• Pearlfinders UK & Europe

    Pearlfinders carefully monitors every story in the financial and essential trade press, then expertly interviews the decision-makers involved to identify new business opportunities.

  • Pearlfinders US

    Pearlfinders covers the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and all the essential North American trade press for new business opportunties too.

New Business Briefings

New Business Best Practice - The Search For An Objective Understanding

July 2008 

In 2002, our Group undertook the first survey to try and understand best practice for proactive new business technique. Every year since, we've re-run this research only to find little change in the criticisms of brand decision-makers regarding the manner and methods the majority of agencies use to reach out to them. Further, since 2002, industry associations, search intermediaries and new business support suppliers have contested theories on what makes clients tick in this respect. In 2007, indicators from a smaller sample group, suggested significant change was on the horizon, so it was decided to pay a wholesale revisit to decision-makers at major brand spenders - and on a wide variety of topics.

For 2008, rather than polling marketing decision-makers on the questions we wanted to find out the answers to, which unavoidably steers the outcomes, we instead asked a representative sample of agencies for the questions that they would like to put to them instead. Then, in order to guarantee a qualitative outcome for the research on these questions with the decision-makers, we elected not to mass-email them multiple-choice options, but to access them by telephone and put the questions directly to them. The result was that we were able to explore the subjects with them in free-flowing conversation, which we documented as we went.

In total, we spoke in-depth with 52 key decision-makers, providing detailed free-flowing responses to on average 10 questions each. This activity was carried out between January and March 2008. For the full results as a PDF, please click here.

Agencies putting the questions included: iris NY, Que Pasa, Marvelous Mobile, Landor, Simpson Carpenter, Planet, EHS Brann Discovery and Marketing Supply Chain.

The decision-makers we interviewed were at organistions including: Disney, General Motors, Kimberly-Clark, Tesco, Kraft Foods, GlaxoSmithKline, Sony, and InterContinental Hotels. We have grouped their responses into the following series of topics: Procurement, Pitches, Spend, Review Triggers, Agency Marketing, Challenges & Business Issues, and Initial Meetings.