Agency Business Development: How to Build a Client Pipeline That Doesn’t Dry Up

Every agency owner knows the feeling. One month you’re turning down work, the next you’re wondering where your pipeline went. Feast or famine. It’s the default state for most marketing agencies, and it doesn’t have to be.

The agencies that break out of this cycle aren’t necessarily better at their craft. They’re better at business development (BD). They’ve figured out how to generate leads, close deals, and grow accounts without the constant scramble.

I learned this the hard way running my own agency. We were good at the work but terrible at keeping the pipeline full. When I built SPP.co, I wanted to solve the operational chaos, but I quickly realized that operations only matter if you have clients to serve.

This guide covers what actually works for agency business development: how to attract clients, convert them, and turn them into repeat buyers. No theory. No fluff. Just the strategies I’ve seen work for hundreds of agencies using SPP.co, plus insights from agency owners who’ve figured this out.

What is business development for agencies?

Business development is everything you do to grow revenue. Finding new clients. Expanding existing accounts. Entering new markets. It’s the engine that keeps your agency moving forward.

People confuse BD with sales, but they’re not the same thing. Sales is closing deals. BD is the strategic work that makes those deals possible in the first place: positioning, partnerships, lead generation, market research. Sales is the last mile. BD is the road that gets you there.

For agencies, BD breaks down into three areas:

1. Marketing is how you attract attention. Content that ranks. Ads that convert. A portfolio that makes prospects reach out. This is inbound, clients finding you instead of you chasing them.

2. Sales is how you convert that attention into revenue. Proposals, discovery calls, negotiations, closing. Most agency owners are decent at this part because they understand their own services.

3. Networking is how you build relationships that pay off over time. Referral partners. Industry connections. Former clients who send you business years later. This is the slowest channel but often the most valuable.

Why BD works differently for agencies

Product companies can run ads, show features, and close sales in a day. Agencies can’t.

When someone buys a product, they know what they’re getting. When someone hires an agency, they’re betting on a promise. They’re trusting you to solve a problem they can’t solve themselves, often with significant money on the line.

Peter Lewis, CMO at Strategic Pete, put it well:

That’s a much bigger ask than “click buy now.”

This is why agency BD takes longer, requires more touchpoints, and depends heavily on trust signals like case studies, referrals, and reputation. You can’t shortcut it. But you can get better at it.

Inbound vs. outbound BD for agencies

Every agency needs both. The question is how much of each, and when.

Inbound BD

Inbound is when clients come to you. They find your blog post, read your case study, see you speak at a conference, or get referred by someone they trust. By the time they reach out, they already believe you can help.

This is the dream scenario. Warm leads who’ve pre-sold themselves. Higher close rates. Less time spent convincing and more time scoping.

The catch? Inbound takes time to build. You need content that ranks. A reputation that precedes you. A referral network that actually refers. None of that happens in a month.

Vukasin Ilic, CEO at Digital Media Lab, describes how it works:

That’s inbound in a nutshell. Provide value, build trust, wait for the phone to ring.

Outbound BD

Outbound is when you go find clients. Cold emails. LinkedIn outreach. Networking events. Knocking on doors, metaphorically or literally.

Outbound gets a bad rap because most people do it badly. Spray-and-pray emails. Generic pitches. Pestering strangers who never asked to hear from you. That version of outbound deserves its reputation.

Good outbound is different. It’s targeted. It’s personalized. It leads with value instead of an ask. And it works, especially when you need pipeline now, not six months from now. We cover this in detail in our outbound lead generation guide.

The downside is that outbound requires constant effort. Stop doing it and the leads stop coming. There’s no compounding effect like with content or referrals.

Finding the right mix

New agencies should lean heavily on outbound. You don’t have the content library, the reputation, or the referral network yet. You need clients now, and outbound is the fastest path.

A reasonable split for a new agency: 70% outbound, 30% inbound. Spend most of your BD time on direct outreach while slowly building your content and referral engines in the background.

As your agency matures, flip the ratio. Established agencies with strong reputations can run 70% inbound, 30% outbound, or even more lopsided. At some point, your reputation does most of the selling for you.

One thing to avoid: going 100% either direction. Agencies that rely entirely on inbound get complacent and panic when a Google update tanks their traffic. Agencies that rely entirely on outbound burn out their sales team and never build lasting assets. Keep both channels alive, even if one dominates.

10 BD strategies to grow your agency

I’ve watched hundreds of agencies use SPP.co over the years. The ones that grow share a few habits. Here’s what works.

1. Know your client’s pain better than they do

Your SEO client doesn’t want “comprehensive keyword research.” They want more leads. Talk to them. Read their reviews. Join their communities. Then reflect that pain in everything you write: your website, your proposals, your case studies. When prospects feel understood, they trust you faster.

2. Niche down

Generalists compete on price. Specialists compete on value.

