Finding new business shouldn’t mean spending hours searching tender portals, following company announcements and trying to work out which organisations might need your agency’s services.
That’s the thinking behind GennFlow.
We research emerging creative opportunities and live tenders, bringing together the project intelligence, contacts and context agencies need to identify work worth pursuing.
But finding an interesting opportunity is only the beginning.
The real value comes from understanding why it matters, deciding whether it’s right for your agency and knowing how to start a relevant conversation.
This guide explains how to get started with GennFlow, what to expect during your free trial and how to turn the intelligence into meaningful new business activity.
Start your 14-day free trial
Getting started is straightforward.
Create your GennFlow account and you’ll receive 14 days to explore the platform, including two free Signal unlocks.
There’s no need to commit to a paid subscription before you’ve had an opportunity to see how the intelligence works.
During your trial, you can browse available Signals, explore the different sectors and identify opportunities that might be relevant to your agency.
Your two unlocks allow you to access the full intelligence behind two Signals of your choice.
Our advice is not to use them immediately.
Spend a little time exploring what’s available and consider which opportunities are most relevant to the work you want to win.
After all, the objective isn’t simply to find something interesting.
It’s to find something worth acting on.
Explore the opportunities
GennFlow focuses on three areas of the creative industry.
Brand & Place
Opportunities involving brand strategy, identity, placemaking, destination branding, cultural organisations, regeneration and communications.
Digital & Web
Projects and emerging requirements involving websites, digital platforms, user experience, digital transformation and related services.
FMCG & Packaging
Opportunities involving consumer brands, packaging design, product launches, brand development, retail expansion and repositioning.
Each Signal represents a researched opportunity or a business development that could create demand for creative expertise.
Some are live tenders with defined requirements and deadlines.
Others are earlier-stage opportunities where an organisation may not yet have appointed an agency or issued a formal brief.
Understanding that distinction is important.
A live tender generally provides greater certainty that work is being commissioned.
An emerging Signal may offer more time to investigate, develop a relationship and approach the organisation before a formal selection process begins.
Neither is automatically better. The right choice depends on your agency and the type of work you’re looking for.
Understand what makes a Signal valuable
Before unlocking anything, consider what you’re actually looking for.
A large budget can be attractive, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the opportunity is a good fit.
An organisation might be investing millions in a development, yet only a small proportion of that investment could relate to creative services.
Equally, a growing consumer brand might have a relatively modest initial requirement but the potential to become a valuable long-term client.
GennFlow brings together information to help you assess the opportunity, including the organisation, project, sector, location, estimated creative value and stage of development.
Where budgets are estimated rather than confirmed, they should be treated as an indication of potential scope, not a guaranteed commission.
Ask yourself a few questions.
Does this organisation operate in a sector we understand?
Can we demonstrate relevant experience?
Would we genuinely want to work with them?
Is the opportunity commercially attractive?
And perhaps most importantly, do we have a credible reason to start a conversation?
If the answers are encouraging, the Signal may be worth unlocking.
Unlock your first Signal
Once you’ve found an opportunity that interests you, select the Signal and choose to unlock it.
Each free trial includes two unlocks, allowing you to explore the full intelligence behind two opportunities.
An unlocked Signal provides additional research intended to help you move beyond simply knowing that a project exists.
Depending on the opportunity, this can include more detailed project context, relevant decision-maker information, contact details and suggested outreach.
You’ll also be able to find Signals you’ve unlocked in your My Signals area, making it easier to return to the intelligence as you plan your next steps.
It’s worth remembering that unlocking a Signal doesn’t reserve the opportunity or guarantee an introduction.
It gives you the research and context to decide whether and how to pursue it.
And that’s where the next step becomes important.
Turn the intelligence into a relevant conversation
One of the biggest mistakes in agency outreach is leading with a description of your own business.
We’re an award-winning creative agency specialising in brand strategy, digital experiences and integrated campaigns.
That might be true.
But it doesn’t explain why the person receiving your email should be interested in speaking to you.
A stronger approach starts with something happening in their organisation.
Imagine a property developer has secured planning permission for a major destination project.
Rather than introducing your agency out of the blue, you could reference the development and explain why its next stage is particularly interesting.
For example:
We saw that planning has now been secured for the transformation of the town centre. The challenge of bringing together new homes, retail, culture and public space into a distinctive destination feels particularly interesting.
We work across place branding and destination experience, and had a few thoughts about how the identity and story could begin taking shape as the project progresses.
Would it be worth a conversation?
