Building a New Business Culture

In September, we hosted our latest Thrive in 2025 breakfast event - Building a New Business Culture. It was a lively, straight-talking discussion and we're grateful to everyone who took time out of their busy day to openly share their experiences.

Why this matters?

Too many agencies still treat new business as a side-hustle. Growth relies on bursts of prospecting, the occasional rainmaker or a lucky pitch win. The agencies that thrive embed growth into their culture - where behaviours, consistency, and trust underpin everything.

What came through from the panel and discussion...

Leadership & culture

• Culture is what people do when the boss isn’t in the room. Behaviours, not slogans, define growth.

• Leadership blind spots matter. Many leaders underestimate their role in shaping culture or avoid the uncomfortable conversations.

• Selling feels exposing and binary. Leaders must make new business feel safe for their teams, reframing it as relationship-building, not rejection.

• Consistency is key. It takes 12–18 months of repetition before the market even notices.

Building a new business machine

• The six pillars (proposition, database, marketing, sales tools, people, measurement) give agencies structure.

• Proposition and pipeline are the weakest points - if they’re off, everything else struggles.

• Agencies fall into stop-start cycles. Power hours (weekly, agency-wide prospecting sessions) build rhythm, even if they feel awkward at first.

• Gamification helps: Unlimited’s “nut working” sprint created energy and accountability across their whole team.

Marketing & reputation

• Marketing for brand and for sales enablement are different. Both are needed.

• LinkedIn is useful, but not as a blunt sales tool. It works best for building credibility and sharing authentic stories.

• Authenticity wins. Clients trust people, not polished broadcasts. Even simple updates - like team hires - reassure clients you’re growing via showing the human side of the agency.

• Referrals remain the strongest driver of new business. People buy from people they trust.

Pitching smarter

• Pitches are expensive: St Luke’s found the average took four years to pay back.

• Don’t treat every pitch equally. Use pre-flights, that is clear criteria for what a “good pitch” looks like, to raise standards and save wasted effort.

• Many wins come outside the pitch room (both before and after the pitch) through consistency, persistence and relationships.

Hiring for growth

• Rainmakers are rare. Behaviours alignment, and chemistry with leadership matter more than CVs.

• Even strong hires fail without leadership support and incentives. Leaders must look at their own role in enabling success.

Big agency lessons

• Large budgets don’t guarantee better outcomes. Big agencies often waste resource by spreading effort too thin.

• Independents can outpace them by being clearer, more authentic and closer to their clients.

Humour and humanity

• New business shouldn’t feel robotic. The panel laughed about “jazz hands” new business directors of the 90s and my own “ick factor” about selfies. But there was agreement: authenticity matters more than polish. 

So, what are the 10 actions you can take now?

1. Run weekly new business power hours - awkward at first, but powerful over time.

2. Sharpen your proposition from the client’s perspective.

3. Separate brand marketing from sales enablement.

4. Use pre-flights to improve pitch quality.

5. Qualify harder and say no more often.

6. Build a referral system - don’t leave it to chance.

7. Use technology as an enabler, not a crutch.

8. Share authentic stories; people buy from people.

9. Support senior hires with clarity and leadership backing.

10. Model consistency as behaviours set the culture.

    
    

Why this matters?

We're on a mission to impact 1,000 businesses in the next decade. Growth with purpose doesn’t just improve margins, it inspires people and leaves a positive mark on clients and communities.

Next steps

Let’s book a coffee to explore how these insights apply to your business.  And join the Actus Consulting team at our next breakfast - details coming soon.