Operations
How small agencies replace free pitching with paid discovery
18 September 20269 min readRead
B2B practice
How marketing and design agencies get clients: a 90-day plan
How your buyer buys: Nobody is searching for you. You go and find them.
An agency is hired on a recommendation and checked on LinkedIn. A founder asks another founder who did their packaging or their website, gets two names, and reads both agencies' recent posts and case studies the same evening. The one whose work is in their sector, with a price band on the page, gets the first call.
Then the pitch request arrives. Three agencies are asked for ideas, a week of senior time goes into each deck, and one wins. The alternative is a paid discovery: a fixed price, a written roadmap the client can take to any supplier, credited against the project. Buyers who are serious pay it, and the ones who were collecting free ideas do not, which is the point.
The order is set by that. The niche sentence goes on the homepage and the LinkedIn headline, pitch requests get the paid discovery, and past clients hear who you want to meet, all in week one. Then three options on every proposal, follow-up on days 3, 7 and 14, and a weekly post. Then the written price bands, the cold email with a teardown, and the overflow arrangement with larger agencies.
Step zero
The free checklist, before the plan.
The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.
The Agency's DIY Growth Checklist
The free checklist for marketing and design agencies: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.
Where they look
Where your customers actually look.
LinkedIn(opens in a new tab)
Where the founder who was given your name reads your last month of work. The headline is the niche sentence, the posts show work in that sector, and the featured section holds the discovery offer.
Clutch(opens in a new tab)
A reviewed directory that marketing managers and procurement teams at larger clients search by service and city. Verified reviews that name the client's sector and the result are what rank a profile.
The Drum Recommends
The Drum's client-rated agency directory, read by marketing directors who already buy agency services. Ratings come from your own clients, so ask at launch while the result is on screen.
DesignRush
A directory of design, web and marketing agencies sorted by specialism and location. A profile with the niche in the description and three case studies with figures is enough to appear in the right list.
Behance(opens in a new tab)
Where a brand identity or packaging project is seen by the people who commission the next one. Each case study tagged with the client's sector, so a drinks founder searching for drinks branding finds yours.
Dribbble(opens in a new tab)
The portfolio site a marketing manager scrolls to check an agency's craft after a recommendation. Shots from live projects, each one linked back to the full case study on your own site.
Your year
Steady all year, so start now.
Projects are commissioned all year, with slower decisions in August and late December.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug: quiet
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec: quiet
Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.
Agency work is commissioned all year, so there is no peak and no start-by month. The rhythm is set by the client's budget cycle and by holidays. Decisions slow in August and stop in the second half of December, then proposals that sat for a month get signed in the first fortnight of January and the first week of September. Send the follow-up for anything outstanding on the first working day after each break. Use August and December for the work that needs no client: the niche sentence, the price band articles, the discovery roadmap template, the overflow conversations with two or three larger agencies. Rebrands and website rebuilds tend to be budgeted in the autumn for a spring launch, so the sector you serve is deciding in October.
The 90-day plan
Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.
Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.
Week 0
Sharpen the offer
Write one sentence naming the niche and the offer, and make it the homepage and LinkedIn headline
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
In the bundleSharpen the offer
Answer pitch requests with a fixed-price paid discovery and a written roadmap, credited against the project
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 2 to 6 weeks
In the kit and the bundleTell everyone you already know
Send past clients and old colleagues one short personal note each, naming the niche and who you want to meet
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Month 1
Sharpen the offer
Send every proposal with three options at worked prices
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
In the kit and the bundleSame-day quote, then follow up
Follow up every proposal on days 3, 7 and 14, then stop
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 3 weeks
In the kit and the bundleLinkedIn, posting and conversations
Post weekly about work in your niche, and message the people who engage
- Medium effort
- About 2 hours a week
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
Months 2 to 3
Answer buying questions in writing
Publish the answers prospects want before a call, including your real price bands
- Cost: Free
- Medium effort
- About 1 hour a week
- First result in 12 to 26 weeks
Cold email to limited companies
Email limited companies in your niche with a short written teardown of their packaging or website, then offer the discovery
To limited companies only: identify yourself, give an opt-out address, keep a suppression list.
- Cost: ££
- High effort
- About 3 hours a week
- First result in 2 to 8 weeks
Limited companies onlyOverflow and subcontract work
Tell two or three larger agencies you take white-label and overflow work, with a day rate and a turnaround time
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 2 to 8 weeks
Month 3 onward
A plan with a name and a monthly price
Name your retainer's monthly price and what it buys, and review it with the client every quarter
- Cost: £
- Medium effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
In the kitReciprocal trade partners
List ten referral partners in your niche and contact two a month, telling each exactly who to send you
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
Ask for the referral at the high point
On launch day, ask who else in the sector is about to rebrand or rebuild their site
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 2 to 8 weeks
The cost of waiting
What doing nothing costs marketing and design agencies.
The leaks below are the ones the marketing and design agencies page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.
Industry estimates, not client results
Industry-typical ranges for a small agency: a first project in the mid thousands, about one in four pitches won, and half of clients commissioning a second piece of work within the year.
Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.
Where it leaks
Drains close rate
A week of senior time goes into pitches you may not win
- Leaking now
- £2,344 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £938 a month
- The fix
- Package and pricing design (about £700 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 3.2 weeks
Drains enquiries
Your website shows a logo wall, not results or price bands
- Leaking now
- £3,125 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £1,250 a month
- The fix
- A website that sells one clear offer (about £1,750 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 6.1 weeks
Drains close rate
Enquiries with no budget take the same hour as good ones
- Leaking now
- £1,042 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £521 a month
- The fix
- Enquiry forms that qualify (about £375 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 3.1 weeks
Drains close rate
Proposals go out late and nobody follows them up
- Leaking now
- £2,344 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £938 a month
- The fix
- Quote follow-up automation (about £700 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 3.2 weeks
On these figures
£8,854 a month leaking
Fixing every leak above gets back about £3,646 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline.
- The Steady-Pipeline System (£1,995)
- Pays back in 2.4 weeks
- The Agency Growth Kit (£49)
- Pays back in under a week
Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for marketing and design agencies.
What matters most
The levers that carry the most weight here.
An agency's pipeline is built on four steps. The paid first step, a fixed-price discovery with a written roadmap, because it ends free pitching and sorts the buyers from the browsers. Narrowing who you serve to one sentence, brand identity for independent food and drink producers rather than full-service creative, because that sentence is what a founder repeats to another founder. Same-day proposals with three options, followed up on days 3, 7 and 14 and then dropped, because the proposal nobody chases is the one that dies. And overflow work: telling two or three larger agencies you take white-label work at a day rate, which fills the studio between wins. The retainer with a monthly price turns a project into a client from month three.
See every lever for marketing and design agencies in the registerReading for marketing and design agencies
All insightsRead How small agencies replace free pitching with paid discovery Read How to price your services as a UK small business (without undercharging by default) OperationsHow to price your services as a UK small business (without undercharging by default)
27 April 20267 min readReadRead How to write website copy that converts (without sounding salesy) WebsitesHow to write website copy that converts (without sounding salesy)
11 February 20268 min readRead
If you would rather we did this for you
The same plan, built and run for marketing and design agencies: the phone, the profile, the pages and the follow-up, priced up front.
See what we build for marketing and design agenciesNot sure which step comes first for your business?
The free audit asks about your trade, your numbers and your season, then ranks the fixes for you.