Jonathan Solorzano ran a web dev agency that took any project. Busy, but not growing. After narrowing to Shopify and WooCommerce only, he could charge more and attract clients who specifically wanted his expertise.

3. Productize your services

Fixed scope. Fixed price. No custom proposals for every prospect.

Garrett Smith tested his Google Business Profile management idea with a simple site and SPP.co handling orders in the backend. Productizing let him validate demand fast and scale once he saw traction.

4. Build a referral engine

Referrals don’t just happen. You design for them.

Ask at the right moment: after a win, not randomly. Make it easy. Offer an incentive if it fits your brand. A formal program helps: give clients a reason to refer and track who does.

Victoria Lee at 100 Pound Social grew her client base by 215% after getting serious about referrals. We have a full breakdown on how to run an agency referral program.

5. Turn clients into bigger clients

There’s a 5–20% chance of selling to a new prospect. With existing clients? 60–70%.

Most agencies chase new logos while their current clients take extra budget elsewhere. Cross-sell adjacent services. Upsell to bigger packages. Tie it to their goals, not your revenue.

A few ways to do this:

• Quarterly business reviews: Schedule a call every 90 days to review results and discuss what’s next. This is where expansion conversations happen naturally. You’re not pitching, you’re planning together.

• Spot the gaps: Your SEO client probably needs content. Your web design client probably needs ongoing maintenance. Your PPC client probably needs landing page help. If you don’t offer it, someone else will.

• Propose before they ask: Don’t wait for clients to come to you with new projects. When you see an opportunity, bring it up. “Based on your traffic growth, I think you’re leaving money on the table without email capture. Want me to scope that out?”

The easiest revenue is sitting in your existing client list. Most agencies ignore it.

6. Build strategic partnerships

Find agencies that serve your clients but don’t compete with you. Send each other business.

Taylor Scher, a SaaS SEO consultant, explains how he built these relationships:

We wrote more about structuring these relationships in our guide to agency partnerships.

7. Build a brand, not just a business

Your brand is why someone picks you over fifty other agencies offering the same thing.

Tell your origin story. Have a point of view. Show the humans behind the work. Invest in how you present yourself. Nick Meagher built an SEO agency with 10+ year client retention. That kind of loyalty comes from brand, not just results.

8. Prove it with case studies

Case studies are the closest thing to proof you can offer. Structure them around the problem, what you did, and the measurable result.

Get specific. Use numbers. Name clients when you can. A good case study works on your website, in proposals, and during sales calls. Check out our case study page for examples.

9. Systematize your operations

If every project is chaos, you can’t scale. You’ll spend all your time firefighting.

Onboarding. Project tracking. Invoicing. Renewals. The more you templatize and automate, the more capacity you have for actual BD work. Adam Steele moved Loganix, a $3M/year agency, from a custom-built dashboard to SPP because managing operations was eating his time.

10. Track the right metrics

Revenue growth rate. Client acquisition cost. Average deal size. Lifetime value. Churn.

If you don’t know these numbers, you’re guessing. We have a full breakdown in our KPI guide for agencies.

Landing your first major client

Every agency starts at zero. No portfolio, no testimonials, no referrals. Just you trying to convince someone to take a chance.

The cold start is brutal. Prospects want proof you can deliver, but you can’t get proof without clients. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem that kills a lot of agencies before they get going.

Here’s what actually works.

Get in front of the right rooms

Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO at Mavens & Moguls, landed her first major client from a talk she gave to a professional networking group:

That was 24 years ago. She still gives talks to generate leads.

Speaking, webinars, podcasts, industry events. These put you in front of people who are already interested in your topic. You’re not cold pitching. You’re demonstrating expertise to a warm audience.

Find where your potential clients gather and show up with something useful to say.

Start small and stack proof

Victor Hsi built his link building agency by taking small jobs first. Cheap listings on local marketplaces. Tiny projects. He kept stacking proof until one of those small jobs turned into a $10k deal.

His advice: “Start with low-ticket listings, reply fast, over-deliver a bit. Big accounts usually come from small ones that trust you first.”

This works for agencies too. A $500 project done well leads to a $5,000 project. A $5,000 project leads to a retainer. You’re not stuck at small forever. You’re building a ladder.

Partner with someone who already has the audience

Adriana Stein, CEO at AS Marketing, uses partnerships as a client acquisition channel:

Find businesses that serve your audience but don’t compete with you. Collaborate on something useful. The partnership itself becomes the trust-building mechanism that turns into client relationships.

Use your past life

Before you started your agency, you worked somewhere. You know people. Those relationships are your warmest leads.

Former colleagues who moved to companies that need your services. Old bosses who trust your work. Friends of friends who mention they’re looking for help. These aren’t cold pitches. They’re conversations with people who already know you deliver.

Thibault Garcia at Reachly spent six months getting crickets on Fiverr before he figured out that his network was the faster path. Now he runs a six-figure lead gen agency with 50+ clients across 6 countries.

