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

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 combined new business powerhouse, Alex reflects on how new business performance has fared through changing economic conditions and shares insights and best practice for agencies either looking to hire a new business agency or undertake their own outreach activity.

Just to mix things up, this month we don't have a book recommendation, but instead, content to follow on LinkedIn, specifically Tina Fegent and her weekly #TinaTells posts.

Also mentioned in the episode are Future Factory training courses and our previous conversations on the pod in EP24: The new business email and EP5: Lead generation.

This episode is sponsored by E2M, the #1 white label digital agency partner. Visit https://www.e2msolutions.com/smallsparktheory/ to enjoy 20% discount on your first month.

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 challenges of maintaining relevance with the brilliant Mark Wilson, one half of the agency previously known as Wilson Fletcher, newly rebranded as Futurestate Design.

How do you decide when to transform? When to stick and when to twist? How to you find the language to articulate your offer when technology moves so fast that 'digital' is no longer helpful.

As always we are giving away a copy of Mark's recommended read: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. Listen in to find out how to win.

Also mentioned in this episode is Mark's own book Futurestate Design: How to step out of the past to create a business fit for the future.

Powerful by Patty McCord

This episode is sponsored by E2M, the #1 white label digital agency partner. Visit https://www.e2msolutions.com/smallsparktheory/ to enjoy 20% discount on your first month.

Additional music: "Show Me" by Josh Woodward

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 to plan, adapt and respond as necessary. We discussed this approach when Steve joined me on the podcast back in episode 57, so I was keen to bring him back to get us in the right frame of mind for our first episode of 2023.

This is a bumper conversation, full of solid insight and brilliant, practical advice. We discuss some familar themes from last year and identify the potential hurdles and opportunties that lie ahead.

As always we'll be giving away a copy of Steve's recommended read: The Alliance by Reid Hoffman- listen in to find out how to win.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Books

Anti-fragile: things that gain from disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Further reading

The Agency Radar

High Altitude Thinking

The True Hope of Optimistic Pessimism

Support

The Trussell Trust New Business Trouble Shoot

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 for our final episode of the year I wanted to focus on how we can maintain our confidence and positivity as we close off the year and look ahead to 2023.

Wendy Bollard is a mindset coach with many years' experience in the creative industry. Working with artists, designers, performers and directors, she uses her brilliant box of tricks to help her clients manage the day to day noise and bring out their very best performance.

Listen in as Wendy shares her valuable tools and advice and helps us understand how to give our minds a daily workout. As always we are giving away a copy of Wendy's recommended read: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

Thank you all listening this year and continuing to support Small Spark Theory, every time we get your feedback and reviews it really is like a big internetty hug. Wishing you all a warm and restorative break.

Also mentioned in the episode: Atomic Habits by James Clear

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 most recently Head of Marketing at Weetabix and earlier this year, published his own research on client / agency relationships.

We pick though the six key themes of this research to provide practical, actionable tips to help reinforce your relationships. You can download a copy of the report here – and while you're at it, I highly recommend subscribing to Gareth's newsletter: Sporadic Brand Ramblings.

As always we'll be giving away a copy of Gareth's recommended read: How not to plan: 66 ways to screw it up by Les Binet and Sarah Carter. Listen in to find out how to win.

For more information about Gunpowder's client audit programmes – get in touch.

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 for new business practitioners for Mental Health Awareness week highlighting the importance of getting the right support in place to retain our industry talent. So I was delighted to chat to Adam Graham about his new business community, BD Matters.

Together we discuss the highs and lows of marketing and prospecting, managing expectations, the power of community and share some top tips for agency owners looking to support their new business folk.

Adam's recommended read is a Small Spark Theory favourite, To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink. Join in the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram using #smallsparktheory for your chance to win a copy.

You can find out more about BD Matters here.

To chat in confidence about Lucy's mentoring, feel free to book in a time here.

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 may seem a little abstract.

So with September upon us and in keeping with that 'back to school' vibe, I wanted to dedicate an episode to practical examples of how this marginal gains thinking can deliver tangible results.

Joining me for this conversation is Joe Perkins, founder and MD of Chaptr. Joe started working through Gunpowder's New Business & Marketing Bootcamp with me back in 2020 and shares his experience of the warts and all process and his top tips for applying this approach to performance improvement.

As always we have a book giveaway - Joe's recommended read is Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord. Join in the conversation on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn using #smallsparktheory for your chance to win a copy.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Agency Collective

Agency Hackers

Agency Local

The Trussell Trust New Business Trouble Shoot