Sure, some of the first few points below are obvious, but there are one or two real crackers on this list – this list is designed to serve as a gentle reminder of the things you know you should be doing en masse to build sales momentum in your agency!

1. Make a list of your closest friends/networked contacts. Can they get you an intro to the marketing team where they work? Find out who they know, whom they supply; don’t be afraid to include them in any events you organise. Friends are really good advocates for your business. If they find you business always take them out for a meal or a drink to say thanks!
2. Make sure your branding, proposition and messaging are tightly refined and be bold enough to review regularly. Within reason (ie don’t do it all the time!) a regular re-brand and/or a refinement to your company proposition that better reflects where your business has evolved to are good news all round and give you another PR opportunity. Build a great portfolio or showcase, imagine the most impressive way to show your work and make sure you put it out there for your prospects to see.
3. When recruiting new team members, try where possible to determine whether candidates have a good personal network that they can potentially tap into. It doesn’t just have to be their existing clients – just how well connected they are generally. Ask them how many Facebook friends, Linked-in connections, Twitter followers etc they have to gauge how connected and liked they are as individuals. Whilst it won’t be a primary reason to recruit someone, it can be a very important factor in helping build business opportunities for the future
4. Targets are key! Target the number of new people you want to meet each month. Target this by job title – e.g business owners/marketing directors etc. Target the number of visitors to your website – e.g. double traffic in 12 months. Most importantly of all – make sure the whole team knows your monthly sales target – put it on a wall. Don’t leave it in a spreadsheet hidden somewhere. Put it on a handout and circulate it every week. Revisit it – analyse what is helping to reach it or why you as a team aren’t hitting it and keep it as a visual focus at all times. This really works and it’s amazing how many MD’s don’t do this – just keeping it as a nominal figure only they and their accountant share!
5. A really smart way to grow client accounts, which is often overlooked, is to make sure your account managers can show you a relevant organisational chart of their clients, so that they fully understand who else could have budget within their clients’ companies.  Make sure all your business communications include these names. Make sure your account managers cross-reference this chart regularly with LinkedIn to see when the people on these charts with whom they have less personal contact move jobs
6. Keep in touch – however casually with people that you hired or were junior to you when you were an employee. Hopefully they got promoted and are decision makers now! This is a part of an important lesson in life generally: never burn bridges with people! And while we’re on the burning bridges subject; hopefully you don’t need reminding- but always always always be lovely to receptionists and PA’s.  Not just because it’s good manners, but if they’re on your side, they are your gateway to the decision makers. It’s amazing how ‘He’s in a meeting’ can become – ‘Do you know what – if you call at 8.30 tomorrow he’ll definitely be at his desk’ when you take the time to remember the receptionist’s name and ask how she/he is!
7. Always ensure you’re invited to any events your partnerships and suppliers hold so that you get a chance to meet their customers. This includes your lawyers, accountant, printers, hosting companies, media suppliers etc. As a rule of thumb only spend money with suppliers if they are in some way helping you to recoup that investment, by either being a client or finding you clients!
8. Always be ready with your elevator speech. Pretty much the first question you will get asked at a networking event will be ‘What do you do?’ You need to have a one line summary ready as people need to be able to ‘categorise’ you straight away – even if you hope to enlighten them on all the other services you offer at a later stage! Always tailor your pitch to suit your audience. REMEMBER, always say “so if you know anyone looking for xx then please feel free to recommend me” Never sell to someone you are directly talking to; it’s them and any of their contacts you want to connect to at some stage.
9. If you meet someone while networking, take the time to understand what their business does exactly then try very hard to connect them to someone you know that may be of use to them in the future. If you find this person a potential lead or opportunity or solve a problem for them, this will dramatically increase their desire to make sure they reciprocate in some way. Make sure you follow people back on Twitter who could be potential clients so they can DM you. Remember: to be interesting in life you must be interested. Networking is not a one-way sales push by you.
10. Partner, Partner, Partner; find businesses like CMS Vendors who need your additional complementary skills. Learn what a marriage broker is and find one that matches your requirements. Partnerships are a very important part of the new business mix. Remember you get results you have to work hard at these; you get out what you put in!
11. Create a strategy to have a better mix of clients. It will help your new business sales acquisition. Having one big client is rarely a good thing – for one the number of customer referrals will be lower than if you have a mix. To this end, write down your top 20 clients and work out how you won them and create a programme to accelerate winning business that way. Have a follow up conversation with all potential leads from the past couple of years, take an interest in what route they took, how things are progressing, let them know all the successes you have had since they met you. Tendering isn’t everyone’s bag, but if it’s relevant in your sector, subscribe to tender distribution lists.
