Study: most internal agency business development efforts fail

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According to the 2007 Agency New Business Development Manager Report released by agency lead generation firm Reardon Smith Whittaker (RSW), nearly 85% of agencies continue to hire new business development personnel internally hoping that "this hire will be the right hire," – yet the vast majority in that position are gone within 18 months.


According to findings, most agency principals say that garnering new business is a more difficult than it was three years ago, with nearly 40% stating it is "harder" or "a lot harder" to generate new business for their firm.

Says RSW US managing director Mark Sneider: "The belief that bringing a new business manager in-house is the only way to effectively get the job of prospecting done is a fallacy. The fact is, nearly two thirds of the agencies surveyed that have hired a new business manager internally over the past three years have replaced that person at least once, and a staggering one third have replaced them two or more times. It's not the person, it's the position. The survey clearly shows that it's time for agency leaders to try something different."

Nearly half say the last person hired for the new business manager position is no longer with the agency.