Small Spark Theory: a marginal gains approach to new business and marketing

Almost every agency owner I meet will, sooner or later, ask the question “how does this compare with other agencies?” They could be talking about any number of measures; marketing investment, pitch conversion rate, client retention, or new business resourcing to name just a few. And I understand why this question is important. Running an agency is not just hard work, even with the best laid plans,...

With 30 episodes under our belt if feels like the right time to get another client perspective on all things new business and the client and agency relationship. Our guest this month is  Julia Howe . Julia has enjoyed a globetrotting career on both sides of the client and agency fence, and is currently EVP and Co-Head of Global Marketing at 20th Century Fox . Julia joins us from LA to share her fi...

We’ve touched on the subject of procurement over a number of episodes in this series so far, and it’s a topic I wanted to come back to and delve a little deeper.  Much of the time I deal with small to medium sized agencies, all specialists in their respective fields, many of whom are working with large brand owners with significant purchasing power. Such accounts can be transformative for an agenc...

This may not seem like the most obvious episode for what, to all intents and purposes is a podcast providing practical tips for making marginal gains in agency new business and marketing. However, when we consider many of the activities involved in attracting and winning new clients – the outreach to new prospects, networking, hosting events, speaking engagements, let alone pitching and negotiatin...

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about client relationships recently. Generally speaking our growth objectives will start with the financials – the revenue goals, the profit margin targets and the scale those numbers will then afford us – the extra bodies, extra offices, extra services – or even exit! This focus on the numbers is essential but we should quickly translate these targets into the ki...

“Whatever you do from here, even if you choose to ignore everything  I’m about to tell you, please be good at LinkedIn.” This is a phrase I have repeated many times during my engagements with agencies over the years, and one I stand by now more than ever. LinkedIn has become an incredible tool to support new business, but in many cases, agencies are only just scratching the surface of how they can...

It’s easy to think that the secret to agency growth is cracking the holy grail of new business acquisition, but in most cases there are untapped opportunities for growth much closer to home, within our existing client relationships. Over the years I have met many, many agency owners, who have a nagging suspicion that they could be doing more for their current clients, but feel unable to move the r...

I’m calling this episode ‘thought leadership’ for the sake of brevity, and SEO but in reality this is about so much more. Pip Stocks runs Brandhook, a Melbourne-based brand and customer experience consultancy. Over the last four years Pip, and Brandhook, have owned the conversation around “Closing the Gap”, understanding how brands can get closer to their customers in an era of increasing digital...

Dear prospect, my name is Lucy, I’m writing to introduce……. And so it goes, the new business email, putting the fear into agency folk across the land. It’s no surprise. For many people, selling isn’t something that comes naturally. And trying to sell yourself, or your agency, in a blank email window while the cursor blinks impatiently back at you, is no mean feat. In my experience, many best laid...

Just in time for Christmas, we bring you a very special episode of Small Spark Theory. Across the series, we have asked all of our contributors to share the best piece of advice they’ve been given in their career, so we thought we’d take a wander through the last two years of episodes and pick some of our favourites. So grab a cuppa and a mince pie, and tune in to hear from Felix Velarde , Hilary...

I’ll admit it, I’m slightly obsessed about the experience that clients and prospects have when they work with (or are considering working with) an agency. Just as customer and user experience is now paramount for consumer brands, of course the the same rules apply for B2B. There will always be other agencies who can deliver a comparable service for a comparable price, but it is the experience of w...

Earlier this summer, Jemima Monies, Head of New Business & PR at adam&eveDDB wrote an article in Campaign about why new business leaders need to fight harder to be heard. She closed the piece with a rallying cry to the industry to “value new business people’s opinions, invite them to speak out and elevate them within your agency management teams”. Reading this, I realised that so far in th...

Finding an alternative revenue model to the billable hour, is a topic we touched on with Erica Wolfe-Murray of Lola Media , back in Episode 14 , as we explored the subject of an agency’s intellectual assets, and returned to in our episode on pricing creativity with Blair Enns . And as we head into what is arguably the most important three months of the year for agency new business, we are delighte...

Right at the beginning of this podcast series we talked about the importance of setting objectives for growth that in turn, guide the new business & marketing plan and activities. But what if those objectives include a sale or exit? We need a different level of planning altogether. In this episode I am joined by Tony Walford – founding partner of Green Square and one of the leading M&amp...

Small Spark Theory Live was recorded in front of a live studio audience at White City Place in May. In Part One , we were joined by agency board advisor Felix Velarde and Joanna Brassett, founder of Studio Into to discuss the challenges faced by agency leaders at various stages of growth.  In this, the second of two episodes recorded on the night, we gain a client perspective by speaking to Head o...

On a balmy evening in early May, we took to the stage at White City Place to host Small Spark Theory Live along with our friends at YCN . This was an opportunity to bring together some of our previous podcast contributors, some new guests and an invited audience of agency founders, leaders, and new business practitioners. In this, the first of two episodes recorded on the night, we hear from Felix...

Following the success of the Win Without Pitching Manifesto, Blair Enns ’ much anticipated book –  Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour  was published earlier this year. I’ll admit, I was worried how this transformative approach to pricing would fit into this series, where we explore how we can implement small changes to our sales and marketing toolkit and processes, but...

Anyone who has been to one of my talks, listened to Small Spark Theory or worked with me on increasing new business performance will know my feelings on LinkedIn by now. I stand by my well-worn edict “if you do nothing else, get to grips with LinkedIn” and will continue to do so, until such time as the platform implodes, or is superseded. But what about the rest of the social media maze? Making th...

Let’s be honest. These are uncertain times. Even those agency owners who are highly proficient in keeping the new business pipeline bubbling, will probably have had a heart-stopping moment or two over the last 18 months. An unexpected decision by a client, the surprising cancellation of a new project after the green light has already been given, or as one observer recently described to me – client...

In previous episodes we’ve touched on the importance (or not) of agency positioning and over the last year it’s a subject that’s been popping up more frequently in my discussions with agencies. So I was delighted to meet David C Baker at a Design Business Association event late last year. David is an author, speaker and leading thinker on agency positioning. Over the last 25 years he has advised h...

In episode 10 we gained some fantastic insight into best pitch practice from Tony Spong at AAR. Tony’s intermediary experience – seeing the process from a client and agency perspective, got us thinking how useful it would be to involve some clients in our future episodes. So, we finish the year with the first of our client perspective episodes. Katie Pattison has been managing marketing budg...

Whether going into battle with procurement to defend agency day rates, or agreeing the scope of a project for the available client budget – our ability to confidently and effectively negotiate can make a tangible difference to our bottom line. In this episode of Small Spark Theory, I’m joined by ex-corporate lawyer, author and negotiation expert Hilary Gallo. Hilary and I met earlier this year at...

Losing a pitch is just bad news all round. It costs an agency big; in time, money, resource, morale and confidence. So as new business performance improvement goes, there is surely no better place to make tangible impact than in the pitch itself. The good news is that the opportunities for making marginal gains in the way we approach, plan and conduct our pitch activity are not only plentiful but...

The people part of our business can so often get overlooked in our efforts to generate new business. Yes, we might think about chemistry once we are faced with a pitch opportunity but beyond that, our thinking tends to get muddled when we consider the power of our people to drive referrals and introductions. There might be an expectation that this will happen, or an unspoken, mild resentment when...

So far in our Small Spark Theory podcast series we’ve been exploring the ways we can make marginal gains in our agency new business and marketing performance. We’ve discussed the tweaks and improvements, the tips and tricks that can help us perform better, and see a better return on our time and money. So far so good. But even with clear objectives, effective planning, brilliant processes and all...