Small Spark Theory: A Marginal Gains Approach To New Business And Marketing

I have met many agencies over the years who have had ideas for spinning out their own products.  The outcomes have been varied. From those who have successfully launched and created additional revenue streams, to those who have continued to scale and ultimately sell their product business. For many though, the constant pull of client […] The post EP81: Launching an agency product | Paul Halfpenny | Filter appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

How much of your agency revenue comes from overseas clients? Did you know that the US is the largest recipient of UK exports, receiving £3.9bn worth of advertising and market research services, – a value that has more than tripled since 2020? In this episode I chat to Kat Thay, co-founder of K&C and co-president of the Austin […] The post EP80: Winning new business in the US | Kat Thay | Katalyst appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Understanding how clients are buying agency services is fundamental to how we shape our new business and marketing strategies and processes. In recent episodes we’ve heard perspectives from procurement expert Tina Fegent and lead generation expert Alex Sibille, so it feels only fitting to add an intermediary point of view into the mix. Dominic Glenn […] The post EP79: An intermediary perspective | Dominic Glenn | Ingenuity appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Winning new clients has never been straightforward. But after the upheaval of the last few years, last year in particular we saw an added complication – resource. And of course that scarcity of talent naturally increased salary expectations, meaning that profit margins on new and existing projects were being squeezed even further.  For this episode […] The post EP78: Managing digital capacity | Manish Dudharejia | E2M appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

I feel as though we’ve been skirting around the edges of a beast of a topic for some time on this podcast, namely emergent technology and its impact on agencies. Of course, no single episode is going to unpick the labyrinth of challenges and opportunities for our clients, and in turn the agency community, but […] The post EP77: AI, Web3 and the agency | Warren Hutchinson | Else appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

In recent episodes, we’ve talked a lot about change and uncertainty, the persistent undercurrents unsettling our new business efforts and impacting our client relationships. So, it seems a perfect time to speak to someone who has an unrivalled perspective of the agency and client dynamic – Tina Fegent. From becoming one of the first marketing […] The post EP76: A buyer perspective | Tina Fegent appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

When I saw the title of Matt Watkinson’s new book, Mastering Uncertainty, earlier this year I jumped at the chance to interview him on the podcast. Matt runs LA based agency Methodical. His first book, The 10 Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences had already been recommended on here by Nick Phipps back in episode 22 […] The post EP75: Mastering uncertainty | Matt Watkinson | Methodical appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

The recent acquisition of new business agency Future Factory by their leading competitor Ingenuity has been headline news in the new biz community. For me it was the perfect opportunity for a long overdue catch up with co-founder Alex Sibille. In this episode we discuss the expanded new business and marketing services offered by this […] The post EP74: New business trends | Alex Sibille | Future Factory appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Any regular listeners to this podcast will know that I love agencies. I have a deep fascination for the dynamics of what are often small businesses, almost always servicing larger organisations and adapting to the continually shifting sands of markets, consumer behaviour, the economy, competitors – and of course, technology. In this episode I discuss […] The post EP73: Market relevance | Mark Wilson | Futurestate Design appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

How do you feel about the year ahead? Confident? Concerned? Uncertain? Wherever you are on this spectrum, one thing we must be, is ready.  I particularly like the work that Steve Parks does at Convivio because he focuses heavily on the macro issues facing clients and prospects and encourages agency leaders to use this insight […] The post EP72: What to expect in 2023 | Steve Parks | Convivio appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Whichever way we cut it, 2022 has been A LOT. The last few years have seen so much change; for individuals, businesses and our industry. Many of us are still adapting. Whether we are recalibrating, reinventing, surviving or thriving, we’re doing it all against a backdrop of relentless economic and political turmoil and uncertainty. So […] The post EP71: Managing mindset | Wendy Bollard appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

It’s been a little while since we had a client perspective on this podcast, and given the current economic wobbles, now feels like an excellent time to remedy this. So I’m delighted to share this conversation with Gareth Turner. Having enjoyed a stellar marketing career with brands such as Johns Smith’s, Bulmers and Lurpak, Gareth was […] The post EP70: A client perspective | Gareth Turner | Big Black Door appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

It’s been a while since we talked about new business talent on this podcast. But after a bumpy couple of years, it seems like the right time to shine a spotlight on the superstars in our industry who willingly show up every day to seek out new clients for their agencies. I wrote about the challenges […] The post EP69: New business talent | Adam Graham | BD Matters appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

The theme for this series has always been to explore how we can use a marginal gains thinking to improve agency new business and marketing performance. That said, I’m conscious that in some episodes, when we do a deep dive into a particular element of new business and marketing mix, our reference to marginal gains […] The post EP68: Marginal gains in practice | Joe Perkins | Chaptr appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

There is no doubt these are troubling times. As the economic storm clouds gather, we are all bracing ourselves for some pain in the months ahead as marketing spends come under pressure. But what concerns me most is the timing. For most of this year, I’ve witnessed agencies juggling an influx of projects, finally unlocked […] The post EP67: The Summer Reset | Lucy Mann appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Over recent episodes we’ve been taking a deep dive into some very specific elements of agency marketing and prospecting.  We revisited agency positioning with Roland Gurney at Treacle, really got to grips with thought leadership with Mark Wellings at Grist and in the last episode on relationships, Trenton Moss talked about the prospect communities he […] The post EP66: Building a prospect community | Kelly Molson | Rubber Cheese appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

After a tough couple of years, I’ve been spotting some really positive signs in agencies over the past six months; clients seem to be spending, delayed projects are being given the green light and new business pipelines are flourishing. But there is no escaping the wider economic picture and we should rightly be bracing ourselves […] The post EP65: How to master relationships | Trenton Moss | Team Sterka appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Whether your agency has a fast track growth plan or a more modest desire to maintain the status quo, there are innumerable challenges that can derail even the best laid plans. Client insecurity or overexposure, floundering new business pipelines or skills shortages not to mention the wider economic backdrop, can all create pinch-points for agency […] The post EP64: The Agency Growth Challenge | Daniel de la Cruz | Polymensa appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Within the ecosystem of agency new business, marketing, client development and the wider sphere of agency growth, there are certain topics which we will undoubtedly revist again and again. So, not for the first time, and certainly not the last, I wanted to talk about agency positioning. And not for the first time, and I […] The post EP63: Agency positioning 2022 | Roland Gurney | Treacle appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Thought leadership – in its various forms, is a topic we have covered in a number of episodes over the years. Done well, it can be a game-changer for agency marketing, sparking and re-igniting meaningful prospect and client conversations. However, there are a number common hurdles I tend to encounter when speaking with agency founders […]