Amy Stellhorn was thirty-two when she left her job as VP of Creative at a large design firm and ventured out on her own to start an eclectic and innovative creative agency named Big Monocle. Her one-person firm had a single client: Intel Corporation.
Any possibility of growing Big Monocle depended on Stellhorn’s capacity not only to deliver value but to do so in a way that far surpassed the offerings of other, much larger agencies. Amy would have to rethink her sales tactics to close a deal. Intel’s globally recognized brand and massive revenue stream guaranteed that competition for its business would be fierce. Amy was familiar with Arbinger’s approach to an outward mindset and believed that it could improve her performance and help Big Monocle succeed in winning contracts. She reached out to engage an Arbinger coach for support in navigating her business launch and grow an agency that could routinely exceed client expectations.
Amy’s contact at Intel was impressed by her work, and recommended her services to Jennifer Larson, one of Intel’s managers of Consumer Integrated Marketing. Jennifer had recently been tasked with overseeing an extensive education campaign for Intel Security. Several prominent New York advertising agencies were courting Intel for the project, but based on the recommendations of her colleague, Jennifer reached out to Big Monocle as well. After a series of calls, Jennifer asked to meet with Amy. Amy knew that this meeting could have a major consequences for her career. The contract was for a half-a-million-dollar project and represented an opportunity to hire a team and build a prestigious profile to attract future clientele. She spent hours researching andpolishing a presentation to highlight her previous work projects and to story-board different ideas for the Intel Security project. Amy wanted to apply her knowledge of how to close a deal in sales and take full advantage of the opportunity to show Jennifer her client-centric approach. Having seen outward mindset examples from other businesses in preparation, she reached out to her Arbinger coach for advice. While the guidance she received was not what she was expecting, the impact of coaching on agencies became clear.
The Arbinger coach invited Amy to stop making slides and set her presentation aside. He offered a different way to view and approach the meeting. “Rather than working so hard to impress Jennifer with all you have done,” he said, “what if you became really interested in what she is trying to accomplish? What if you got curious about her audience and what is she wanting to get done? Don’t try to impress her and close a deal—that’s just about you. Try to help her.”
Amy was initially taken aback. The suggestion ran counter to everything she had learned in her career about how to close a deal in sales. With such high stakes, wouldn’t Jennifer expect a convincing display of past successes and proof of good ideas? But Amy trusted her coach and believed in the Arbinger approach to winning contracts. She chose to follow his advice and forget her go-to sales tactics to close a deal. Instead of simply preparing a slide deck, Amy researched outward mindset examples. When Amy met Jennifer, she focused all her attention on understanding Jennifer’s needs and Intel’s objectives for the campaign. She asked detailed questions to explore how Jennifer understood the interests and needs of Intel’s audience. Amy set aside her ingrained impulse to self-promote or convince Jennifer she was better than the competition. She left behind all her skills on how to close a deal in sales and stayed present with an outward mindset. She listened. She genuinely cared.
In all of Jennifer’s years working with ad agencies, she had never had a meeting quite like this one. Instead of focusing on how to close a deal with a client, Amy’s sincere interest in Jennifer’s needs as an individual, as well as Intel’s organizational needs and those of the end-users was both relentless and refreshing. Jennifer knew it was exactly what the project needed. The meeting ended without a solid plan in place for tackling the campaign. But because Amy chose to approach the opportunity with the outward mindset, Big Monocle had won the contract.
Amy quickly hired a team, gaging each new hire by their ability to work with a client-centric approach. As Amy’s team collaborated to create the campaign, they were guided by the outward mindset, asking questions that were central to the mission of Intel and this campaign like, “What can we really do to help people be safer online?” and “What kind of experience can we offer that will be valuable to them?” This exploration of their target audience’s needs led to a marketing strategy that was far richer and more insightful than most–one that would set new benchmarks of success within Intel.
One key measurement of advertisement success is the number of impressions generated, balanced, of course, by the overall cost of the campaign.
Based on previous advertising endeavors, Intel was accustomed to spending between $.50-1.00 per impression. One element of the education campaign engineered by Big Monocle generated 58,000,000 impressions at the cost of $150,000, meaning the cost of each impression was a phenomenally low $.002. The entire security education campaign was such a success that it quickly caught the attention of the Intel C-suite. Jennifer received company-wide recognition with an award highlighting the campaign and establishing it as the new paradigm for marketing at Intel. The ad campaign also won accolades outside of the company and was featured in national media, including The Today Show.
The resounding success of the educational campaign paved the way for future collaboration between Big Monocle and Intel, springboarding the continuing success of Amy’s firm. Amy and her whole team developed a new understanding of how to close a deal with a client and the impact of coaching on agencies. Big Monocle continues to incorporate an outward approach to its work with employees and clients.
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