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A recent post by a member of the Spin Sucks Community raised the topic of calculating the cost of winning new clients — and determining how to account for that expense properly.

“Any thoughts on how to account for the time spent on proposals (calls and revisions) to get a job? I’m the one that has to do the work. When I’m doing that, it’s ‘lost time’ for me. My first thought is to see how many hours I’ve spent in the first half of the year and then see how that is accounted for in my profitability margin. Perhaps I need to consider making that number a little different to make up for it.”

Chip and Gini tackle this question and explore the importance of factoring in the cost of business development into not just your pricing, but also your identification of ideal clients and the right opportunities to pursue.

[read the transcript]

About Chip Griffin

Chip Griffin is the Founder & CEO of the Small Agency Growth Alliance (SAGA) and a longtime agency owner and executive. He helps PR and marketing communications agencies build better businesses. Full bio