It is important to keep a good stream of customers and clients. It is extremely easy to get complacent if you have enough clients - but if among those clients disappeared would your business feel the effect? Or worse would it not crumble?? Working with a fresh Business Agency will help you win clients and grow your business. There is no denying that home based business / lead generation can be time consuming, effort and expensive but overall it usually is worthwhile and cost effective.Many Creative and Marketing Agencies use New Business Agencies; it is an effective way to get your work before companies you intend to use. I wrote this article after to speaking to the Directors of Creative Agencies and other Business Development Managers. This article is for small Creative and Marketing Agencies new to new business and seeking to work with a HOME BASED BUSINESS Agency for the first time.I believe it fair to say in the world of home based business you do get what you pay for. You may get a telesales person to call thousands of companies and pay a minor fee, or it is possible to choose an agency that approach new business intelligently. The second will be costly but can you afford not to?New Business Agencies specialise in finding you clients as a way to grow your organization. Although agencies work in various ways, the long and short of it is that, they will phone companies in your stead with the view of setting up a gathering between you and the potential client. Sounds not difficult, but the new business process is more than simply cold calling.Before you jump in at the deep end there are several factors to bear in mind when choosing a New Business Agency. They are all different and can all have diverse ideas about the way new business ought to be conducted. Below are a few questions to ask your brand-new business agency before you use them?Question 1 -Results or Numbers?If a New Business Agency promises to target 500 companies a week and guarantees you five meetings, take note. This is often a potential time waster for a few agencies. If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager is pressured to truly get you before x level of clients, they will. Whether the meeting is worthwhile or not, is not their problem they just have to reach their targets.If the individual handling your new business account is a really good sales rep with a difficult sales technique they might be in a position to force a potential client to get a meeting with you whether they have work, or you're suitable. They 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 want to end up at a meeting to rebrand Kellogs. Yes, this might be a fantastic opportunity, but in competition with top branding agencies can you stand a chance? In the event that you only work with big brands similarly you might not want to show up to a meeting to go over a �300  website .A good HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager ought to be keen and results driven but additionally able to evaluate a qualified lead. By giving way too many targets you are ultimately pushing them right into a corner to create meetings. You don't desire to attend any old meeting. An ideal meeting is 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 intend to impress with solid ideas.Rather than an agency driven by numbers, consider a company driven by results. Unfortunately, but realistically, home based business isn't always about getting work now. It is about creating a pipeline and raising your profile. If your Account Handler has a good conversation with a Decision Maker about a suitable project which will be commissioned later that year, this is better than a credentials meeting. After that you can keep in regular contact with the decision maker until that project comes up. By the time you have the meeting you may be talking about a particular project rather than running through a portfolio.Look at the pipeline around the amount of meetings.Question 2 - How Targeted is their HOME BASED BUSINESS Approach?Are you attempting to reach as much companies as possible to provide your services to? For some businesses this might work but I doubt if this works for most. A FRESH Business Agency which implies an extremely targeted approach will more than likely receive better results. For instance a design agency seeking to build up a client list does not desire to target 'any' business with "we do design" it truly 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 need to limit you to ultimately restaurants, always turn to expand your market but take action with careful consideration. If you work with restaurants you could then aim at hotels, pubs, bars and clubs. Needless to say, you can always expand your market but showing a potential client experience in your field will likely be beneficial. (My next article will go further into this subject).Look at the size of the business enterprise - in case you have only ever caused SMEs build this up gently don't suddenly shoot for Coke. Look at the location of businesses, are you experiencing enough time and money to travel from London to Glasgow for a gathering or do you need to stay local. A good New Business Agency will generate a database tailored to your business capabilities. To be able to tailor a database it is advisable to initially work with your brand-new Business Agency, they should be able to give advice for you. But you need to know which direction you're heading together with your business, and where you sit, and wish to sit available in the market place.Although this may sound as if I'm stating the obvious, some of the new business managers I spoke to explained stories of how their clients took little interest in the strategy and simply left to them to obtain meetings with no direction. These clients then refused to leave London to attend meetings and refused any project under �5000 (although they had never completed a project because of this much money).Question 3 - Just how do they find the Decision Maker?When your New Business Agency will send your information to the company, how are they going to find the appropriate person? There is a lot of information available on the web these days on Marketing Directors of companies. Though it would be wonderful to gain a gathering with someone so high up in the business how likely is this?The Marketing Director of Nike isn't generally going to interview agencies for a microsite. In most cases it will be a waste of time and money attempting to reach them on the phone to set up a gathering. Aim lower. Nike is really a huge corporation and it'll take patience and careful research to get the person in charge of commissioning microsites also it will not be the Marketing Director.Especially in recent years an increasing number of new roles are appearing in companies, new media managers, advertising managers, mobile managers, interactive managers, account directors, creative directors - who are you looking to use? Aim for less companies as research could 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 phone call. Find out how and who your brand-new Business Manager will undoubtedly be trying to contact.Question 4 - Who else may be the agency working with?It is great to work with an agency that has skills in selling everything you are offering, even better to get a New Business Manager with these exact skills. If a HOME BASED BUSINESS Manager is dealing with three Mobile Marketing Agencies is your account being kept separate? What is your agencies ethics of sharing clients?Your new business account ought to be, if possible, separate to any other companies. You don't want to paying for someone else's new business. It can be all too easy for a New Business Manager to find details of a company looking to rebrand almost all their marketing collateral... and keep two design agencies happy.Question 5 - Who is your Account Handler?Always ask to meet up 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 carry an in-depth conversation. If you are a New Media Agency does your brand-new Business Manager know their augmented reality from their rfId barcodes, and what lengths can they continue with this conversation?And discover common ground with a potential client it is good to know about their business before having a conversation with them.  get more info  means your New Business Manager must be proficient in the sectors they are targeting.New Business Mangers should be versatile. They must be good researchers, communicators and able to grab information quickly. Providing a New Business Manager has had experience in marketing or creative agencies they'll understand the processes and jargon and may generally adapt to other industries which have specialist interests. Someone alternatively, who has no background in design, marketing or creative industries in general will probably find it harder to learn from scratch and discover about niche markets.If your New Business Manager has generated a relationship with a Decision Maker it may be a concept to take them along to the meeting as a part of your company. Does your New Business Agency allow this? Within an ideal world your Account Handler should feel they are part of your team.It is important that you can head to meetings prepared and know what is expected from you at the meeting. It really is down to one to give your brand-new Business Manager all the information they need. You understand your market and it never does any harm to keep them updated with your knowledge of industry events. When you launch a fresh project let your New Business Manager know, keep them involved.Question 6 - How can you prepare to work with an HOME BASED BUSINESS Agency?Be prepared to be engaged. Most HOME BASED BUSINESS Managers spoken to because of this article said, "The closer they have worked with clients the more likely they are to achieve results." Usually do not expect a New Business Agency to start work and get back to you seven days later with plenty of new work - it rarely happens like that. If your brand-new Business Agency is starting conversations with the right people ensure you have the supporting materials. Many clients will ask for an email with links to your projects, PDFs, show reels or brochures - it is down to one to provide these. When attending the meetings, that you have essentially paid big money to get, make sure you are prepared for the presentation. Your New Business Agency can only take you up to now. Remember that if you run your business you should really be the best person to undertake your new business as you know your organization inside out, your capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. If you cannot get yourself a �500,000 contract don't expect a fresh business agency to. Be realisticMany creative agencies I spoke to had caused at least a number of New Business Agencies before finding the one they felt they might work with, hence the reason for this article. There are obviously many questions to ask before undertaking the trouble 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 small businesses.