Time To Recommit

“Starting Over,” a popular movie from the 1970s starring Bert Reynolds and Candace Bergen, told the tale of a guy who is getting a divorce (not his choice) and how he has to start his life over. After a period of mourning, he finally gets his act together, finds an apartment and decorates it. After work, he comes home, changes into relaxing clothes, makes himself a drink and sits down in his new surroundings. He looks around and says, “*%$#$^*&,” then turns out the light and goes to bed. He is still unhappy and not in the place where he wants to be.

Too often this happens to producers. They were once successful producing new business, but currently are not. Maybe they became complacent with their books of business and the soft market has taken its toll. Now they feel a sense of urgency, but cannot seem to get started again. It could be a case where the producers had a successful year or two, rested on their laurels, and now cannot seem to gain the momentum they had. Sometimes it is a producer who feels burned out, decides it is his surroundings, changes agencies, and has the same problems getting reignited. Whatever the disease, a cure must be found.

One of the axioms of the advertising business is that you cannot afford a false start. If the advertising campaign is designed to produce a buzz and a surge of new business, the company must be ready to handle it. If it is not, then the marketplace is disappointed and goes away, and getting everyone enthused a second time is much harder than the first time. As a producer faced with one of the situations above, you cannot afford a false start. This time has to be the one that produces results.

So how do you start over? Here are some basic steps:

1. Remember what motivated you in the first place

It could have been one of several things:

Fire in the belly: You were excited about your job and its tasks.
Fear of failing: You did not want to let your family down.
Recognition: You wanted to be known as the best producer in the agency and unseat the incumbent top dog.
Money: There were things you wanted to secure (college education for your kids, new home, second home, new car, solid retirement future).

What will drive you to become the producer you need to be? You can wait around for management to try and motivate you, or you can find it within yourself. As we all know, “management motivation” seldom works, and when it does, it is only in the short term. For you to be successful as a producer once again, it is going to have to come from within you. A good way to accomplish this is to manage yourself as if you were your sales manager and your job depended on getting results out of you. If you were in that sales manager's shoes, what would you require of you: time accountability, sales reports, etc.? That is the place to start; don't wait for management to try and motivate you.

2. Get out of a service rationalization mindset

“I have so many clients that just taking care of them is a full-time job; I don't have time to go find new clients.” That's okay if you're an account executive, not a producer. If servicing clients is what you enjoy, accept this and request that you be removed as a producer and be reassigned to a book of business as an account executive. If you truly want to be a producer, learn how to hand off the servicing of clients to an account manager or account executive.

“But they do not know how to do the job that my clients need done!” Granted, the producer may bring to the table things what others cannot. However, identify what others can do and then train them.
“But my clients are used to me.” If so, help your clients get to know the rest of their team in your agency. Your client probably has other people on their team. Make sure their team knows your team and uses them.
“But the account managers and account executives don't do things the way that I do them.” That's okay. You do not know the only way to accomplish tasks. You may find they do some things better than you do.
“But my client likes the way I do things.” Then train your team correctly to the way the client likes.

If you truly want to be a producer, you will soon run out of excuses that keep you from producing. That is because those excuses are keeping you from doing what you want to do. Either you will have to come up with a way to get out of service rationalization or realize you do not really want to be a producer any longer. Remember, if you have to rationalize something, then you are getting ready to do the wrong thing. The right thing never requires rationalization.

3. Remember what you did to be successful

Work ethic: What hours did you work during the week? Did you come in on weekends? How does your work ethic today compare to when you were a successful producer?
Prospecting: Did you cold call? What new business appointment goals did you set? Where did you network? What centers of influence did you reach out to? How much time did you spend out of the office in front of prospects? How many new business appointments did you set per week?
Did you make joint sales calls so someone could watch you in action and offer help and coaching? The world's best athletes travel with their coaches. At his peak, Tiger Woods traveled with a coach, someone who knew his swing and could offer him guidance when things needed correcting. What is it about producers that makes us think that after we reach a certain level of success or tenure, we know it all and cannot improve? When was the last time you asked someone to observe you on a sales call? When was the last time you went to sales training? When was the last time you read a book on sales? How stale is your game?

4. Recommit

Maybe you had a false start. Maybe this time it is going to be harder. But if you truly want to be a successful producer for your entire career, then it is time to make a change. It will be worth the effort.

Remember, a producer is not identified by the size of his or her book of business; that is an account executive. A producer is identified by how much new business he or she generates for the agency.

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