Future Factory arranges hundreds of meetings every month with decision makers at leading brands. Lead generation is an invaluable new business tool but, in our experience, it’s the very thing people tend to find the most daunting. You don’t have to be a traditional salesperson to be able to “sell” your agency effectively. If anything, a non-salesy approach is much more effective. This half-day course will give you the confidence and techniques to make fresh new business approaches in a softer way, build a pipeline of opportunities, and arrange new business meetings.

Suitable for anyone who wants to help their agency have a more predictable new business pipeline, from New Business Execs and Marketing Managers to more seasoned Account Directors or business development veterans looking to hone their approach.

Key areas covered:

• The research you should conduct in order to make an intelligent approach
• How to outline your agency’s proposition and key case studies in a succinct, attention-grabbing way
• Key questions to ask in order to tease out useful information from decision makers
• The 7 most common objections to meeting and how to get around them
• Organisation and keeping on top of new business leads
• How to arrange quality new business meetings that have a real agenda

Everyone can write a good email but writing a good new business email is a different thing altogether. Your average Marketing Director at a top-tier brand will get roughly 300 cold emails from agencies a week. How is it possible to get cut-through when you’re up against such odds?

Our team regularly gets feedback from brands complimenting their email approaches, such as this response from the Marketing Director at Warburtons: “Thank you so much for taking the time to contact us with such an inventive email approach… I’d be delighted to invite you over to our offices.”

The goal of this half-day session is simple: To teach you the techniques that make it possible to get the same type of positive response and praise which can then lead to new business opportunities.

Suitable for anyone who wants to help their agency build a more predictable new business pipeline, from New Business Execs and Marketing Managers to more seasoned Account Directors or business development veterans looking to hone their approach.

Key areas covered:

• How to find decision maker email addresses without buying a database
• Conducting research before writing
• What makes a good new business email
• General tips to increase cut-through
• A discussion around some successful emails
• Putting the theory into practice by researching, writing, and sending emails of your own

Many agencies understand the benefits of marketing and make investments in thought leadership, hosting events, newsletters, awards and speaking opportunities. However, beyond waiting for the phone to ring, there is plenty that can be done to maximise the ROI an agency can generate from any marketing activity.

Whether your marketing objectives are to attract and engage with potential new clients, convince your pipeline that you are the agency they should be appointing or to retain and grow your existing clients, using your marketing proactively as a business development tool will fast track your agency towards its goals.

If you already have an active marketing function and would like to reap greater benefits, we’ll share tips and guidance on how each different part of your marketing can, with some pre-planning, become the greatest tools for your new business team.

If you’re at the early stages of considering what marketing would be the smartest investment for your agency, we’ll review all of the options and where you can make some cost-effective and rapid wins.

Throughout we’ll share examples and inspiration from agencies creating best in class marketing, and how they utilised it to generate new business wins.

Agency proposition development is a hotly debated topic. We’re all guilty of navel-gazing from time to time but, despite this, flowery-languaged horror show propositions are in abundance in all corners of the agency world.

From our experience making approaches to senior level brand contacts, we bring an understanding of how to communicate vital information in as compelling a manner as possible.

This interactive session is a process through which you can strip away the fluff, focus on what it is you do best, articulate what you deliver for clients and – crucially – identify which of your services could form the spearhead of a new business approach.

Aimed at senior-level agency employees who want to understand how to simplify their service offering and shape the future vision of their business. Also perfect for new business teams who want to explore how to package services in different ways.

Key areas covered

• The agency landscape
• Trends and pitfalls
• Tools to simplify, sharpen and contextualise
• The Future Factory ‘best in class’ case studies
• Application in an approach
• Attendees will come out of the session with a refreshed proposition that is custom-fit for a new business drive

Give an agency a brief with a pitch date agreed and the whole team gathers around, a rigorous process kicks in, and plans are made to make sure they have the best chance of winning. On the other hand, when it comes to a casual coffee with a brand, a meeting at an event, or an informal creds session, often that same diligent mindset isn’t applied.

In our interactive session on meeting best practice, we will explore how you currently prepare for, perform in, and follow up new business meetings. You will uncover the steps you need to take to engage decision makers more effectively in meetings, as well as simple tips for having a seamless follow-up process. Attendees will leave the session with a bespoke process/check list for their agency so that they can immediately start enacting change.

Key areas covered

• The key prep that should go into new business meetings
• How to start a meeting and how to close
• Ways to make a good impression, fast
• How to uncover opportunities when there might not be an obvious need
• Creds vs. Chemistry – how not to kill chemistry in a new biz meeting
• Tips for putting a rigorous follow-up system in place

• Why new business matters
• An overview of the different types of people in your network and how to approach them
• CRM and how to embed/foster new business within your team

We’ll also be sharing an activity booklet for you to share with your team to get them involved in contributing to new business.

While anyone could attend this course, it is most suited to people managing or overseeing an account team. New business can come from the most unlikely of places, and this session will get you thinking about how to embed new business within the agency and get everyone involved. It’s our belief that if you create a new business ethos and culture, actively growing the business will become second nature.