Who's The New Guy?

Ashley Bugg · New business, one day a week

Your marketing earns attention. I turn it into conversations.

I'm Ashley. One day a week, inside agencies and SaaS businesses, turning the people already reading your work into meetings with your team.

How it works

For marketing agencies and SaaS businesses

The gap

Sound familiar?

Most businesses I meet aren't short of good work. They're short of anyone to pick it up afterwards.

  • 01

    The report did well. Then nothing happened.

    Downloads, shares, a few generous comments. Nobody ever found out who those people were, what they were working on, or whether any of it was worth a call.

  • 02

    New business is everyone's job, so it's nobody's.

    It sits behind client work every single week. Not because you don't rate it, but because there's always something more urgent with a name and a deadline attached.

  • 03

    You don't want to become a cold email machine.

    You've seen the templated, high volume version of this and decided it isn't how you want to show up. So rather than do it badly, you've mostly not done it at all.

The approach

How I look at it.

Attention isn't the result. It's the starting point.

Someone downloading your research is telling you what's on their mind. That's a reason to start a conversation, not a number to put in a report.

The best reason to get in touch is having something worth saying.

You've already made it. The research, the argument in the newsletter, the point of view nobody else in your category is willing to put their name to.

Small and considered beats big and automated.

I'd rather send thirty messages that could only have been written to that one person than three thousand that could have gone to anyone.

No hand-offs.

The person who researches the list writes the message, reads the reply and makes the introduction. That's me, from the first line to the handover.

A meeting is the beginning of something, not proof of anything.

I'm not going to promise you a pipeline. I'll get you in front of the right people with a good reason to be in the room. The rest is your job, and you're good at it.

How it works

One day a week, as part of your team.

We agree what the day is for. I do the work, and you see everything that goes out.

Step one

Work out who matters

Which businesses, which roles, which conversations are genuinely worth your time. Then I build and verify the list myself.

Step two

Write, in your voice

Messages built around your thinking and their world. Email and LinkedIn, written by me.

Step three

Follow it through

I manage the replies, answer the awkward questions and keep going while there's still a useful conversation to be had.

Step four

Make the introduction

A meeting in the diary and the context behind it, so you walk in knowing who they are and what they actually care about.

Got an event, roundtable or webinar coming up? Same job, different starting point. I'll find and invite the people you want in the room, or get meetings in the diary before you arrive.

About

So, who's the new guy?

Ashley Bugg

Ashley Bugg · London

I'm Ashley, and I've spent my whole career in new business.

I started out at CNet Training and Rainmaker, spent three years at Live Union, then moved on to McCann Demand and Frank. Agency new business, full time, for the better part of a decade.

Since 2020 I've done it independently, a day or two a week at a time, for around thirteen agencies and consultancies. It turns out one focused day a week does more than five days of it being squeezed in around everything else.

The same thing came up everywhere I went. Rooms full of clever people making genuinely good work, and almost none of it being followed up. The report goes out, the webinar happens, the newsletter lands, and everyone moves straight on to the next one.

That gap is the job. It's most of what I do, and I enjoy it more than I probably should.

Worked with, in full-time roles and independently

FrankIntegrated
McCann DemandGlobal network
Live UnionLive & events
DEVRIES GlobalPR
Hard NumbersPR
AllegoryCommunications
Propel PRMPR & marketing
Simpatico PRPR
ArrowEyeCommunications
KindredCreative
XpeditionConsultancy
The Folk GroupCreative
BrandContentContent
WasteCreative
LoxoAgency
LynnAgency
RainmakerConsulting
CNet TrainingTraining
£400Per day

One dedicated day a week, working as part of your team. We agree the priorities together and the work fits the time. You deal with me throughout, from the first message to the introduction. No junior team, no hand-offs, nobody you haven't met sending things out in your name.

Get in touch

What have you got coming up?

A piece of research, a point of view you're proud of, an event in the diary. Tell me about it and we'll work out in ten minutes whether there's something here worth doing. No pitch, and I'll say so if I'm not the right fit.

Ashley on LinkedIn