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GDPR is definitely causing unnecessary fear amongst agencies. Many of my clients, past clients and contacts have asked me recently what they should be doing around GDPR, whether they can still use the database we have put in place and how this will affect new business. We are all receiving daily emails from various companies, some I definitely don’t recall subscribing to, asking us to opt in to receive future emails. Which, according to Adam Rose, Head of Data Protection and GDPR at...

Given that it’s now quite rare for marketing and brand directors to meet agencies just to hear more about them, hosting events where you take attendees through some valuable insight and give them an opportunity to network with and learn from peers is a great way to build the profile of your agency. They add credibility to your agency and it’s a chance to get your agency brand and name in front of more prospects. At Cherry, the new business consultancy I co-founded 14 years ago, we...

Is an agency deck the best way to sell your agency culture, ideas and services? Is the old PowerPoint presentation still a “crutch” agencies need or would it be better to ditch the deck in favour of a more interactive, informal conversation?

Jeff Bezos famously banned PowerPoint at Amazon replacing it with a four-to-six page memo which they call a “narrative” a number of years ago and Jeff Weiner, CEO from LinkedIn put a stop to them too so why are agencies so slow to...

When was the last time you updated your LinkedIn profile, is it optimised well so that people can find you? LinkedIn is changing at a pretty fast pace at the moment and is becoming a great tool to get yourself known and build lasting relationships. I wrote a previous blog post which touched on how to use LinkedIn for new business but I thought it would be helpful to share some tips on how to make sure your profile is fully optimised and how, by spending just 10 minutes every day, you can...

So often I work with agencies where the new business function pretty much works in silo from the rest of the agency, and then the MD gets frustrated when there’s a lack of results from the new business person or when the new biz person moves on.

New business is tough! It gets harder each year with companies blocking phone calls and email servers rejecting emails.

Please don’t just employ a new biz person or consultancy and expect them to be able to work miracles. Agencies that...

Agencies can spend so much time, effort and money creating what they think is a new business campaign worthy of an Award, for it to then fall flat on its face with zero results. And by results I mean new clients in the door.

I’ve been really fortunate to have worked with a huge variety of agencies over the years from start-ups with very little money to spend through to big global agencies with big marketing teams and budgets. In this time, I’ve learnt a lot from what does work and...

New business is the lifeblood of any creative agency, some agencies however just can’t afford to hire an in-house new business team. If you would like to be winning more business but don’t have the budget to hire someone, don’t let this hold you back. You too can learn the skills to sell your services and there’s no-one who understands your business better than you, so you are in a great place to do this. Sometimes you just need the confidence to get out there and also...

If you or your team aren’t getting the results you need from your new business activity then take a closer look at where you are spending your time. Are you doing enough of the right things or wasting time on the wrong things. Have a look at my list below to check you are on the right track.

Contacting new prospects every day

You need to always be building your pipeline and this means approaching new people every day. It doesn’t have to be a large number. If you are responsible...

One strategy that many agencies forget about when it comes to their own marketing and new business efforts is audience profiling.

"Understanding the differences between your audiences is essential for getting messaging right"

Something you know right but probably aren’t doing ;-)

Building personas for your core audience can help improve your marketing and new business efforts. Its means that you can be more focused on creating messages that are relevant to and that resonate with your...

You recognise that you need external support with your new business drive but how do you decide between appointing a freelance new business consultant to work on your business development or whether to hire a specialist new business agency. There are some advantages and disadvantages to both which I’ve listed below.

1. Cost

A new business freelancer will typically cost less than hiring a new business agency. Usually agencies have overheads such as offices and staff that they need to...