Thank you:
Thank you to our Group Lead Anna Golding (Head of Growth at PrettyGreen) for facilitating the session & a huge thank you to our guest speaker Emma Hillary, Head of Growth at Verity Relationship Intelligence, for sharing her insights into how agencies can move from pitch to partnership in today’s increasingly project-based and commitment-phobic market.
Drawing on data from thousands of agency-client relationships, Emma highlighted that while delivering exceptional work is essential, it is the quality of the relationship that ultimately drives long-term client loyalty, referrals and organic growth
Key takeaways
- Relationships remain your biggest commercial advantage. Clients who rate agencies most highly talk far more about how it feels to work with an agency than simply the work delivered.
- Client experience matters as much as the output. Being easy to work with, communicating well, demonstrating empathy and building trust are key differentiators.
- Efficiency is about more than process. Clients increasingly define efficiency through responsiveness, collaboration and ease of working together, not just operational delivery.
- Future confidence is driven by strategic value. Clients are looking for agencies that challenge their thinking, provide business insight, share knowledge and help them navigate change.
- Set relationships up for success from day one. Emma introduced practical tools including psychological contracts, partnership charters, empathy mapping and a high-performance framework to help agencies build stronger, longer-lasting client relationships.
The discussion also touched on how agencies are positioning AI with clients. Rather than focusing solely on cost savings, the consensus was that AI should be positioned as a way to enhance value, strengthen relationships and enable agencies to deliver better strategic outcomes.
Emma’s Key Takeaway:
“Relationships are your competitive and commercial advantage in an agency. But in an increasingly transactional, delivery focused world, it’s easy for client-agency relationships to be squeezed and de-prioritised. Absolute pleasure spending time with the Alliance of Independent Agencies’ New Business Action Group members on Tuesday to share more of our data, insight and experience on how to grow relationships that last from pitch to partnership.”
Anna’s Key Takeaway:
“For me, the biggest takeaway is that sustainable growth doesn’t come from winning pitches alone, it comes from building relationships that outlast them. Clients are increasingly judging agencies not just by the quality of the work, but by how easy they are to work with and how deeply they understand their business. As agencies face shorter project cycles and greater pressure on client retention, our role as growth leaders isn’t just to win new accounts. It’s to create the conditions for long-term, frictionless partnerships through curiosity, commercial understanding and proactive thinking.”
Thank you again to everyone who joined and contributed to such an engaging discussion with their perspectives and practical experiences. If you have any queries for Emma you can contact her on: emma.hillary@verityri.com
We look forward to seeing you at the next New Business Action Group session. You can continue the chat on this subject or other new business related topic on the Alliance New Biz WhatsApp community by following the QR code below
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