12. Target specific industry events in sectors you would like to work in. This could be by industry, business size or locality. Attend regular conferences and seminars. Remember you are going there to build networks in that sector. Always attend the ‘after show’ parties. It’s the best way to make new friends, build contacts, and find business opportunities. In the same vein, join a relevant industry organisation. Make the most of the many benefits this type of organisation brings, like business supports services. Look at getting listed in its directories and agency new business selection programs.
13. Find a great bar which is free to hire or where you can cordon off a small section, make sure it’s located near a train station within easy reach for all your clients, put £250 behind the bar and invite your clients and prospects, tell them drinks are free between 6-8 (or longer if you are happy to fund) and encourage them to bring their friends/like minded people they know. Make it a monthly event and give it a name like “Third Thursday” or something much cooler.
14. PR everything! Get to know the key journalists/ content writers for your trade journals/sites/local radio etc. Follow them on Twitter/ try and go to events where they’re definitely going to be and just introduce yourself. You’d be amazed how grateful journalists are for quick reference people to call when they need a quote/opinion etc. The more specialist your services, the truer this is. Obviously remember -everything you say will end up in print. And finally on the subject of press; don’t underestimate the power of local press. Issue a press release about a story related to your services and try and get it into a local newspaper – ‘Local Digital Agency builds 200th website for local Chamber of Commerce’ or maybe run a programming or design contest via the local press. A bit of lateral thinking can make most things newsworthy! Try to make sure that all this PR really gets across what your business specialises in.
15. Send out a personal style email to everyone in your address book, announcing what you do, where you are based and what you can offer. Make sure you do this every time your proposition changes or your business has changed or evolved in some way. Do not blatantly sell on this email!! Just keep your business gently at the front of your contacts’ minds.
16. Introduce net promoter score (NPS) as a customer service metric for your business It drives advocacy of your business and encourages everyone in your team to offer the best service, which will in turn drive more business. Happy customers always spend more money, so why not make NPS the metric on how your team is paid their bonus. Promoting ‘100% of our customers rate our service as good or excellent’ is always a great way to give prospects confidence in your service.
17. Sponsor a client or industry event when you know that many of your client’s colleagues or in the case of an industry event, many other companies of a similar type to your existing clients who may also require your services will be attending. It’s a great way to meet the wider teams in the case of your clients and you can make sure you get introduced.
18. Always add people you’ve met to LinkedIn as well as internal CRM databases on the premise that when they change jobs you’ll never need to lose contact again. Spend a day contacting people who’ve changed jobs to either invite them to your next event or for a drink somewhere for a catch up.
19. Research sites or forums (e.g Linked-in groups) your clients are visiting and/or expressing opinions on. Consider advertising on them or next to prospects’ or target job titles or company pages. Either that or make sure you are contributing or commenting (engaging) on content on those sites. You’ll also increase your chances of seeing people asking for recommendations for your type of agency!
20. Understand the power of doing things for free, perhaps offer a small piece of work for a client for free or sharing research that your clients would find interesting. Always share your presentations (not client ones!) online and offline. Write a thought leadership paper, and share it freely. If anything this should create more speaker events, which in turn will undoubtedly create more new business opportunities.
21. Consider a referral or finder’s fee to incentivise people who have the same type of clients but offer a different service, e.g. a local or similar sized web hosting business.  Sometimes though, it is better just to encourage a reciprocal opportunity. Only refer business to people who refer back to you frequently.
22. Ask your clients to credit your work on their website, video or print collateral e.g ‘another creative piece from your company’ and link it to your website or phone number. If they don’t let you do that then put it in the meta source code of their website or online marketing.
23. Go to events where businesses of the size you would like to do business with go to, or identify the job titles your customers typically have and research the types of events they go to. Whichever is more relevant for your business, join your local Chamber of Commerce, Agency Industry Association or Masons’ Lodge etc and get involved. Work hard to meet and know everyone involved with that organisation. It builds trust and often great referrals. Joining a size based networking group is also important, e.g. the Linked-in 500+ contacts group or real life businesses networking groups trading over certain sizes eg £1M+. To win international business try visiting networking events abroad, you may find opportunities to help businesses access the UK Market.
