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

EP98: A client perspective | John Gleason | A Better View

New business is one of those subjects guaranteed to get a reaction from agency owners everywhere. Many will have a nagging feeling they should be doing a bit more, wonder how other agencies manage to land the accounts they covet, have moments of wild inspiration and energy then falter because the day job just, well gets in the way.
Gunpowder’s Lucy Mann has worked in agency new business for over 25 years and has witnessed these scenarios, and many more like them, as an outsourced new business telemarketer, a new business recruitment consultant, in house new business developer, in house head of marketing, and new business mentor across multiple disciplines and agency shapes and sizes.
Regardless of size and discipline, many agencies encounter the same new business challenges, and more and more, the solution is not necessarily an ambitious marketing plan, or expensive sales resource, but instead a forensic application of process and a marginal gains approach to performance improvement.
Gunpowder’s podcast, Small Spark Theory® explores the small changes we can make to our sales and marketing process to achieve better new business results. With contributions from a range of experts, each episode will examine a single element of the process in detail, providing manageable tips for improvement.

Find our more about Gunpowder Consulting, please visit gunpowderconsulting.com
Follow us on Twitter @gunpowdertweets and join the conversation #smallsparktheory
Music from Jukedeck - create your own at http://jukedeck.com.
Host - Lucy Mann
Producer - Isabelle Jarvis

EP98: A client perspective | John Gleason | A Better View

Apr 27, 2025

Against a backdrop of news disproportionately full of business headlines, this month felt like the perfect opportunity to bring a client perspective to this podcast.

And who better to guide us through todays challenging landscape than John Gleason.

Having worked at Proctor and Gamble for 20 years before setting up his strategic consultancy, A Better View, John advises both clients and agencies on how to deliver better, more relevant, more valued (and valuable) solutions.

In this episode we explore the current state of design as a discipline and John shares insights from The Future of... - the conference he co-organised and co-hosted last month, bringing together design leaders to discuss whether design is declining, facing diminishing influence, or just struggling to communicate its business value.

We take a candid look at the pressures design professionals are experiencing, with John offering data-driven observations about design's role in modern organisations and practical advice for agencies and design teams to remain relevant and impactful.

John's recommended read is Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna - listen in to find out how to win a copy.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Design Business Association Experts