I had coffee with Mike Krass yesterday, the CEO of MKG Media Group, a new small direct response marketing shop in town to ask me advice about growing an agency. It must have been good coffee because he wrote a blog post about some of the advice I gave him.

Here's some comments on what he captured.

The Tip: Make Friends

According to Mike...

... the most valuable (and simple) piece of advice Adam shared about selling in new business … 

“The best thing in the world you can do is become friends with somebody.”

Take all the complexities out of selling in your agency and stick with this one piece of advice. Any time you meet a potential business contact, do everything you can to build a rapport between yourselves... down the line, the quality of that relationship will begin to pay off in the form of introductions, actual business opportunities and, worse case scenario, simply a good friend to grab a beer with and shoot the shit.

That may sound trite, but it's true. Trust is key to an effective partnership. Friendship is a great way to build trust. And it's fun to make friends. I like fun.

That said, I'd clarify that I don't try to become friends with every potential business contact I meet. Just the ones I like. Is that limiting? Perhaps, but I find the people I like to have a drink with and the people we as an agency enjoy working with tend to be the same people. 

And just like in any relationship, chemistry matters. Build relationships with people you enjoy spending time with. You'll wind up not just closing sales, but finding great partners.

The Tip: Treat your relationships with a long term goal in mind

There's a great book by my friend Stan Adler called The Zen of Selling. It's been a while since I read it, but a great takeaway that sits with me years later is that "selling isn't something you do to someone, it's something you do for someone." 

Think about that. I've met people in this business whose perspective has been "as soon as you win a client you're on your way to losing it, so you might as well milk every dollar you can out of their business while you can."

I think that's awful. 

I'll be honest. It's taken me a while to learn to say "no," but it's so important. Closing deals is a waste of energy if you're not going to provide value for what you sell. The idea—not just for agencies, but for every company—is to create delighted customers who come back again and again.

If you approach relationships with purely short-term goals in mind, you wind up squandering them. And creating a longer, harder road for yourselves in the long run.

The Tip: Watch your numbers

It's important to be profitable. Why? 

Well, I'd be disingenuous not to say because the founders, investors and shareholders (which hopefully include employees) want a return on what they've put into the business.

But that is only a slice of the pie. 

Agencies need to be able to grow their people and train them. They need to compensate great people well and have great benefits so they stick around. They need to invest in growing capabilities and understanding around new technologies, trends and client needs. They need to support a great culture that inspires creativity and innovation. They need to be proactive about their clients' business.

All of these are the first things to go when profitability is compromised.

And that's why it's important to watch your numbers.

Speaking of numbers, I'm aware that was only 3 tips. You can read the rest of Mike's post here.