Want to win more work? Build better partnerships.

Sep 23

5 min read

Creative businesses, agencies, and technical studios are often told they need more leads. In my experience, that isn't always enough. The problem is further down the chain.

You can get in front of the right client and still not have quite the right proposition, experience, or combination of skills to make them confident enough to appoint you.

That is where partnerships get interesting.

You don't need to do everything yourself

There is a familiar pattern in creative and technology businesses. A brief appears that stretches beyond your team's core capability. You pitch, and if you win the work, you find suppliers to fill the gaps.

Or you have good conversations, get into a position to pitch and, at the last hurdle, the client goes for the safer, more established option. So how do you combat that?

Build relationships before the opportunities appear

Find people whose skills, experience, technology, products, networks or sector knowledge genuinely strengthen yours. The important bit is working out what you offer them in return.

Instead of keeping a loose supplier network to call on when work lands, I prefer to build mutual partnerships where both sides can develop ideas, bring each other into conversations and approach opportunities together when it makes sense.

And be open about the partnership. You don't have to pretend every capability sits inside your own four walls.

The right combination of companies can create a much stronger proposition than either could make independently.

Start with the work you want to win

I don't think partnership development should begin with networking. It should begin with ambition.

What kind of project would you like to win that you can't quite credibly pitch for today? Which clients or sectors would you like to get closer to? Where are you getting interest but struggling to convert it into work? What capability do clients keep asking for that sits just outside your core offer?

Those gaps tell us what to look for. It might be:

sector expertise
creative capability
technical capability
physical production
audience or user experience
access to a particular market
a stronger track record
additional delivery capacity
a product or technology that complements yours

The aim isn't to build the biggest network possible. It's to find a small number of relationships that genuinely change what both businesses can offer.

What I do to help

In this role, I sit between proposition development, business development and creative producing. When I work with a studio or creative business, we start with the opportunities you want to unlock. Then I look at the gap between those opportunities and what you can credibly offer today.

From there, I help you:

Identify potential partners

Research studios, businesses, specialists, and collaborators whose capabilities and ethos genuinely complement yours. Not just companies that could deliver a piece of work, but organisations where there is potential value on both sides.

Work out what you could offer together

A good partnership isn't two logos next to each other. We need to understand what becomes possible when truly work together. What briefs could you pursue? What new clients could you talk to? What does one partner make possible for the other? Why should a client care?

Make useful connections

Where appropriate, I use my existing network, make introductions, or create a strong reason for approaching someone new. The aim isn't networking for networking's sake. There needs to be something real worth discussing.

Develop the relationship

An introduction isn't a partnership. It needs discussion and exploration to find the shared ground.

I help facilitate early conversations, identify opportunities to test the relationship, and turn a promising connection into something practical, commercial, and mutually beneficial.

Bring partnerships into pitches and outreach

Instead of hiding collaborators behind white-label arrangements, we can work out how the combined team strengthens the proposition you take to market.

The goal is simple: Make your business more credible for the work you actually want to win.

Why I care about this

I've spent much of my career working between different disciplines. Creative teams. Technology companies. Producers. Cultural organisations. Funders. Commercial teams.

What I care about is better work being made and a broader range of creative businesses getting better opportunities.

I've worked inside creative technology businesses developing propositions and pursuing new work. I've built collaborative teams of creatives and businesses while at the BBC. I've also worked with organisations including Science Museum Group, The Space, and Arts Council England on strategy, project development, assessment, and commissioning. I've also advised clients on what they should commission, how projects should be structured, and who they should appoint. That gives me a useful perspective on what happens once your proposal reaches the decision makers.

Clients aren't simply asking whether you technically can deliver something.

They're asking:

Do these people understand the problem?
Do I trust them?
Have they done enough of this before?
Have they assembled the right team?
Will these people work well together?
Can they develop with us as the project evolves?

The right partnership can answer several of those questions at once.

I've seen this approach create new propositions, new introductions, stronger pitches, and new work.

You don't have to hand me your business

Partnership development depends on trust, so I don't expect someone I've never worked with before to immediately bring me deeply into their commercial strategy. We can start small.

Start with one opportunity or aim

Bring me one thing you're trying to unlock. It could be a specific client, sector, capability gap or type of project.

We'll look at what you already have, what's missing and what kind of partner could make the proposition stronger. You come away with a clearer view of the opportunity and the kind of relationship worth looking for.

If we've never worked together before, this is probably the best place to start.

Map the partnership opportunity

If the opportunity looks worthwhile, I can take it further. I'll research the landscape, identify potential collaborators, assess the strongest fits and help work out what a compelling approach to them might look like.

The output isn't simply a contact list. It's a partnership map built around a commercial objective. Who should you talk to? Why them? What could you offer each other? What opportunities could the combination unlock? How should the conversation start?

Build the partnership

If we find the right people, I can stay involved. That might mean making introductions, facilitating conversations, developing the joint proposition, identifying potential first opportunities or helping shape pitches and outreach.

Bring me into the business

For some studios, there is a bigger version of this role. I work alongside the creative and commercial sides of the business on an ongoing or fractional basis, helping identify opportunities, develop propositions, find collaborators and turn ideas into things clients can actually buy.

It gives you additional senior strategic capacity without needing to create another permanent role. But you don't need to start there. Start with something useful. See if I add value. Then decide whether we should do more.

Before you spend more on lead generation

Ask yourself a different question. Not simply: How do we get in front of more people? but: What would make the people we want to work with more confident about hiring us?

Sometimes that's a better pitch. Sometimes it's stronger evidence. Sometimes it's a capability you don't currently have. And sometimes it's another organisation standing alongside you.

If there is a type of project or client you'd like to get closer to but something isn't quite clicking, tell me what you're trying to unlock. Contact me, Ian Ravenscroft, on ian@greenraven.co.uk for a chat.