Hustle Wins: How Bold Moves Seal Big Deals

All things come to those who hustle.

George Lois, the colourful and controversial New York advertising director, tells a story of how he scored a major account in 1962, for his then newly formed firm: Papert Koenig Lois.

The Chicago-based, Quaker Oats Company, was looking for a new ad agency to represent them and Lois’ firm had made the short list.

They had a call with the client at 9.00am which they hoped would seal the deal, but were told instead: “This is a painful decision, but we’ve decided to go with a local ad agency as we like to call meetings on short notice and New York is just too far away.”

Rather than taking the defeat lying down, Lois and his two partners raced to La Guardia airport, took a 2.5 hour flight to Chicago, raced to the client’s office and sat quietly in their foyer nonchalantly thumbing through magazines.

When the client’s directors arrived in their office after lunch, they were shocked and delighted by their chutzpah. They won the account on the spot.

When was the last time you did something unusual to signal your desire to win a big account?