It is important to keep a good blast of customers and clients. It is very an easy task to get complacent when you have enough clients - but if one of those clients disappeared would your organization feel the effect? Or worse would it crumble?? Working with a New Business Agency can help you win clients and grow your business. There is no denying that home based business / lead generation can be time consuming, hard work and expensive but overall it could be worthwhile and cost effective.Many Creative and Marketing Agencies use New Business Agencies; it really is an effective way to get your work in front of companies you want to use. I wrote this article after to talking with the Directors of Creative Agencies along with other Business Development Managers. This article is for small Creative and Marketing Agencies not used to new business and looking to work with a New Business Agency for the very first time.I think it fair to say in the wonderful world of home based business you do get everything you pay for. You may get a telesales person to call a large number of companies and pay a minimal fee, or it is possible to choose an agency that approach new business intelligently. The second will be costly but is it possible to afford not to?HOME BASED BUSINESS Agencies specialise to find you clients so that you can grow your organization. Although agencies work in different ways, the long and lacking it is that, they'll phone companies in your stead with the view of establishing a meeting between you and the potential client. Sounds simple enough, but the home based business process is more than merely cold calling.Before you jump in at the deep end there are many factors to note when choosing a New Business Agency. All of them are different and can all have diverse ideas concerning the way new business ought to be conducted. Below are a few questions to ask your brand-new business agency before you work with them?Question 1 -Results or Numbers?If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Agency promises to focus on 500 companies a week and guarantees you five meetings, take note. This can be a potential time waster for a few agencies. If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager is pressured to truly get you before x quantity of clients, they will. Whether the meeting is worthwhile or not, is not their problem they just have to reach their targets.If the person handling your new business account is a really good sales rep with a difficult sales technique they might be able to force a potential client to have a meeting with you if they have work, or you are suitable. These are good sales people, however they will not be producing qualified leads.For example, if you are a design agency who specialises in content managed websites for small businesses, you do not desire to end up at a meeting to rebrand Kellogs. Yes, this would be a fantastic opportunity, however in competition with top branding agencies can you stand a chance? If you only work for big brands similarly you might not want to arrive to a meeting to discuss a �300 website.A good New Business Manager should be keen and results driven but also able to evaluate a qualified lead. By giving too many targets you are ultimately pushing them into a corner to create meetings. You don't desire to attend any old meeting. An ideal meeting is really a potential client who is looking for an agency for a particular project or looking to change their roster of agencies. A good meeting is also a straightforward credentials meeting with one of your wish list companies, who you plan to impress with solid ideas.Rather than a company driven by numbers, consider a company driven by results. Unfortunately, but realistically, new business is not always about getting work now. It really is about developing a pipeline and raising your profile. If your Account Handler has a good conversation with a choice Maker about a suitable project which is commissioned later that year, that is much better than a credentials meeting. After that you can keep in regular contact with your choice maker until that project comes up. By the time you have the meeting you will be talking about a specific project rather than running right through a portfolio.Consider the pipeline around the number of meetings.Question 2 - How Targeted is their New Business Approach?Are you trying to reach as many companies as possible to provide your services to? For a few businesses this may work but I doubt if this works for most. A New Business Agency which implies an extremely targeted approach will more than likely receive better results. For instance a design agency seeking to build up litigant list does not want to target 'any' business with "we do design" it really is not going to stick out, and it simply becomes a game of chance.A web site design agency who mainly works with restaurants producing content managed websites could contact other restaurants with an identical offer. However, you don't have to limit yourself to restaurants, always look to expand your market but do it with careful consideration. If you work with restaurants you could then aim at hotels, pubs, bars and clubs. Needless to say, it is possible to always expand your market but showing a potential client experience in your field is going to be beneficial. (My next article will go further into this subject).Look at the size of the business - for those who have only ever worked with SMEs build this up gently don't suddenly shoot for Coke. Look at the location of businesses, are you experiencing the time and money to travel from London to Glasgow for a meeting or should you stay local. An excellent New Business Agency will generate a database tailored to your business capabilities. So that you can tailor a database it is advisable to initially work with your New Business Agency, they should be able to give advice to you. But you need to know which direction you are heading together with your business, and where you sit, and wish to sit available in the market place.Although this might sound as if I am stating the obvious, some of the new business managers I spoke to told me stories of how their clients took little interest in the strategy and left to them to obtain meetings without direction.  