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

Against a backdrop of news disproportionately full of business headlines, this month felt like the perfect opportunity to bring a client perspective to this podcast.  And who better to guide us through todays challenging landscape than John Gleason.  Having worked at Proctor and Gamble for 20 years before setting up his strategic consultancy, A Better […]

One of the most exciting developments I've spotted so far in 2025 has to be the launch of the Department of Creative Affairs (DCA). So, I was delighted that DCA's founder, Amar Chohan, was able to join me for a chat here on Small Spark Theory. In this episode, Amar shares his career journey—from aspiring […]

Can you believe we're already in February? In this episode, we're diving deep into one of the most crucial (yet often overlooked) aspects of agency sales and marketing—measurement. If you've ever struggled with tracking the success of your marketing efforts or found yourself making gut-based decisions about new business opportunities, this episode is for you. […]

Kicking off our 2025 line-up, we catch up with previous guest Jim Hawker. Since discussing client development with us back in 2019 (see EP28), Jim has gone on to sell Threepipe, the agency he co-founded 20 years earlier. He finally exited the agency last year to focus on a variety of new ventures as a fractional […]

As we wrap up 2024 with this final episode, I've been reflecting on the many conversations I've had with agencies throughout the year, as well as the recurring themes shared by our amazing podcast guests. It's been a challenging year for many, which makes this the perfect moment to focus on an invaluable asset every […] The post EP94: Empowering your people to drive growth | Zoe Tuffs | Times Ten appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

As we discussed in episode 92 with Stephen Kenwright, a solid sales and marketing strategy is crucial for agency growth. However, realising that growth brings its own set of challenges. Having experienced rapid growth through acquisition while leading agency sales and marketing, I'm well aware of the pitfalls of maintaining brand consistency while keeping momentum […] The post EP93: Managing sales and marketing as you scale | Alisha Lyndon | Momentum ITSMA appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

The thing with marginal gains is that it feels small. And we could be forgiven for thinking that applying this approach to agency growth is simply about tinkering around the edges, making small improvements and seeing small incremental results. I know it has a far bigger sales and marketing role to play, but wanted to […] The post EP92: How to Scale Fast | Stephen Kenwright appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

It's been 6 years since Tony Walford from Green Square joined me on Small Spark Theory to discuss the practicalities of selling an agency.  To say a lot has happened since then would be an understatement. Aside from the obvious economic rollercoaster and acceleration in technology, we've seen a seismic change to the way many […] The post EP91: An agency M&A update | David Blois | M&A Advisory appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Of all of the marketing tools available to agencies, I'd wager that one of the most effective, yet most overlooked, is the humble email newsletter.  Which of course, makes it the perfect candidate for marginal gains and the perfect topic for this podcast. And this month, I have the perfect guest in the shape of […] The post EP90: Unlocking the power of agency newsletters | Jamie Woodbridge | The Inbox Club appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Small Spark Theory has always been about a mindset. When I started this podcast back in 2017 I wanted to harness the marginal gains thinking that was and still is, so prevalent in elite sport and apply it to an altogether different kind of winning – agency new business. So when I heard Serotonin Co-Founder […] The post EP89: Agency lessons from an ultra-runner | Clair Heaviside | Serotonin appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Early on in my agency career I often used to hear the expression ‘great creative work will sell itself', and its close cousin ‘do great work and the clients will come'. Of course we know that in reality, certainly for the majority, these things are rarely true, but I'm still surprised by the number of […] The post EP88: Beyond creativity – the commercial skills you need to succeed | Tim Perry appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Over the recent months, I have observed how agencies have been experiencing the impact of economic uncertainty – including the stalling of client decision-making, frozen budgets, disappearing pipelines, and everything in between. In their recent BenchPress report, The Wow Company described last year as ‘brutal' for agencies, and as 2024 adds more political uncertainty, there is […] The post EP87: Why we need to stop ‘doing' new business | Lucy Mann appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Over recent episodes we've referenced many of the macro issues facing brands, which have in turn slowed down or stalled new business opportunities for agencies.  But there's an elephant in the room that we've yet to address; the growing trend of clients deciding to bring creative resource in-house.  In this episode I speak to designer, […] The post EP86: In-house creative teams. An agency threat or opportunity? | Emma Sexton appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Have you ever felt that your agency is pigeonholed by clients and prospects as being a specialist in just one thing, where in reality you have so much more to offer? Of course being seen as a specialist of any kind is a generally a good thing – we have many episodes where we have […] The post EP85: Changing perception | Steve Garside | TMW appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Here we are at the beginning of 2024 and it feels fitting for our first episode of the year to celebrate change. Last Summer, 40 year old agency Thompson Brand Partners rebranded as ThreeTenSeven – the final iteration of the agency's repositioning following a management buy-out in 2019. At a time when we have seen […] The post EP84: Reposition, rename, rebrand | Rachel Cook | ThreeTenSeven appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

