RESOURCES

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...

If you are responsible for new business development in your agency, I'm pretty confident one of your biggest frustrations is the time you can spend trying to find peoples' email addresses. Companies don’t willingly give out email addresses anymore. They are safely guarded and difficult to uncover. Instead of wasting time trying different formats and waiting for bounce backs, why don’t you try one of my favourite tools below.

1. Snovio

Snovio is a Google Chrome extension that...

Reaching prospects using the traditional methods of email and phone is getting tougher and tougher with improved technology filtering emails and blocking calls. With the number of Worldwide users expected to reach some 2.95 billion by 2020, social media does give you an opportunity to connect with and engage with your prospects. Approach with caution though because there is definitely a wrong way to use social media which I see every day. So how do you build relationships over social media...

When I start working with an agency on their new business, the first thing we look at is their new business plan. I tend to map this out over a 12 month period although it’s important to review and tweak each month. Writing the plan shouldn’t take long. The best way to approach it is to have a mini workshop to brainstorm the detail and then the new business plan is simply a written plan of what was agreed.

In this blog post, I’ve written what I always include in a new...

Often Marketing Directors complain that all agencies say the same thing and there’s little to differentiate one agency over another.

"Your positioning statement or elevator pitch needs to stand out, it should be unique and above all tell the customer exactly what you do."

Having a clear positioning will help you set yourself apart from the competition and attract the best possible clients. Read below for my 5 key steps that you should follow when crafting your agency positioning.

1....

So I was recently asked to speak at a DBA training event and given the topic of “What’s New in New Business”.

I’ve been working in new business for well over 15 years now, always in the same industry, helping digital, design and communications agencies get more clients. Over these years the landscape has changed a bit – marketing and brand directors field their calls, there are systems that can auto filter emails, competition is fierce and agencies need to do...