Running an agency pitch – our advice for clients.

Choosing the right agency partner for your business can have a fundamental impact on business outcomes. Working with partners with the right skills and knowledge, approach and fit can be game-changing.

However, agency pitches can be time consuming and costly processes for clients and agencies alike. As pitch consultants, we take our responsibility to heart for delivering a process that is really efficient - getting the best answer while respecting everyone’s time and knowledge.

If you’re thinking of an agency pitch or tender process here are our top three tips.

1.    Challenge the process.

First, and arguably most importantly, be honest about what you want. If you are happy with your current agency’s performance and results consider a ‘no-pitch pitch’ – which will allow you to deliver on procurement standards of value for money, transparency and service standards without wasting anyone’s time.

Don’t assume a standard 3-step, RFI / Chemistry / Pitch, process is right for you. Challenge what you want from each stage. What is necessary? What do you want to learn?

Design a process that is right for you, will answer the key questions you have and not overload you with unnecessary information.

2.    Take the time to get to know each other.

In our view “Chemistry” should be about just that. You won’t get “Chemistry” from a pre-prepared presentation.  We usually ban ‘decks’. Take the time to talk. Open conversations will help you to get to know the personalities and discover how they think.

Just because you’ve heard that an agency is ‘really good’ doesn’t mean they are right for you. The cultural and business fit between client and agency is the most important thing.

Crucially, do the team like each other, do they respect each other’s skill and input. If they don’t, why should you?

Do they like you? Do they ‘get’ you? Are they excited by your challenge? 

3.    Prepare a really good brief.

The better the brief, the better the outcome will be in terms of finding the right partner and also in terms of getting work that you might actually use! Time spent upfront in the process will be saved at the end.

If you are using a pitch consultant, this is probably the most important part of our job, use someone who has a strong strategy and planning background and allow the time for them to challenge your brief.

Socialise and challenge the brief internally before you share with anyone. There is nothing more frustrating for agencies than clients disagreeing on the strategic direction of a media or creative response, when it is clear they didn’t get a chance to input to the brief or they were not fully aligned on the brief.

We’d love to talk!

If you have questions about agency resource, feel free to reach out for a chat.

Call us on 01 556 3678 or email us at hello@pt78.ie