Offer a pilot

If a prospect is hesitant, reduce the risk. Offer a smaller engagement with a clear deliverable. One month instead of six. One campaign instead of a full retainer.

You’re not discounting your work. You’re letting them test the relationship before committing. If you deliver, the full engagement follows.

Common BD mistakes agencies make

I’ve seen these kill pipeline over and over.

Chasing every lead

Not every prospect is worth your time. Some have no budget. Some will be nightmares to work with. Some want things you can’t deliver.

Unqualified clients cost more than no clients. They drain your time, wreck your margins, and leave bad reviews. Learn to say no early.

No follow-up system

Most deals don’t close on the first conversation. Or the second. Research varies, but the pattern is consistent: persistence wins.

If you’re not following up, you’re leaving money on the table. Build a system. Set reminders. Keep track of who you’ve talked to and when. The agencies that follow up are the ones that close.

Selling services instead of outcomes

Clients don’t buy SEO. They buy leads. They don’t buy PPC management. They buy lower acquisition costs.

When you pitch services, you sound like everyone else. When you pitch outcomes, you sound like the solution to their problem.

Budgeting for agency business development

How much should you spend on BD? There’s no magic number, but there are reasonable ranges.

The baseline

Most established agencies spend 5–15% of revenue on business development. That includes marketing, sales tools, events, content, ads, and any team members focused on growth.

Early-stage agencies should spend more, not less. When you have no pipeline, no reputation, and no referral network, you need to invest heavier to build those assets. 15–20% of revenue isn’t unreasonable when you’re starting out.

As your agency matures, the percentage can drop. Referrals kick in. Content starts ranking. Reputation generates inbound. You’re not starting from zero every month.

Where the money goes

Here’s where most agencies allocate their BD budget.

Content and SEO is a long game. Blog posts, case studies, landing pages. It takes months to pay off but compounds over time. Budget for writers, designers, or your own time if you’re doing it yourself.

Paid acquisition works faster but stops the moment you stop spending. Good for testing messages, filling gaps in pipeline, or entering new markets. Budget for ad spend plus someone who knows what they’re doing.

Events and networking is relationship capital. Conferences, dinners, industry meetups. Hard to measure directly but often where the biggest deals start. Budget for tickets, travel, and the time you spend there.

Tools and software adds up. CRM, email marketing, proposal software, analytics. Audit what you’re paying for and cut what you’re not using.

When to hire BD help

You can’t do everything yourself forever. At some point, you need people focused on growth so you can focus on delivery.

Your options

There are a few ways to get BD help without building a full team.

• Fractional BD consultant: Someone experienced who works with you part-time. Good when you need strategy and guidance but not a full-time salary. They can build your playbook, train your team, or run specific initiatives.

• Sales agency for lead gen: They find prospects and book meetings. You close. Works when you’re good at selling but don’t have time to prospect. Be careful here. Lots of agencies promise leads and deliver garbage. Check references.

• Full-time BD hire: Someone who owns your pipeline. Prospecting, outreach, follow-up, maybe closing. This is a real commitment. Salary, benefits, management time. Only makes sense when you have enough volume to keep them busy.

• Freelancers for specific tasks: A copywriter for outreach emails. A designer for your pitch deck. A researcher to build prospect lists. Cheaper than hiring, more flexible, but requires more management from you.

Signs you’re ready

Not sure if it’s time? These patterns usually mean yes.

• You’re turning down work: Not because you’re at capacity, but because you don’t have time to sell. A dedicated BD person fixes this.

• Pipeline is inconsistent: Good months, bad months, no idea why. You’re too busy with client work to do outreach, so leads dry up. Then you scramble, fill the pipeline, get busy again, and the cycle repeats.

• Your time is worth more elsewhere: If you bill $300/hour for strategy work, spending ten hours a week on cold outreach is expensive. Hire someone at $30/hour to do prospecting and spend your time on what only you can do.

• You’ve figured out what works: Don’t hire someone to figure out your BD strategy from scratch. Hire once you know which channels work, what messaging resonates, and what your sales process looks like. Then you’re handing off a playbook, not a puzzle.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start

If you’re not sure what to do first, here’s the order I’d prioritize:

1. Talk to five current clients this week: Ask what else they need. Expansion revenue is the fastest win.

2. Set up a follow-up system: Even a spreadsheet works. Track every prospect, every conversation, every next step.

3. Ask for one referral: Pick your happiest client. Ask who else they know that might need help.

4. Block two hours a week for outbound: Consistent prospecting beats sporadic bursts.

5. Write one case study: Your best project, with real numbers. Use it everywhere.

That’s enough to move the needle. Everything else can wait until these are working.

Chris Willow

Founder

Founder of SPP.co, with over a decade of experience in agency operations and billing systems. As a former agency owner, Chris developed SPP.co to solve the client management and payment challenges he experienced firsthand. His platform now processes millions in subscription payments for agencies worldwide, giving him unique insights into billing best practices across various service businesses.