“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.” – Doug Larson Listening and talking it seems is a dying art. A moribund form of communication, superseded by emails, text and tweets etc. both in a private and professional environment. I am from a generation brought up … Read More

How do I increase my agency revenue? It’s one questions that gets banded about a lot. Often we hear that the goal of creative, communications or digital agencies is to power through the £1m revenue ceiling and that is a key reason that they are investing in new business to drive that growth. Once through … Read More

What really matters to B2B customers? It is not always just about the rational in the buying process. People buying agency services may have a range of conscious and subconscious triggers and playing to these may give your agency the edge over another. But what are these and do B2B decisions really go through a … Read More

It’s the Holy Grail.   Phoning someone just at the point they are reviewing or may be considering a new agency or indeed using an agency for the first time. If someone tells you that they can accurately predict this, take it with a pinch of salt or at least question their methodology or criteria. … Read More

What is a good value proposition? Our role in new business development is to help our clients define just that. It doesn’t matter if you are a creative, digital, research or any kind of agency, competition for business is rife and any prospective buyer of your services needs to be able to quickly identify the … Read More

  I’ve already written this year about how the UK creative industry continues to grow in importance within the economy. Agencies are forming all the time and of course, the on-going digital revolution has given rise to a new industry/industries within the agency world. However, I have a great concern about the advice that some … Read More

  How do you target the mobilisers in B2B decision making? It used to be fairly straightforward. You’d find a senior decision maker, identify current activities, challenges and goals, construct a pitch around that and arrange a meeting. Follow that up with a proposal and business could be done. Over simplified, probably, but in fact, … Read More

New marketing tools in the wrong hands are just plain dangerous. This was the title of a post on the Secret marketer from Marketing Week back in July. It got me intrigued, as I am interested by new tools and methods of prospecting for new business. I should be as that is what we do. … Read More

Continuing our series of infographics, this one looks at 10 key statistics to consider when undertaking an agency new business campaign via the telephone.  

  As the new football season kicks off, like most years, the initial enthusiasm, excitement and aspirations of the league crown took 90 short minutes on Sunday to instantly wane. As with most recent years, success will be a top 4 finish and a cup run. It is probably a bit early to lose all … Read More