Event
Pipeline
Event details
Find Out How Smart Agencies Are Filling Their Pipelines
New biz got you down? You’ve come to the right place.
This is your chance to suss out how other agencies like yours are sourcing leads, growing their reputation, and keeping their pipelines steady.
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Event Manifesto
The Agency Marketing &
New Biz Summit
Event curated by:
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Abi Donoghue
Agency Hackers
New business isn’t getting any easier.
In fact, it’s got harder to predict, harder to convert, and easier to ignore.
Outreach is noisier, cold email is saturated, buyers are slower, and agencies are still finding that budgets are stuck in limbo.
And even when things look promising, ghosting is still a huge trend, one founder told me, “They let me spend a day on a proposal, and then just don’t reply.”
Confidence is down, and the old patterns and tricks aren’t quite working how they used to.
The problem isn’t ideas, as one new biz director shared with me, “Ideas are easy – execution is difficult.”
Most agencies know what they should be doing: Follow up, niche down, stay consistent, and build relationships.
But doing it consistently, alongside everything else? That’s the challenge.
At Pipeline, you’ll hear from agency leaders who’ve stopped waiting for leads to fall into their laps – sharing how they have started building more resilient, repeatable ways to grow.
This is a day for honest conversations, practical takeaways, and real problems.
We’re going to be discussing what’s actually happening right now:
- What’s stopped working
- What’s starting to work
- And what people are testing in between
But more importantly, you’ll spend time sharing your honest stories, digging into real challenges, and discussing practical ideas on how to develop a new strategy.
Because “when everything fails, you’re more likely to actually try things.”
If your new biz strategy could use a reboot, this is where it starts.
SPEAKERS
⏳ Speakers
Why Your Old Playbook is Failing
“95% of agencies fall straight into this trap.”
Stephen Kenwright has seen it happen for years.
An agency has a promising first call. The brief sounds exciting. Everyone gets carried away. Then the team disappears for two weeks to build a giant proposal deck… only for the client to completely vanish.
For Stephen, a long-time agency sales leader who’s coached business development teams for more than a decade, this usually isn’t bad luck. It’s a broken sales process.
“More often than not, the client doesn’t actually have the green light,” he says. “They’re still trying to get the project approved internally, which is why they feel compelled to say nothing.”
In this session at Pipeline, Stephen will break down the real reasons agencies get ghosted during new business conversations, and how to start combatting it.
He’ll share how agencies can ask better discovery questions earlier, spot whether a project is real or still sitting on a wish list, and avoid wasting weeks building proposals that were never going anywhere.
We’ll also cover:
- How agencies can structure sales conversations properly instead of relying on ‘just checking in’ follow-ups.
- Why giant proposal decks usually hurt more than they help. • How to guide prospects through the process without sounding pushy or ‘salesy’.
- Why consistent touchpoints matter more than polished presentations.
- The mindset shift agency owners need to stop seeing sales as persuasion.
“Sales is not about convincing anyone,” Stephen says. “It’s about matchmaking.”
If your agency is struggling with ghosting, stalled proposals, or messy sales processes, this session will help you tighten up your approach, and stop chasing deals that were never really there.
How Uncommon Wins Without Pitching
“Agencies are becoming a shopping list of capabilities, not a vision and worldview.”
That’s the problem facing the industry right now, according to Kabillan Navaratnarassa, Head of New Business at Uncommon Creative Studio.
Kabillan has a front-row seat to what’s really happening in new business. Networks are discounting, independents are multiplying, and everywhere you look, agencies are leading with the same promises: AI-first, full-service, integrated, creative.
“Everyone could do that,” he says. “It’s essentially a zero-sum game.”
But while much of the industry scrambles to keep up by stacking capabilities, Uncommon have been doing the opposite- doubling down on a clear point of view and a brand people want to buy into. The result? A run of non-pitch wins that’s put them at the top of the table.
This session is Kabillan’s provocation: stop trying to be everything. Stop behaving like an interchangeable service provider and start behaving like a brand.
“Clients should feel like staying where they are is the bigger risk.”
Drawing on his experience driving standout new business results at Uncommon, Kabillan will share why agencies need a stronger worldview, clearer positioning, and the confidence to communicate it boldly.
We’ll explore:
- Why agencies are getting trapped in a capabilities race they can’t win
- How to build a point of view that clients actually remember and seek out
- How bravery, provocation, and personality become your biggest competitive advantage
“You have to hold your nerve.”
If your agency feels like it’s blending into the background, this is your wake-up call, and a blueprint for winning better work without defaulting to pitching.
How Do Top-Performing Agencies Actually Drive Profit?
Agencies aren’t short on ambition. They’re short on alignment, between what they think drives growth, and what actually does.
“There are actually only around a dozen ways to grow your agency. So, if you want to grow, it makes sense to pick one and have a clear plan,” Peter Czapp says.
But not just any plan – one that’s integrated across sales, marketing, resourcing and finance. The agencies that do this properly (and communicate it effectively) don’t just grow faster, they make more money doing it.
Then there’s the uncomfortable truth about investment. There’s a sweet spot for sales and marketing spend that drives growth and profitability.
“62%… are actually below the sweet spot.”
Most agencies are underinvesting in sales and marketing, and it’s quietly holding them back.
From why “bigger clients lead to bigger profits,” to the trade-off between retainers and growth, to the surprising impact of simply keeping clients longer, Peter connects the dots between strategy and outcome.
In this session, Peter Czapp will be unpacking the findings from The Wow Company’s latest research into agency growth and profit, including the four key levers that will drive your growth this year.
Why Your Marketing Isn’t Driving Pipeline
“Our pipeline is different. It’s not converting to millions of pounds yet, unfortunately. But the visibility we get outside of where we were before is massive.”
For Daisy Whitehouse, founder of Down at the Social, video has changed how the agency shows up.
For 15 years, new clients mostly came through the door. Then the market shifted.
“Relying on your immediate network is just not financially viable anymore,” says Daisy. “I was absolutely at a loss as to what to do.”
So the team started experimenting with video.
Now, they’re seeing more inbound leads, stronger LinkedIn engagement, better candidate attraction, and a wider halo around the business.
But content is not magic.
Gareth Evans, founder of podcast production agency 18Sixty, sees this all the time with podcasts.
“People come to us and say, ‘We need a video podcast because everyone’s got one,’” says Gareth. “But podcasts aren’t a direct sales tool. They’re top-of-funnel stuff, if it’s done right.”
That means strategy. Distribution, LinkedIn clips, guest sharing, native posting, and understanding that 2,000 YouTube Shorts views are less valuable than one useful conversation on LinkedIn.
In this panel, Daisy and Gareth will pull apart why your marketing might not be driving pipeline, and what to do before you start shouting into the void.
“Busy agencies, thin margins.”
“Busy agencies, thin margins.”
That’s the contradiction Aya EK and the team at Toggl want agencies to confront.
On paper, many agencies look healthy. The pipeline is full. New clients are coming in. Teams are busy.
But underneath?
Margins are quietly disappearing.
“Agencies underestimate how much it costs for them to win a client,” says Aya El Khatib, Toggl. “The admin work before winning a client, and even making money from that client.”
In this session, Toggl will take agencies through what they’re calling the ‘Agency Profit Heist.’
Attendees will leave with practical insights into where profit disappears inside agencies, how blind spots affect pipeline health, and how to start identifying the hidden costs inside their own businesses.
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