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An insider’s guide to small-business marketing.

At Door Number 3, we spend a lot of time and energy focused on growth. Our 15-person shop has a full-time person dedicated to bringing in new business, leading the response to requests for proposals, getting out there networking, building and working databases. But we don’t always give as much attention to the customers we already have. As 2011 rolls to an end, I am reminding myself that it’s time to set in motion something I began last year.

Late in 2010, I did an in-depth review of the agency’s new business activity with our team. At that time, our new business guy, Tim, had been in the job for 12 months or so and was bringing in some nice, smaller accounts when we realized that something wasn’t quite right. While Tim is the point person for new business, it becomes a team effort once we start talking with a potential client. We were winning some, and we were losing some. Interestingly, a few staffers concentrated more on the losses than the wins, and those outside of the management team were concerned that we weren’t doing enough to bring in new business.

Given the recession and the fact that many businesses had slashed their advertising budgets, we decided to conduct an analysis and shared it with the team. It showed that our new business wins for the previous 12-month period were down from the previous two years, but respectable. It also showed that most of our longer-term clients were cutting back on what they had been spending with us.

As a result, our total sales — and our morale — were flat. In an agency, new business is not only embraced for the financial health it brings but also for the emotional lift. Creative and media-buying groups salivate over new challenges and use them as currency when talking to colleagues at other agencies.

Reviewing the analysis, I was reminded of our very first client 17 years ago, Kendle International, a contract research organization. I recalled that Candace Kendle, the company founder, made it part of her job to get on a plane and visit with every one of her pharmaceutical clients at least once a year, to get a pulse on how her company was performing. Inspired by that example, I decided to schedule a first-of-the-year check-in with each of our clients. Some of them I knew well, while I had had only occasional contact with others. Some were a little puzzled about the call — aren’t we current on our invoices? — but they all made time.

Setting up the meetings also caused some nervousness among our staffers. They are experienced, passionate and dedicated, and they sort of understood what I was doing but they found it unsettling. I reassured them that this wasn’t about a lack of confidence in them; it was, instead, an opportunity to listen to clients and figure out if there was anything we were missing.

Some of the visits were short and sweet. Others lasted much longer than I would have thought a client would have time for.

One began the meeting by saying this: “I appreciate your being here. And, if I was in your shoes, I would want my client to be perfectly candid with me, so I’m going to do that with you.” At that point, I readied myself to take the criticism and to dive into client-salvage mode — but what came next was a tribute to our account team.

Another client talked about how the politics within his organization had made it tough for him to manage his advertising program. The head of a tourism destination talked about how she had gotten so much response to an ad campaign that her biggest headache was dealing with the increased workload.

All in all, I did what every small-business owner should do when interacting with clients — I listened and took notes, which I later shared with our team. I uncovered a few areas that needed improvement, but, moreover, came away with a sense that we were making clients happy. Asking for feedback, being fully present, and listening makes people feel valued. This is nothing new, but it can get overlooked.

Around the time I was writing this post, I got a call from a fast-growing bank that was looking for a new agency. The bank had been referred to us by another client, who we were told “was singing our praises.” Which was interesting because I distinctly remember a very rough lunch I had had with that client a few years ago.

He had called me one day to say, “We need to talk.” From the tone of his voice, I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. We met for lunch, and I said, “Lay it on me.” And he did. I listened, took notes, and promised him a response that day. He and I soon discovered that his marketing person had been throwing Door Number 3 under the bus for things she had failed to do.

But listening, acknowledging, giving him a response with solutions and not pointing fingers made a difference. He and I now go to lunch twice a year or so — an unexpected, but sweet, bonus of working on those existing relationships. Sometimes, they lead to new ones, too.

MP Mueller is the founder of Door Number 3, a boutique advertising agency in Austin, Tex. Follow Door Number 3 on Facebook.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=8ca1bd051ef45d9f8ca22b0d17e3b085