more info  refused to leave London to wait meetings and refused any project under �5000 (although they had never completed a project for this much money).Question 3 - How do they discover the Decision Maker?When your New Business Agency will probably send your details to the business, how are they likely to find the right person? There is plenty of information available on the web nowadays on Marketing Directors of companies. Though it would be wonderful to get a meeting with someone so high up in the business how likely is this?The Marketing Director of Nike is not generally likely to interview agencies for a microsite. Usually it could be a waste of time and money trying to reach them on the telephone to set up a meeting. Aim lower. Nike is a huge corporation and it will take patience and careful research to find the person responsible for commissioning microsites and it will not be the Marketing Director.Especially in recent years a lot more new roles are appearing in companies, new media managers, advertising managers, mobile managers, interactive managers, account directors, creative directors - that are you looking to work with? Shoot for less companies as research can be time consuming, but make sure your representative is speaking with the right person. Letters simply addressed to the Marketing Director are hard to check out up with a telephone call. Find out how and who your brand-new Business Manager will be trying to contact.Question 4 - Who else is the agency working with?It is great to work with an agency which has skills in selling everything you are offering, even better to get a HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager with these exact skills. If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager is working with three Mobile Marketing Agencies can be your account being kept separate? What's your agencies ethics of sharing potential clients?Your new business account should be, if at all possible, separate to any other companies. You don't want to paying for someone else's new business. It might be all too possible for a New Business Manager to find details of a company looking to rebrand all their marketing collateral... and keep two design agencies happy.Question 5 - Who's your Account Handler?Always ask to meet the person handling your account. It is your business, plus they are representing you, be sure you just like the way they run into. YOUR BRAND-NEW Business Manager shouldn't really read from the script and should be confident and knowledgeable enough to hold an in-depth conversation. If you are a fresh Media Agency does your brand-new Business Manager know their augmented reality from their rfId barcodes, and how far can they continue with this conversation?And discover common ground with a potential client it is good to learn about their business before having a conversation using them. This means your New Business Manager must be knowledgeable about the sectors they are targeting.New Business Mangers should be versatile. They should be good researchers, communicators and in a position to pick up information quickly. Providing a New Business Manager has had experience in marketing or creative agencies they'll understand the processes and jargon and will generally adjust to other industries which have specialist interests. Someone on the other hand, who has no background in design, marketing or creative industries in general will probably find it harder to learn everything from scratch and find out about niche markets.If your New Business Manager has built a relationship with a choice Maker it may be an idea to take them along to the meeting as a part of your company. Does your New Business Agency allow this? In an ideal world your Account Handler should feel they're a part of your team.It is important so that you can head to meetings prepared and know very well what is expected from you at the meeting. It really is down to one to give your New Business Manager all the information they need. You understand your market also it never does any injury to keep them updated together with your knowledge of industry events. Once you launch a fresh project let your New Business Manager know, keep them involved.Question 6 - How would you prepare to utilize an HOME BASED BUSINESS Agency?Be prepared to be involved. Most New Business Managers spoken to because of this article said, "The closer they will have worked with clients the much more likely they are to achieve results." Usually do not expect a New Business Agency to start out work and come back to you seven days later with plenty of new work - it rarely happens like this. If your New Business Agency is starting conversations with the right people be sure you have the supporting materials. Many clients will ask for an email with links to work, PDFs, show reels or brochures - it really is down to you to provide these. When attending the meetings, which you have essentially paid lots of money to get, ensure you are prepared for the presentation. Your New Business Agency can only just take you up to now. Remember that in the event that you run your business you need to really function as best person to undertake your new business you may already know your organization inside out, your capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. If you cannot get hold of a �500,000 contract don't expect a fresh business agency to. Be realisticMany creative agencies I spoke to had worked with at least a few HOME BASED BUSINESS Agencies before finding the one they felt they could work with, hence the reason for this article. There are obviously many questions to ask before undertaking the expense of a New Business Agency but I hope this article covers a few! Please see more suggestions about handling your own new business on my website http://www.kerinewman.com.Keri Newman - Freelance Web design and marketing for smaller businesses.