24. Think laterally about people you meet through your hobbies or social activities. Don’t dismiss the opportunities that chatting to a few extra people in the pub, your cycling club, sports club, shooting party etc can lead to. We have heard countless stories – from people who went to school together, to the local Triathletes club- on winning projects from very small companies to the largest of Brands.
25. Put together a free workshop in your offices for a local business group or targeted market; think of what aspects of the services you offer will be most useful to the type of businesses you expect to come. E.g. public sector & engaging local communities online.
26. A lot of agencies consider taking High Street shop fronts. Just walk around Soho, London, you’ll get the idea. Do something creative in the window that you’ll become famous for.  Also remember the little things, sign for your office – even if you’re in shared offices put a sign outside in the foyers, if you’re allowed, make sure your buzzer is branded (try to be creative) and then on your floor make sure your landing/door are branded. A piece of creativity in a foyer if you are part of a larger office complex. Ask if you can put your business cards or brochure in other local offices reception. Anything to make sure people in the vicinity know you exist…right on their doorstep!
27. Do an audit of your business and check that your URL and/or other key tags such as Twitter appear on everything – email sign offs, signage, laptop bags, anything that is going to be seen by potential clients. Don’t dismiss everyday merchandise – e.g. funky t-shirts, mugs, pens etc. to leave with prospects/clients when you visit.  Use your imagination and execute these well and they can really reinforce your brand. Phone cases, useful iphone apps etc. Failure to do so can be such a simple oversight as a business starts to grow; you have to keep revisiting this!
28. Try and get listed in league tables based on the size of your business – obviously the golden goal is getting listed in the key ones for your industry; if there’s nothing suitable how about creating your own local/regional/industry based league table like this one in the UK www.swtop100.com . League tables are really key to getting invited onto bigger pitches and putting yourself out there amongst the competition. Remember even if you’re not big enough to appear in the tables there is always the ‘ones to watch’ categories..
29. Enter for awards. Again – especially if your company is very specialist you often have a better chance of winning than you think. There are often many fewer entries than you might expect – hence a chance of winning! PR when you’re shortlisted for awards. Enter fast growth/ profit or other business awards. Best places to work in the country tables are good ones to feature in too.  All this PR is good for the team and the business, as well as creating lots more opportunities with fellow businesses who are winners. Successful companies like to work with others who are successful. Become a judge; there is no better way to get insight into the process. Always make sure your entry has a video show reel, explaining the campaign; it makes an incredible difference to the judging process to see and hear the idea or story behind the work.
30. Attend or exhibit at exhibitions/ industry shows. If exhibiting doesn’t seem relevant/isn’t cost effective, seek out shows where your prospects are definitely going or are highly likely to be. These events can be very productive if you do your research properly beforehand. Talk to people who’ve been or exhibited before. And don’t forget the after show parties and special events being held as an opportunity to meet more people.
31. Have a gimmick that makes you stand out – something like very distinctive business cards or even something as simple as always having a fridge full of great drinks in your office or always taking fab cakes to meetings. These things obviously won’t sell your services on their own, but we’re back to the fact that if people remember you for positive reasons they’re more likely to!
32. Have an opinion – make sure everyone in your business has an opinion on their area of expertise. Comment on blogs; make sure your company’s social media presence is worth visiting/following by raising a viewpoint on pertinent stories in your industry press. Pitch an article to an industry publication – especially if you have a specialism that enables you to have a particularly authoritative take on a current issue or can add a poignant alternative viewpoint to the ‘mainstream’ output on the subject. Use your whole team to help you do this. If you haven’t got the time to write a white paper or thought leadership piece then why not sponsor a thought leadership piece, repackage it and send it to your customers. Conversely, if writing is really your thing then why not write a book on a subject that your business is most famous for with customers?
33. Offer to speak/nominate someone in your business to speak at industry and networking events. Give them a suitable job title to position them at the right level and give them authority. Also even if speaking to big groups is your idea of hell, there are often smaller events at which you can speak to practise. As an ‘entry level’ option how about your company sponsoring an award at an event and then you can present it? Don’t be afraid to publish all your talks on slide share. Speaking is a great way to network en masse. It raises your authority and trust levels!
34. Start a blog and publicise it. Particularly relevant for ‘test marketing’ new services or areas into which you are thinking of expanding. The trick to a good blog is to get the whole team to share the responsibility; frequency is key. Let people see the personality behind the business – go and learn how to blog properly. Lots of people get it wrong. Don’t forget more traditional newsletters too. When well written and sent out in the right frequency they can really work – remember these shouldn’t really be vanity pieces, but useful to the recipient.
