enjoying stronger client relationships.