Stop waiting for referrals: book your own new client meetings

Most agencies grow on referrals and on the network of the founder. That works until it stops: a big client leaves, the network is used up, and the pipeline is empty. Agencies sell growth to others but often have no steady new business process of their own. A few fixed hours of calling per week, with planned follow-up, can give an agency a pipeline it controls.

The market: thousands of agencies, most of them very small

Competition is intense. According to Eurostat business statistics for 2023, Belgium had 8,546 enterprises in advertising and market research and the Netherlands 33,462. Most are one-person businesses: 7,321 in Belgium and 27,875 in the Netherlands had zero or one person employed. Only 241 Belgian and 822 Dutch enterprises in this group had 10 or more people. The same Eurostat series counts 19,687 persons employed in Belgium and 65,769 in the Netherlands.

PR and communication agencies fall under a separate activity code, and in the Netherlands their number grew fast. The Dutch chamber of commerce KVK reported 9,526 PR and communication agencies on 1 January 2022, up 142% from 3,934 two years earlier, with 82% of them sole traders.

The budget is there, especially online. An analysis of IAB Europe figures reported by Emerce puts Dutch online advertising spend at €4.761 billion in 2025, up from €2.255 billion in 2019. The catch: prospects are approached by agencies all the time. In a Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers, 73% said they actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach. Relevance is the price of entry.

How decisions are made depends on size. At small and mid-sized companies, the owner or commercial director picks the agency, often after one or two conversations. Larger companies have a marketing manager or head of marketing, sometimes run a pitch with several agencies, and involve purchasing for larger retainers.

Who you call and what you ask

• Owner or managing director: at smaller companies, decides on marketing spend and agencies.
• Commercial director or sales manager: cares about leads and revenue, often the easiest door for performance marketing.
• Marketing manager or head of marketing: owns the plan, the budget and the agency relationships.
• Brand, digital or e-commerce lead: at larger companies, the specialist who briefs the agency.

Trigger events: a new marketing manager, a rebrand or name change, a website relaunch, a product launch, a new market or new location, growth funding, a vacancy in the marketing team, and campaigns that disappoint.

Discovery questions that work for agencies:

1. What should marketing deliver for you this year: leads, brand, sales in a new market?
2. What do you do in-house, and what do you hand to an agency today?
3. Which launch or project is coming up in the next six months?
4. What would make you look at another agency?
5. Who else is involved when you choose an agency?

A first sentence that works

Open with something you noticed about them. For example: "I am calling because I saw you are opening a second location this spring, and I wanted to ask how you plan to fill it with customers." It proves you did your homework and puts their goal first. If the answer is "we already have an agency", ask what that agency does for them and what they would add if they could; many companies use more than one partner. Send one case that matches their situation afterwards, not your full portfolio. A short, relevant follow-up is what separates you from the other agencies in their inbox.

Your first sentence decides whether you get to ask them; see cold call opening lines.

What slows a calling team down in this sector

• Everyone sounds the same. Prospects hear from agencies every week. A call about their situation, not your services, makes the difference.
• "We already have an agency" or "we do it in-house". Common, and often only half true. Prepared answers help; see how to handle sales objections.
• Billable work comes first. In an agency, client work always wins over new business. Fixed call blocks protect the time.
• Pitches and long decisions. Larger clients compare several agencies, which stretches the cycle.
• Marketing managers in meetings. Several attempts per lead are normal; plan the call back at the time they name.

What it can bring you: efficiency, money and more

One retainer client can carry an agency for years. The table below is an example with assumed numbers, not a forecast. It assumes the owner or a new business person makes 400 call attempts a month, and a new client pays an assumed retainer of €3,000 per month, €36,000 per year.

Your rates will differ. What you can measure is which service or niche turns conversations into meetings, and which reasons for not interested keep coming back, so you can sharpen the offer.

The efficiency gain matters most where every hour is billable. When each call ends with one key and the next attempt or follow-up call is planned for you, a calling block is spent calling, not updating spreadsheets. If logging and planning take a minute per call today, 400 calls is close to seven hours a month. Measure your own time before and after, and try the flow in the demo.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Eurostat: Enterprises by size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (sbs_sc_ovw), 2023
2. Eurostat: Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev.2 activity and special aggregates (sbs_ovw_act), 2023
3. KVK: Aantal public relations (PR) en communicatiebureaus zeer snel toegenomen (5 May 2022)
4. Emerce: Uitgaven aan online reclame sinds 2019 meer dan verdubbeld (Citable analysis of IAB Europe AdEx, July 2026)
5. MarketScreener: Gartner Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience (Gartner press release, June 2025)