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

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 plans to contact a painstakingly researched list of prospects stall at this point, or we manage to email a few, wring our hands, get no response, swear a bit and then give up. Sound familiar? Then this episode is for you. Kimi Gilbert is Director of Training & Development at new business agency The Future Factory and trains her team, and agencies of all disciplines, in the art of writing new business emails that work. Kimi joins me to share her top tips for getting email cut-through, based on years of data and client feedback. If you're looking for a way to make marginal gains into your new business performance then this is the perfect place to start. As always we have a competition for you, we'll be giving away a copy of Kimi's recommended book: You Are a Message: Meditations for the Creative Entrepreneur by Guillaume Wolf - simply listen in to find out how to win. The next Winning New Business via Email course takes place in March, places are limited but you can find out more information or book tickets here.

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 Gallo, Katz Kiely, Sara Stark, David C Baker, Alex Blyth, Robert Kelsey, Tony Spong, Jemima Monies, Dan Sudron, Katie Pattison and Blair Enns. If you fancy a little more inspiration, check out David's book The Business of Expertise, Hilary's new book Fear Hackand Blair's practical guide to Pricing Creativity. As always, we have a competition prize. We'll be giving away a 15 minute timer from The School of Life, simply listen in to find out how to win. Merry Christmas, we'll be back in January with more guests and more news!

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 experienceof working with an agency which will influence selection, keep clients coming back for more and generate referrals. But hang on a minute - isn't that where chemistry comes in? Well yes it is, but chemistry isn't scalable, or reliable for that matter. What I'm really talking about is the end to end experience and the processes we can put in place to truly delight clients and prospects, beyond the delivery of great work. And yet rarely do we take the opportunity to truly put ourselves in our clients or prospects shoes, to understand just how user friendly we really are. Our reporting, meetings, emails, websites, project management processes and more are all fertile ground for identifying marginal gains. This is an episode I've been wanting to make for a while so I was delighted when Nick Phippsgot in touch from Rawnet. In true, "physician heal thyself" style, Rawnet are in the process of applying the customer centric principles and strategies they use for their clients' businesses, to their own agency. We got together to chat about how it's working out. And we have another competition for you. You can win a copy of Nick's recommended read: The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences by Matt Watkinson- just listen in for more details.

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 the Small Spark Theory series, whilst we've been speaking to a range of industry experts about elements of new business process and agency growth challenges, we have yet to give a voice to any new business practitioners. So I'm delighted that Jemima could spare the time between pitches to come and chat. In this episode we discuss the importance of new business culture, what makes a great new business person, the power of momentum and ice cream. With an enviable new business record, adam&eveDDB has now clocked up four years as Campaign Agency of the Year. Since recording this episode, I visited my local cinema and between trailers, the agency's John Lewis / Waitrose "Bohemian Rhapsody" ad finished to spontaneous applause from the audience. By my reckoning they'll be holding that top spot for a while yet. As always you can join in the conversation on twitter @gunpowdertweets #smallsparktheory.

Finding an alternative revenue model to the billable hour, is a topic we touched on with Erica Wolfe-Murrayof 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 delighted to welcome Erica back to Small Spark Theory, for a dedicated episode on agency revenue models. Based on her experience across multiple industries, Erica takes us through how we can think more creatively about what we sell and and how we sell it, and how to create multiple, and more importantly, scalable revenue streams. All this and more is available in Erica's brand new book, Simple Tips, Smart Ideas: Easy to Use Advice for Business Growth, which will be available from January 2019, and get this… you can win a copy too! Listen to this episode to find out how. We've been getting a lot of love for Small Spark Theory over recent months, which is heartening indeed. If you've been listening in and enjoying what you hear, please do leave a review on iTunes, it's really quick to do and would make our day.

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&A and corporate advisory voices in the marketing communications, media and tech sectors. Tony offers advice on what agency owners need to plan and prepare for, including the often tricky process of demonstrating ROI to clients (awards are critical!), why incentivising your staff is essential, along with key attributes in client relationships that are attractive to potential buyers. Mentioned in this episode are: The Diagrams Book by Kevin Duncan Sad Men by Dave Roberts. Details on the Green Square Ascension Day can also be found here. Not only that we have our monthly competition! Listen in to find out how to win a copy of Tony's recommended book 'Sad Men' by Dave Roberts. Just in time for the holidays, this really is a really is the perfect sunlounger episode, so put your feet up and kick back with a G + T. Stay cool gang.

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 of Marketing and Creative for Dishoom - Sara Stark. Sara discusses her experience of working with agencies and offers advice for approaching potential clients, along with invaluable tips for a building successful client / agency relationships. (Hint: send Sara flowers!) As always we have a competition for you. Listen in to find out how to win a copy of Sara's recommended read: Winning in Your Own Way: The Nine and a Half Golden Rules of Branding by Robert Bean. Thanks again to our lovely co-hosts YCN, everyone at White City Place and to photographer David Townhill.

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 Velarde - back by popular demand following our growth planning discussion in episode 4 last year - together with Joanna Brassett, founder of Studio INTO. Since 2011, Joanna has been building a global design research and innovation business and over the past 5 years has been implementing Gunpowder's Small Spark Theory philosophy. Felix and Joanna joined me to explore the challenges facing agency leaders at various stages of growth, from prioritising new business and marketing activity, getting to grips with cold outreach, when to delegate and when to hire. Special thanks to our co-hosts YCN, the super team at White City Place, photographer David Townhill and to Ugly Drinks, Propercorn and ABInBev for providing our drinks and snacks on the night.

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 rest assured, as Blair explains in this episode, there are changes you can make today that will reap tangible rewards. I know I say this every time but this is one episode you really won't want to miss! You can hear more about mastering the value conversation in Blair's discussion with David C Baker in this episode of 2Bobs. Blair and David will be reprising their new business summit for one time only this summer for the DBA. You can find details of tickets here, but be quick, this is likely to sell out fast! We have a phenomenal prize for one lucky listener, tune in to find out how to win. Also mentioned in this episode Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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 the connection between social channels and new business results is troublesome for many and even when we think we should get involved, it's easy to then lose momentum and enthusiasm. Late last year the team at PR & new business agency Red Setter examined the social media presence of 200 agencies and interviewed 50 agency leaders and a range of experts to understand the barriers, benefits and secrets to winning at social media. I invited Red Setter founders Alex and Claire Blyth into the Pod to find out about the results of their study, and get some top tips for our listeners. You can download their report: The Guide to Agency Growth through Social Media here. As always we have a competition! We're giving away a copy of Alex's recommended read, The Elements of Style by Strunk & White. Listen in to find out how to win.