The difference is relevance.
You’re demonstrating an understanding of their business rather than simply asking whether they have any work available.
GennFlow’s suggested outreach gives you a starting point for that conversation.
But it shouldn’t be copied blindly.
Adapt it to reflect your agency’s genuine experience, your perspective on the project and the person you’re contacting.
The strongest outreach still sounds like it came from a person who’s taken an interest in the organisation.
Not a sales automation.
Do your own qualification before reaching out
GennFlow researches opportunities, but no intelligence platform can guarantee that an organisation will appoint an agency or respond to an introduction.
That’s especially important with early-stage Signals.
A business announcement may suggest a potential creative requirement without confirming that a budget exists or that external support will be commissioned.
Before contacting anyone, take a moment to review the information and consider whether the opportunity still appears relevant.
Look at the organisation’s recent activity, the project’s current stage and any changes since the Signal was researched.
For public-sector opportunities, check the formal procurement requirements and any restrictions around supplier engagement.
If a tender has a defined submission process, follow it.
For earlier-stage private-sector opportunities, a thoughtful introduction may be appropriate.
The objective is to approach organisations with credibility, not simply contact as many people as possible.
Make the most of your two free unlocks
You have 14 days to explore GennFlow, but we’d suggest approaching the trial with a specific objective.
Rather than browsing everything and hoping something catches your attention, decide what would make the trial valuable to your agency.
Perhaps you’re looking for branding opportunities above a certain project value.
Maybe you want to build relationships with consumer brands preparing to expand.
Or perhaps you’re interested in digital transformation projects within the cultural and heritage sector.
Use those criteria to identify a shortlist.
Then choose two Signals that represent genuinely different or particularly relevant opportunities.
Unlock them, review the intelligence and decide what action you’d take.
You don’t need to win a client within 14 days to establish whether GennFlow could be useful.
Most meaningful new business relationships take longer than that.
What you should be able to judge is whether the intelligence helps you identify relevant organisations, understand potential opportunities and approach new business with greater confidence.
That’s a much more useful measure than the number of Signals you’ve browsed.
Build a consistent new business routine
The biggest benefit of opportunity intelligence comes from using it consistently.
Finding one interesting project is useful.
Developing a habit of identifying, qualifying and acting on relevant opportunities is potentially much more valuable.
That doesn’t mean spending hours in GennFlow every day.
For many agencies, a regular weekly review will be a sensible starting point.
Set aside time to explore new Signals, review opportunities you’ve already unlocked and decide which organisations deserve attention.
Some might warrant immediate outreach.
Others may be worth monitoring as their projects develop.
And some won’t be suitable, regardless of how attractive the headline budget looks.
That’s fine.
A good new business process involves deciding what not to pursue as much as deciding what to chase.
If you’re interested in developing a broader approach, read our guide to 10 ways creative agencies can find new business.
What happens when your free trial ends?
Your free trial lasts 14 days and includes two Signal unlocks.
To continue unlocking new Signals after the trial, you’ll need a paid subscription.
GennFlow offers two subscription options.
Core – £299 per month
Includes 50 monthly credits, equivalent to five standard Signal unlocks.
Priority – £499 per month
Includes 100 monthly credits, equivalent to ten standard Signal unlocks, together with earlier access to opportunities.
Both plans are designed for agencies that want a consistent source of researched creative opportunities rather than occasional prospecting.
The right plan depends on how actively your agency pursues new business and how many opportunities you expect to investigate each month.
There’s no need to choose the more expensive plan simply because it offers more unlocks.
Five well-qualified opportunities can be more valuable than ten poorly matched ones.
For a more detailed discussion of the cost and value of opportunity intelligence, read How much does creative new business intelligence cost?
Remember what GennFlow is really for
GennFlow isn’t intended to replace your relationships, creative expertise or ability to win work.
It won’t write the perfect pitch, guarantee a meeting or persuade an organisation to appoint your agency.
And it can’t remove the uncertainty that comes with running a creative business.
What it can do is help reduce some of the time and guesswork involved in finding relevant opportunities.
Instead of starting with a blank spreadsheet and a list of companies you’d like to work with, you can start with researched business developments, project context and a clearer reason to make contact.
You still need to decide which opportunities deserve your time.
You still need to demonstrate why your agency is relevant.
And you still need to build the relationship.
But at least you’re starting with something more useful than a cold introduction.
Because good new business doesn’t begin with sending more emails.
It begins with knowing who you should be speaking to, and why.
