The Importance of Sales & New Business in Creative Agencies, with Dan Fields - The Busy Creator Podcast 68

Dan Fields (@danthebeast) is a Vice President of Operations at Aarra, an interactive management firm based in New York and Chicago. Once a humble Flash developer, Dan has moved into a sales and new business role, building relationships with large agencies and small shops alike.

Our conversations discusses the need for sales and relationships in creative businesses, how Dan made the transition to new biz, and some of the challenges facing the ever-changing advertising industry.

Catch up with Dan on his personal site Danfields.com or via his podcast, Save It For The Show.

Show Notes & Links

Dan is “no expert” but is a working professional with a passion project on the side. (Aren’t we all?!)

Dan is a New Business & Strategy agent for a number of design & interactive studios

He started as a Flash developer, gaining an understanding of the creative process 

Matt Keefe, Josh Miles, previous guests on the Podcast

The challenge is now “How do you get potential clients into the room?” 

“You have to have the work in your portfolio.”

—Dan Fields

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Dan studied advertising and journalism at University of Nevada, Reno, (where previous guest Mignon Fogarty is now a professor)

“My work ethic was high enough that I could fake being a decent designer.”

—Dan Fields

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BKWLD, a digital agency in Sacramento — Dan’s first job, and where he met Ben Borowski

Dan’s background as not-a-traditional sales guy is “a feature, not a bug.”

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss On Amazon and On Audible

Secrets of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar On Amazon and On Audible

Save It For The Show, Dan’s podcast and creative outlet

Ad Agencies like Goodby Silverstein, Weiden+Kennedy come up with good ideas, but Dan needs to find the folks who actually produce it.

Old Spice

Terry Crews (and his muscles)

Facebook apps were everywhere, often because agencies would come up with wild ideas

HTML5

Getting Things Done by David Allen On Amazon and On Audible

The pronunciation of GIF

Emoji icons

“Interesting” means “Not at all interesting” to Britons, especially in a business context

How To Get Your Client’s Budget And Not Die In The Intent

“You can be on the phone all day, up to date on your email, or you can actually get things done.”

—Dan Fields

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“At some point advertising forgot that it’s supposed to sell something, not just win awards.”

—Dan Fields

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“Advertising is weaponized media.”

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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Brands saying “Bae” (@BrandsSayingBae) on Twitter

Eat24 – an online ordering service with a very funny persona (@Eat24)

Oreos “You can still dunk in the dark”

Rutheford Gold Foil Experiment aka The Geiger-Marsden Experiments, conducted between 1908–1913 at the University of Manchester; led to the Bohr Model of the atom (Nobel Prize, 1922) and Frank & Hertz’s work on electron impact (Nobel Prize, 1925) 

Volkswagen “Milky Way” spot for Cabrio, by Arnold, 1999

Volkswagen “Sunday Afternoon” spot for Golf, by Arnold, 1997

“Every time you do something creative, you’re buying a lottery ticket.”

—Dan Fields

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Straight Outta Compton meme on Instagram

Pinochle, the card game for old ladies

Lucy Kellaway once remarked on hobbies outside of work — CEOs used to have them, now they don’tcan’t

Kiwanis Club

 Dan Fields on Twitter

 Dan Fields on Facebook

 Dan Fields on Instagram

 Save It For The Show on Twitter

 Save It For The Show on Facebook

 Save It For The Show on SoundCloud

Tools

Highrise, from Basecamp

Salesforce

Daylite

Evernote

Follow Up Then

Siri

Slack

An actual calculator, like a TI-83

Techniques

If you’re a creative who’s shy, you need to push yourself

Create a side project or “fake” projects to build your portfolio

Force yourself out of your comfort zone, especially for things like cold-calling

BCC “[email protected]” on your emails to receive a reminder to your inbox

Ask Siri to set reminders

Keep an open internet chat for goofing off; helps build office culture

Use video chat to supress miscommunication in email-writing shorthand

Don’t hide your budget — don’t waste each other’s time by keeping it secrets

Learn small talk, it’s part of relationship-building

Habits

Find a way to remind yourself; you won’t remember

Keep a running list of jokes or notes

Get ideas out of your head and into some kind of system

Drink coffee, don’t sleep (a by-product of children)

Avoid social media; it feels productive, but it isn’t.

Focus on email only for an hour; block off everything else.

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Get Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar as a free audiobook

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Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 68 (MP3, 51:56, 25.1 MB)

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 68 (OGG, 51:56, 25.3 MB)

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