Outbound prospecting fails for most agencies long before the first message is sent, because the lead list it relies on was built on guesswork rather than evidence. A campaign can only ever be as good as the names feeding it, and a list of loosely relevant companies will quietly cap every result that follows. The[…]
Winning larger retainers in the UK is rarely a matter of talent. The bigger accounts go to the agencies that are easy to recognise, easy to trust and easy to choose, and that have built a new business system capable of reaching the right clients consistently. Here are the strategies that reliably put a creative,[…]
In the highly competitive landscape of creative agency business development, differentiation is crucial and you need to know ten ways to make your agency the obvious choice. Here are key strategies to set your agency apart and attract more clients. Define Your Unique Selling Proposition Your agency’s success in new business agency growth hinges on[…]
Plenty of agency owners read a full diary as proof that things are going well. The delivery team is stretched, the calendar is packed, and there is a steady hum of work moving through the building. It feels like control. What it often hides is how little anyone can see beyond the next few weeks.[…]
Founder-led sales is one of the most common phases in an agency’s life. In the early days it is usually the founder’s network, credibility and energy that drives the momentum. The founder knows the work best, tells the story best, and naturally becomes the person who brings opportunities through the door. There is nothing wrong[…]
Most agency founders can point to their best clients and trace them straight back to a referral. Someone they worked with years ago moves to a new company and brings them in, a happy client mentions them over lunch, a partner agency passes on a brief that isn’t quite right for them. These are some[…]
Spend enough time around agencies and the same cycle starts to look almost choreographed. New business goes quiet, so everyone throws themselves at outreach for a few frantic weeks. The activity works, a couple of opportunities land, and the pressure lifts, so the outreach stops. Then delivery gets busy with the work that just came[…]
At Manifest we work with three distinct types of agency, and the differences between them shape almost everything about how new business should be run. We think of them as Big Game Hunters, Hunter Gatherers and Farmers. Each one wants something different from outreach, measures success in its own way, and needs a strategy built[…]
For most agency leaders, new business meetings can feel like a time-consuming distraction from the real work. In practice they are some of the most important conversations the agency will ever have, because they shape where its growth comes from next. There is a familiar irony in it. Plenty of agencies, from small creative studios[…]
In agency new business, the words lead, prospect and opportunity tend to get used as though they mean the same thing. They do not. Each describes a different stage in the journey from a name on a list to a signed client, and treating them as interchangeable is one of the quieter reasons agency pipelines[…]
