New Registration Option: Webcast of 17 Key Sessions

The negotiation process can be fast and daunting. With the goal of having you take back more control in this process, Scotwork uses an eight-step approach to analyze and determine where you are on their “negotiation map” at any given time. When you understand and leverage the full negotiation process and map, you will gain more control. This leads to more effective and skillful negotiations.

By attending this session on negotiation skills, you will come away with:

• An understanding of how to apply The Scotwork Eight-Step Negotiation Method
• An organized way of preparing for any upcoming negotiation
• Additional strategies and tactics (that you’ve probably not considered) to improve your effectiveness

You will also learn the Scotwork “Preparation Guideline” which will teach you how to Trade instead of Haggling or succumbing to the Slow Surrender. Finally, you will be empowered to overcome some of the biggest fears, misunderstandings, and pitfalls of negotiating.

Agencies consistently provide more work than what they get paid for. In fact, recent studies show that up to 60% of an agency’s workload is “underpaid and under-resourced,” resulting in lower margins and potential compromise to the quality of the work. Both create a time bomb for the future of the relationship.

Michael Farmer believes that agencies should get paid for 100% of their work, even when the scope increases. Sounds good in theory, but what is the best way to approach this?

Step by step, this session will walk you through exactly how to establish a system that proactively guarantees fair compensation:

• Establish a Better Structure for your Scope of Work
• Establish your Resourcing Standards
• Secure Client Agreement to your Resourcing Standards
• Create a Formula to Translate the Scope of Work into a Fee
• Implement a System to Track Scope of Work Changes

Leave this session with action items that you will be able to immediately begin implementing to improve margins on new and current account.

Proposals suck. Put them off as long as you can, delegate them – they’re not going away. Despite the fact that proposals make or break the financial relationship with every client, most agencies avoid putting the appropriate amount of strategic thought into the process.

Step by step, this session will walk through the key principles to transform your proposals from “generic financial recaps” into persuasive selling documents that reinforce the value and business impact that your agency will provide. Change them from simply providing information to building a clear, concise and compelling case for your (higher level of) fees.

John Gleason will reveal what it takes to redefine the balance of power with your clients - and with Procurement. He should know. He was one of them, serving as a Strategic Sourcing executive at Procter & Gamble. John will not only pull back the curtain and demystify the department, he will reveal how they operate and how to better retain your power.

John will shine the light on both sides of your relationships, offering some clarity on ‘Why Clients Do What They Do’. On the flip side, this session will also look at what you do to contribute to the gaps in your client relationships.

Key takeaways from this session will include:
> Why the deck is presently stacked against you
> Why they do such "ridiculous things to you?"
> Useful preparation to drive greater value for client & agency
> Understanding that you have more power in these discussion than you realize
> Learn how to leverage this power for mutually-rewarding relationships

Research is experiencing a revolution online. There is an explosion of new ways to collect data and insights that you can better leverage to improve the persuasiveness of your presentations and convert more business. Michaela Mora, a market research innovator with expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, will walk you through the latest developments in marketing research using the online platform.

She will provide an overview on the application of tools such as:

• Quantitative trade-off techniques
• Mobile
• Qualitative – quantitative hybrids
• Real time chats
• Immersion IDI's
• Research blogs
• Research communities
• Social networking
• Video journals
• Web cam focus groups
• Web-intercepts/chats

Online research can be better and faster. Conducted strategically, it can also be efficient. Leave this session with new research tools that you can start to use to improve your next pitch.

Unless you’re stuck in the Mad Men days, you know Shopper Marketing has been one of the fastest-growing areas in marketing. It has even outpaced the darling Digital growth over the last three years.  

But, adding this to your portfolio is not as simple as adding it to a credentials slide, hiring someone who understands retail, or finding real estate in-store to expand your advertising idea. You must truly build the capability, find the right client at the right time - and make the most of the one shot to build your credibility or kill it. This session will review specifically what it takes to win in this rapidly growing space.

As you know, Search Consultants influence a tremendous amount of business changing hands each year. Getting inside their heads probably wouldn’t be a bad thing.

This second panel of search consultants will address the latest myths they see agencies operating against – which are actually holding back their ability to convert more business. With the number of competitive reviews these “match makers” have witnessed, they are able to provide practical insight into what is working (and what is not working) in 2011. Expect new ideas on how you should evolve your approach to competitive reviews.

Each year, we host several top clients as they provide a frank perspective on agencies. What is top of mind for them coming out of the recession? How are they balancing short-term revenue goals with long-term strategic objectives? What does it take to get in the door? Where will their spending increase? Where will it be cut further? Will procurement ever get a grip on reality?

Plenty of time for interactive Q&A is provided.

Getting the right intel and getting it fast is critical under the compressed timelines of a competitive pitch. The same can be said for proactively reaching out to prospects in a timely fashion. This panel of new business directors and industry specialists will address specifically what elements you need to be gathering, how to gather it and how to articulate the implications of your findings.

Give your idea generation a shot in the arm. If your pitch idea isn’t a hit-it-out-of-the-park grand slam, you might as well go home. Clients are craving new, innovative ideas that are still relevant, but more unexpected.

This session will focus on how to develop an approach to generating bigger pitch ideas – in a way that is more energized, fun and interactive (and that gives you all the credit).

Okay, so now you’ve got the big hit-it-out-of-the-park idea. But, how the heck are you going to sell it? As you know, having the big idea – and selling the big idea – are two different things.

Based on the latest best practices from Mirren’s Presentation Skills Training, Bob Wiesner (formerly a Mirren Training Director and head of Rogen Presentation Training) will provide lessons that you can take back to improve how well your team presents.

Do you have weak presenters on your team? Have others developed bad habits? Is your entire team not able to command and inspire the room? Is this impacting your ability to convert business?

This interactive session will address a number of key elements that improve your team’s ability to hold the room:

• Casting
• Tone
• Posture
• Transitions
• Openings
• Closings
• Becoming the prospect’s champion
• Storytelling

You will also be engaged in a few exercises, which you will then be able to use with your own team.

Today's consumer relies on mobile technology and the Internet for their lives at home, work and play. But when you pitch tech or digital accounts, are you telling the prospects something they already know?

Let Grace Cheow, Mintel’s Senior Trend Analyst, give you a fresh approach to tech. By analyzing consumer attitudes and behavior, Grace will dismantle your notions on how people view and use mobile and digital platforms. She'll help you:

* Understand online information sharing, consumption and attitudes
* View digital and mobile categories in a new light
* Find advertising messages that work
* Form a fresh approach to pitching tech

Yes we know, you’ve got the big idea. But now you have to present it, remotely? Is that even legal?

With the growth of Skype and even more sophisticated video conference and remote collaboration technology, your pitch team must able to command and inspire the room – even when you’re not in the room. In this session, Bob Wiesner (formerly a Mirren Training Director and head of Rogen Presentation Skills Training) will continue from the previous break-out session and review the implications in this challenging but all too common situation.

You will learn how to take advantage of advance preparation and “setting the stage” well before the meeting even begins. The training will then move into what is required to orchestrate the presentation in a way that engages everyone right at outset – and then holds the client right through to the end. Also covered will be techniques to help with room theater, visual aids, big openings, big surprises, and big closings.