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

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 as the chat about AI continues to rumble in the daily news cycle, it’s feels like the right time to talk to someone who really understands that intersection of technology, people and brands.

Warren Hutchinson is Founder of Else, an experience design, innovation and strategy consultancy and Chair of the Design Business Association. He’s spent 25 years helping businesses as they navigate a point of change.

In this episode, we discuss cutting though the hype and the noise, the power of kinaesthetic learning and its role in our positioning as experts and the importance of not having all the answers.

Warren’s recommended read is Scary Smart by Mo Gowdat. Listen in to find out how to win a copy.

Also mentioned in the episode:

Diary of a CEO E252 Emergency Episode with Mo Gowdat

Newsletters:

TLDR

The Conversation

The Hustle

If you are a DBA Member you can join Warren discussing these topics in Glasgow on 15 June – find out more here

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.

The post EP77: AI, Web3 and the agency | Warren Hutchinson | Else appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

In previous episodes we’ve tackled various aspects of pitching and presenting, specifically with Tony Spong from AAR (episode 10) and Catherine Allison at Master the Art (episodes 3 and 33). In those discussions we concentrated largely on our behaviour – our pitching processes, how we question, how we listen. But the area we didn’t really touch on is our presentation materials.

We’ve all heard the statistics about how much of our verbal vs visual communication is heard and seen, but at a time when we are mostly communicating through a Zoom window and many of the other subtle body language cues are missing, the pressure is on to make sure our presentation materials are working harder than ever.

And as a marginal gains exercise, this one is a whopper! Presentation decks are so often overlooked, either hastily rehashed or totally over engineered. Time spent rethinking how we approach this vital part of our new business armoury is undoubtedly time well spent.

So who better to unpick this than presentation expert Shan Preddy. Design Business Association members will know Shan well as a founder member of the Experts Register and trainer and advisor to swathes of organisations across the sector.

Listen in to hear Shan’s best tips and tricks for powerful presentations (and a bonus insight into the communication skills of the new US Vice President-Elect....!)

Shan’s recommended read is Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte.

Preddy & Co

Shan Preddy

“I’m speaking...”

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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 & Saatchi to set up M&C Saatchi, Dave Trott setting up Bainsfair Sharkey Trott then WCST, Trevor Beattie making waves with Wonderbra and FCUK, and so it went on. Everywhere you turned there were names.

agency profile point of view, allowing everyone a share of voice if they get a good plan in place. However, there has seemed a notable lack of high profile individuals in quite the same way as we had before. With so much noise – was it just too hard for anyone to cut through?

For me, that changed when Social Chain founder Steven Bartlett catapulted on to the scene, transcending industry trade press, appearing in mainstream media and attracting over 2 million followers online. All by the age of 27. (Not to mention taking the company public).

To help me understand how that happened, and what we can learn from it, I’m joined by Ash Jones, part of the founding team at Social Chain and founder of Great Influence.

We talk about what it takes to create a personal brand, how to cut through the noise and how to manage imposter syndrome.

As always we’ll be giving away a copy of Ash’s recommended read – the newly published Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett.

The post EP51: Raising your profile – part three | Ash Jones | Great Influence appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

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 challenge.

Which is why I was intrigued by the service that Laura Hannan and her team at Pitch121 provide.

Laura joins me for the second episode in our mini-series exploring different techniques and resources to help raise your agency profile.

Listen in to hear a how the clever combination of tech, content and highly targeted Sales Navigator outreach is connecting agencies with their audiences, and a wealth of tips for elevating your own LinkedIn presence.

As always we’ll be giving away of Laura’s recommended read; Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers by Tim Hughes.

The post EP50: Raising your profile – part two | Laura Hannan | Pitch121 appeared first on Gunpowder Consulting.

Let’s be honest. These are uncertain times.

Even those agency owners who are highly proficient in keeping the new business pipeline bubbling, will probably have had a heart-stopping moment or two over the last 18 months. An unexpected decision by a client, the surprising cancellation of a new project after the green light has already been given, or as one observer recently described to me – client paralysis.

So far in the Small Spark Theory we’ve been examining all the parts of the sales and marketing process to understand where we can make marginal gains.

But understanding not only how we sell but, what we sell, has never been more important.

In this month’s episode, we chat to Erica Wolfe-Murray, of Lola Media. With a unique mix of experiences from finance and the creative sector, Erica is an established thought leader on the subject of business growth through creative use of IP.

This is our first eye-opening episode from Erica who’ll be joining us later in the year to discuss revenue models.

As always we’ve got a competition and will be giving away a copy of Erica’s recommended read: A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. Listen in to find out how to win.

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