Results-driven business development for design, creative and digital agencies

Welcome to The Hand

We’re a specialist business development agency for the design and creative industry.

With us, you won’t find a cookie-cutter approach. We tailor our support to you and your business. We want you to feel that we’re part of your team; working alongside you to deliver great results.

Whether it’s strategic or tactical support you’re looking for, we’ve got you covered. As your strategic new business partner, we advise, action and deliver on all aspects of the business development process.

We love what we do.  We live it and breathe it.

Our expertise is what we’ve become known for.

Getting started

Our approach

From strategy through to implementation and training, we offer all levels of support. At the centre of this is your roadmap which we’ll work closely with you to create, refine and execute.

Our carefully considered, integrated approach includes creating a marketing and PR toolkit, proposal writing, pitching as part of your agency team and prospecting for new business.

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Selection of agency clients

Our services

What we do

We partner with you, plugging into any size of creative business to become an integral, commercially focused part of your team.

We help design and creative agencies across all or any of the following areas:

  • Strategy and planning

  • Lead generation and new business

  • Business development plan and marketing

  • Attending meetings and pitching as part of an agency team

  • Business roadmap creation and communications training

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Our process

How we do it

We use an integrated approach, which involves telephone, email, face-to-face networking at events and social media resources, but we never ‘cold call’.

About The Hand

Who we are

The Hand are a team of expert consultants, each of whom have had in-house new business experience, and work hands-on with clients to implement strategies for winning business from new clients.

Natasha Ellard-Shoefield is Managing Director of The Hand and an accredited consultant in the field of business development on the DBA (Design Business Association) Experts’ Panel.

Meet the team

The Hand Talks

Latest posts

All posts

That Crucial Human Touch in B2B Sales

18.08.2023 by The Hand

In the complex arena of B2B sales and marketing, personalisation is the absolute cornerstone of successful engagement. The development of AI has undoubtedly reshaped how businesses approach marketing and sales, offering unprecedented efficiency in certain tasks. However, it’s vital to debunk the notion of AI being able to achieve successful personalisation and connection all on its own. It can’t.

Whilst AI can expedite processes, it fundamentally lacks the depth of human understanding of language nuances and emotion. Let’s delve a bit more into the symbiotic relationship between human expertise in personalisation and AI efficiency as a tool in the complex B2B world. Because whilst it’s clear it can make the process more efficient, what I see no evidence for is how AI can replace the human touch. I just don’t believe it can right now.

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Body language matters. Reading and giving off the right signals in new business meetings

19.07.2023 by The Hand

When you’re pitching for new business it’s often too easy to put the entire focus on ‘what’ you say, rather than how you come across.

It’s really easy to forget that so much of all communication is non-verbal and that it’s the things that you don’t say that can often convey the most information. The way you present yourself in a new business meeting is so important and so it’s worth thinking about how body language can set the tone of both that meeting but also of a future relationship.

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Testimonials

What our clients are saying

‘Working with Natasha and Alex at The Hand is a delight! They offer really tailored support and provide valuable expertise on how to approach our new business activity. Their knowledge and experience has been a huge help to us and they’ve become part of our team. With them, there’s no pushiness, no one-size fits all and no excuses. They’re all about delivering! Furthermore, they’re a joy to work with.’

— Client Services Director, Top 100 Creative Agency, Bermondsey, London

‘Working with the team at The Hand is refreshing and just how different The Hand’s approach is to other new business outfits has surprised us – the consultancy and activity that The Hand is providing and have seen some very positive results, and just 6 months into our relationship.’

— Director, Brand and Design Agency, Clerkenwell, London

‘The Hand are instrumental in our business development. Natasha’s sound strategic advice and experience over the past 3 years has shaped us a robust lead generation strategy that delivers results. Alex demonstrates a perfect pairing of tenacity with a friendly tone. She understands and reflects our company value and ethos when speaking with prospects, resulting in quality meetings. The business continues to grow.’

— MD, Brand Design Agency, Leicester