35. Pull a publicity friendly stunt (think Richard Branson) – get your adrenalin junkie staff to abseil down the side of the office for charity…or better still base jump off the top of it! Seriously – even sponsoring the local school fair can bring you into the consciousness of unexpected prospects.
36. Keep an eye on online job boards – on a basic level for example – new marketing managers, often need new agencies. Thinking more laterally, see if your prospects are advertising for people to do the things you do. There’s often a case for outsourcing being more cost effective/productive/ specialized. Exploit it!
37. Mail fun promotional items to potential clients (calendars, toys, posters etc). Offline communications if they’re well executed can be very memorable – especially if you target just a limited number of prospects and send them something a bit higher value/ creatively executed. The situation has pretty much reversed from a few years ago and now people are being deluged with emails etc but receive much less mail. Use that to your advantage.
38. Send a non refundable credit note to your dream prospect for £5,000 worth of work, only  on condition you can show case;  they’ll need to meet you to brief you, so an easy way to meet them face to face…
39. Help your prospects out…. For example, create a location based strategy, target potential clients who may live locally but commute, who could use your office for late Friday meetings, etc. Perhaps create a website version that targets Google local. Create a monthly promo card, with useful calendar messages on, perhaps, events happening in the month ahead, film releases, book releases, new websites, design awards, networking events, conferences, helpful to improving your customers professional lives
40. Avoid a Busman’s holiday; use relevant experts as partners for everything. For example, if you aren’t finding the time to do your online marketing don’t be afraid to partner with someone who can do it for you. Better that than it never getting done if you’re too busy working on clients. Just make sure your partners are specialist and can’t PR your work  :-) Similarly don’t be afraid to hire a non-exec Director to help you plan your business’s growth going forward. Their experience can be invaluable and save you costly mistakes and oversights.
41. Help Leads Find You and make sure you can find them – Get a search strategy, think laterally about search, e.g. “how to’s” on You Tube, PPC, seo. Use a product like Trovus to identify what businesses are looking at your website.
42. Make sure you’re listed in any directories run by industry press, industry groups, standards, partnership sites, online business directories, local, regional national. Contribute to open source efforts and get known.
43. On a local level – Keep a local list of freelancers that will offer clients a complementary service. Maybe rent office space shared with other complementary businesses/freelancers When customers want projects that don’t have enough budget either broker a deal, outsource, or pass the deal over (explain they owe you one .  Only refer to people who pass you work back at some stage in the future!
44. Think big! Establish contacts in larger “network” agencies that can refer their run-off work. Build a network of contacts in other countries – perhaps of agencies a similar size to you and form an umbrella organisation, so you can attract more European/global based projects. Start your own networking group for the people you want to talk to in business and invite them. Find guest speakers that would make them attend.
45. Ask your local MP, celebrities that live in your area to come to a business launch or lunch you’re having, give him plenty of notice, ask him to support your local business, get a testimonial, local press, blog, you’ll be amazed at how many business contacts he will have!
46. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer; leads can come from competitors, if they like you and trust you and are just too busy, they may just forward you on work. Attend events and dinners, we’ve heard stories this year of a million pound deal that one agency gave to another as they were too busy to deliver on the project.
47. Create a calendar for the year of ideas, fit in as many as you can (even if it’s just Christmas and Valentine’s day); create a game or a promotion, the key is to be proactive, surprise and delight your prospects, clients and friends.
48. Attend Marketing Forums – but if you’re going to do any type of forum, focus your message and be niche with a current demand that they have. Remember you are there to make long lasting friendships not sell sell sell!
49. New business for most of us at the very beginning starts with our closest networked contacts. Never underestimate talking to your family – time after time! Make sure they understand exactly what you do and what sort of business you’re looking for. They are your most trusted referees. Think cousins, brother-in-law, the whole extended team… Always offer free initial consultations to new referrals; doing something for free, never does any harm. 9 times out of 10, if you help someone out they usually go out of their way to repay the favour at some stage in the future, either directly or indirectly.
50. Do some free or pro-bono work for a client, charity or special cause, try to do work that will create a great showcase of your talent and abilities. Something that can be PR’d. In return, ask the beneficiaries to help endorse your business and speak at events on your behalf. It creates a real win-win for all involved, whilst doing something good at the same time.