THE BLOG
Field notes on winning new clients.
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12 November 2026 · 4 min read · Appointment setting for B2B sales teams
Retainer or pay per meeting? How appointment setting is priced, and what a meeting really costs
Appointment setters charge a monthly fee or a price per meeting. Both can work and both can burn you. How to compare them, and the one sum that shows what a meeting really costs once no-shows are counted.
12 November 2026 · 7 min read · Business development for recruitment agencies
How to get clients for a recruitment agency: the UK guide, with our own numbers
The five ways recruitment agencies win clients, which one works when you are new, the UK rules on emailing and ringing companies, and the numbers from our own campaigns so you know what good looks like.
11 November 2026 · 3 min read · Appointment setting for B2B sales teams
How to brief an appointment setter so the meetings are worth taking
The quality of the meetings is decided in the first two hours, on the setup call. The eight things a good brief contains, the one most teams forget, and what to expect by week.
Recruitment agencies
Business development for recruitment agencies →12 November 2026 · 7 min read
How to get clients for a recruitment agency: the UK guide, with our own numbers
The five ways recruitment agencies win clients, which one works when you are new, the UK rules on emailing and ringing companies, and the numbers from our own campaigns so you know what good looks like.
11 November 2026 · 4 min read
One place for your jobs: why a recruiter's website should feed Indeed, not copy it
Most recruitment websites show roles that were filled months ago, because the jobs live on Indeed and the site lives somewhere else. Here is the arrangement that keeps them the same, how one legal recruiter manages his from ChatGPT, and what it did for his search visibility.
10 November 2026 · 4 min read
Business development for recruitment agencies without a BDM
You cannot afford a full-time business developer and your billers will not do it. Here is the weekly plan that fills a diary from an owner's desk, and what it costs against the hire.
6 November 2026 · 4 min read
How to find the companies that are hiring right now, before they call a recruiter
The hiring manager you want is already showing you they need you. Four signals we build every recruitment list from, where to find them for free, and what to say once you have.
4 November 2026 · 3 min read
Why we ring people after they reply, not before
Cold calling strangers books 4.6% of conversations. Ringing people who have already said they are interested booked 66% on our own desk. Same phones, same people.
28 October 2026 · 3 min read
LinkedIn outreach for recruiters without getting your account restricted
Volume is not what gets recruiters restricted. Rushing, generic messages and ignoring the signals are. The pacing, the list and the messages we use on every client profile.
21 October 2026 · 3 min read
What a client meeting really costs a recruitment agency
A BDM, paid ads, a per-appointment agency or us, compared on the one number that matters: the cost of a meeting with a hiring manager who wants to talk.
Marketing agencies
Lead generation for marketing agencies →9 November 2026 · 4 min read
What a new client really costs a marketing agency
Most agencies know their average retainer. Almost none know what the first meeting with a new client cost them. Four ways of getting it, costed, and the number to put in your own spreadsheet.
5 November 2026 · 4 min read
LinkedIn outreach for agency founders that does not read like an agency wrote it
Marketing directors judge an agency's outreach as a sample of its work. Most samples are terrible. The three messages we use on agency founders' profiles, and the numbers behind them.
2 November 2026 · 4 min read
How agencies get in before the brief is written
The average agency pitch wins one time in five. The agencies that do better are rarely better at pitching. They were in the room before there was a pitch. Four signals that tell you when.
27 October 2026 · 3 min read
Why agencies never do their own outreach, and the fix that sticks
Every agency has a new business plan and almost none run it for more than six weeks. It is not a discipline problem. It is a structural one, and it has a structural fix.
22 October 2026 · 4 min read
New business for marketing agencies when the referrals stop
Three in four agencies say referrals are their main source of new clients. That works until it doesn't. Here is a pipeline you can plan a quarter around, and what each part of it really costs.
B2B sales teams
Appointment setting for B2B sales teams →12 November 2026 · 4 min read
Retainer or pay per meeting? How appointment setting is priced, and what a meeting really costs
Appointment setters charge a monthly fee or a price per meeting. Both can work and both can burn you. How to compare them, and the one sum that shows what a meeting really costs once no-shows are counted.
