Business development tip: Walk the corridors

The period I’m referring to is the mid 1980s – you know the era of AC/DC, Cold Chisel, David Bowie, big hair and padded shoulders. Anyway, enough about me.

The thing is, I was responsible for keeping our studio busy and that involved serious client schmoozing and relationship building.

We had a great portfolio of blue chip clients and a stack of wannabe agencies nipping at our heels. Competition was fierce and hair gel expensive.

I realised early on that a key part of my success came from being seen. When we were busy I was always toing and froing, walking the corridors with an art-bag full of layouts and artwork. Corridors populated by a number of decision-making product managers.

I seriously cannot recall a time visiting a key client that I didn’t return with even more work, or at least the hint of something in the pipeline.

I cottoned on and started visiting even when I had nothing to pick up or deliver. I’d pop my head in, wave to people in meetings, treat a few admin types to coffee and donuts. Oh, yes I schmoozed alright.

And it worked. Each person would assume I was dealing with a colleague and if you understand the power of ‘social proof’ you’ll get why this was so damn cool. There’s a section in this article that explains the concept further.

So 30 years on and not working with an agency, how do I use what I learned? Well in a couple of very clear ways as it happens:

1. I’ll often make seemingly absurd offers

Recently I presented a talk at a creative industries conference and I know a couple of key things about creative people:

• They are generous with their acknowledgement
• They tend to write with consideration and warmth

At the close of my talk I offered a free consultation to anyone who had business challenges. I was swamped. As each session began, I made it clear that if my work was deemed to be of value, I’d really appreciate a recommendation on LinkedIn.

Within a month I’d received 16 recommendations and each was superb. Social proof: my work, works.

2. I stay relevant and share my opinions

While I’m certainly not a full-on networker and barely participate on social media, I try to do enough to stay in the mind of those that matter.

Each morning I take a look at what’s popped up on SourceBottle’s twitter feed and if I have an opinion on the topic, and the source looks genuine, I’ll whizz off a quick response.

One such response was in Jetstar’s August InFlight Magazine. And they’ve a lot of aluminium corridors I’ve noticed!

Is there a client you should pay a visit or a call?