December 2023 marks seven years of Small Spark Theory. Mindblowing then that's it's taken this long for a dedicated episode on the topic of proposals – such a crucial element of the new business process but a perennial pain point all the same.  Joe Ardeeser was so determined to find a better solution for turning […] The post EP83: Winning proposals | Joe Ardeeser | Smart Pricing Table appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Regular listeners to this podcast will know that we spend a lot of time here talking about relationships. Of course there is much to say in our industry about creativity and marketing and technology innovation, but fundamentally, as agencies we are service businesses and so the process of attracting, winning and retaining clients has as […] The post EP82: How to improve performance and reduce stress | David Meikle | HTBAG appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

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 […] The post EP62: Mastering thought leadership | Mark Wellings | Grist 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 […]

I have a constant fascination with the power of agency marketing. I'm sure it's my age – having cut my new business teeth in a pre-digital era, but my enthusiasm for the growing array of channels available for anyone to share their message with an audience shows no sign of abating.   So forgive me for […]

So here we are in 2022. I'm not really one for resolutions, but there is something about a new year that makes me want to clear the decks, remove distractions and create a renewed sense of focus. A new notebook and a tidy Dropbox tend to help but I find data the most useful tool. […]

There has been much written on the subject of agency new business, but I'm not sure there has been a book which has resonated so deeply with agency founders and new business practitioners alike, as the Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns. So as we come to the end of another extraordinary year and […]

In my work with agencies I witness a great deal of discomfort about the new business process. Of course there are brilliant, natural new business professionals out there who thrive on networking and relationship building, but for many, the possibility of rejection looms large and the process of prospecting or, shudder, ‘selling', feels wholly unnatural. […]

We've talked a lot about leadership on this podcast, and rightly so. Sustainable new business performance starts with a growth mindset and that has to come from the very top of an agency. No matter how many people I speak with on the topic of agency leadership, every conversation brings a fresh perspective. And none […]

Earlier this year, Claire Humphris was named CEO at Iris, the agency she co-founded with five other colleagues in 1999. Iris now numbers over 1000 people across 17 offices worldwide. As agency breakaways go, it is a perfect case study. But of course, what interests me is the new business story. Claire has spent the […]

In 2017 I interviewed Felix Velarde for this podcast to discuss agency growth planning. It was our 4th episode. Lots of people got in touch to talk about that episode and the way Felix delivered such a calm, pragmatic approach to a subject that frustrates so many agency owners. How do you grow, and just as importantly, how […]

I've said many times that the people in business I admire the most are independent agency leaders. And over the past 18 months, as our industry, largely populated by small businesses has rallied against such unforeseen challenges, my admiration and respect has deepened. Through all of the conversations I had with agencies during this time […]

In the discussions we've had on this podcast, and in the work I do with agencies, the theme of walking in a clients' shoes has been a recurring one. From rethinking our messaging to talk to client needs rather than services, to our approach to prospecting and the way we build advocacy with our clients.  […]

It’s always a good day when someone gets in touch to pitch a podcast episode idea. Even better when that someone is a client. Andrew Southcott is Managing Director at creative agency group Captivate. Andrew hired me last year to work with Captivate’s new business talent, a move that came as part of a wider initiative […]

There are so many reasons for me wanting to do an episode on personal brand. Let’s go back to the beginning. At the start of my agency career, I worked mostly with ad agencies. This was in the 90s and honestly – it was dazzling. The high profile exit of Maurice and Charles from Saatchi […]

We’ve talked a lot on this podcast about LinkedIn over the years, and specifically the often untapped potential of Sales Navigator. From the conversations I’ve had with my clients, I know that whilst consistent LinkedIn engagement can deliver fantastic results – for many, finding the time and focus required to create momentum can be a […]

Many of the conversations I’ve been having with agencies over recent months have centred around marketing and new business resource. This is good news. It shows that we are looking forward and taking positive action to create better, more sustainable agency marketing practices. In particular, the biggest shift I have seen is agencies recognising the […]