11 November 2026 · 3 min read
How to brief an appointment setter so the meetings are worth taking
The quality of the meetings is decided in the first two hours, on the setup call. The eight things a good brief contains, the one most teams forget, and what to expect by week.
7 November 2026 · 3 min read
Why one channel never books the meeting, and how four of them do
LinkedIn alone gets about one reply in ten. Email alone gets about one in thirty. A phone call to a stranger books one in twenty. Put them in the right order and the numbers change completely.
3 November 2026 · 3 min read
Cold email reply rates in 2026, and what a good one looks like
The average reply rate has fallen from 8.5% to around 3.4% in seven years, and the honest number is lower. What the 2026 studies say, why they disagree, and the three things that move your rate.
29 October 2026 · 3 min read
What a qualified meeting actually means, and what does not count
Appointment setters sell meetings. Most of them count a calendar invite as one. Here is the four-part definition we hold ourselves to, and the questions to ask anyone else selling you meetings.
23 October 2026 · 4 min read
Outsourced SDR or in-house SDR? The 2026 numbers, side by side
Three months to ramp, ten meetings a month, 40% attrition. The in-house SDR is a known quantity. Here is what it costs against appointment setting run for you, and when each one wins.
Consultants and fractional executives
Lead generation for consultants →10 November 2026 · 3 min read
What a consulting client costs to win, in days and in pounds
Consultants price their time to the hour and never price the time it takes to win the next client. Three ways of filling the diary, costed in your own day rate, and the number to put in your spreadsheet.
8 November 2026 · 4 min read
Fractional executives: how to fill your next seat before the current one ends
Fractional roles are growing fast and almost all of them are won by referral. That is a market with a gap in it. Who is buying, what they pay, and how to be in the conversation three months before the seat opens.
4 November 2026 · 3 min read
LinkedIn for consultants: one-to-one conversation beats content every time
You do not need a following. You need thirty conversations a week with the right people. The messages that start them, the pace that keeps your profile safe, and what the 2026 numbers say about notes.
30 October 2026 · 3 min read
Feast and famine: why consultants' pipelines empty, and the fix that holds
You sell, then you deliver, then you look up and the diary is empty. The cycle is structural, not a character flaw. Here is why it happens, what it costs, and the only fix that survives a busy quarter.
24 October 2026 · 4 min read
How to get consulting clients when your network has run dry
The first year of consulting runs on people who already know you. The second year is when that stops. Here is the weekly plan that finds clients who have never heard of you, and what it costs against the alternatives.
Shopify food and drink stores
Shopify store growth →11 November 2026 · 4 min read
Repeat orders for food and drink stores: the 2026 benchmarks and the reorder window
Food and drink has the best repeat rates in ecommerce and most stores still spend everything on the first order. What the 2026 data says about who comes back and when, and how to build the store around the second pack.
7 November 2026 · 3 min read
Why your Shopify store has three suppliers and no growth plan
An ads freelancer, someone on email, and the agency that built the site. Each one reports their own channel. Nobody is responsible for whether the store grows. How that happens, what it costs, and the arrangement that fixes it.
5 November 2026 · 4 min read
Google Shopping for food and drink brands: how to tell if the ads are actually paying
Published return on ad spend for food and drink runs from 2x to 5x depending on who is counting and what they include. The only number that matters is your own break-even, and most stores have never worked it out.
31 October 2026 · 4 min read
Email and SMS for food and drink brands: the 2026 Klaviyo benchmarks and where the money actually is
Campaign emails to food and drink lists open at around 31% and place an order about once in 400 sends. Flows that send themselves do several times better, and SMS flows better again. Where to put the effort, in order.
25 October 2026 · 3 min read
Shopify conversion rates for UK food and drink stores: the 2026 benchmarks, and which one to trust
The published figures for food and drink run from 1.5% to 6%, which is useless until you know how each one was counted. The UK anchor, the Shopify medians, and the three changes that move a store from one to the other.
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