Three pitch-pitfalls and how to avoid them
Pitching is often an essential way for agencies to develop new business. Allowing creative teams to give potential clients a taste of their work, and giving clients a flavour for an agency, pitching could be seen as a win-win.
However, pitching for work isn’t as simple as offering a taste of ice cream before a client buys the whole sundae. The process is creatively top-heavy and can sap ideas, resources and energy from a studio. Pitches are financially risky too. Costs can skyrocket with no guaranteed ROI. Courting new business can also cause existing client relationships to suffer as agency attention is focused elsewhere.
So how can agencies limit the negative impact of pitching? Here at MERó we’ve identified three pitch-pitfalls to avoid so you can protect your team and your bank balance:
1. The un-winnable pitch
Picture the scene: you are a medium sized agency keen to reel in a new client. They are a step-up from where you are at the moment and winning this work could lead to really big things. It’s all hands on deck in the studio and you throw everything into the pitch. The agency is a hive of activity with everyone working long hours to get the job done.
At the last minute you get a tip off. A reliable source says the client is almost certainly going to go with Agency X who they have been working with for the last three years. You never had a chance. They’re just been going though the motions as part of their procurement process, no hard feelings...
It can be difficult not to have hard feelings at 2am when you’re sweating through yesterday’s shirt and chewing on last night’s cold pizza. It feels like you’ve wasted a lot of time, energy and resources on someone else’s financial processes, and it stings.
2. Painting yourself into a corner
An age-old problem, you’re so focused on getting the job done you forget to look up and you end up trapped. An RFP comes through for a great client, someone you’ve wanted to hook in for a while. Everybody is excited. You throw yourselves into the pitch and it pays off. The meeting is a success, the client love your ideas and it’s all high-fives in the taxi home.
Then you get a note from the client on budget: They loved the concept and want to work together, but the rates are going to have to drop.
You’d already costed low to pique their interest and finances are tight — but you’ve spent a lot of cash to get to this point (not to mention late nights, tattered relationships and boughts of tonsillitis) so you agree to drop the rates a little. You’ve invested so much already, and who knows where this new client could lead?
Three meetings later and you’ve got a handshake, but you’ve also agreed to some meagre rates. You’re going to have to do three or four jobs with your new client before you even pay off the pitch costs, and who knows, at that point they might ask you to pitch again…
3. Team Freelance
A last minute pitch comes in from an exciting new client and you set to work right away. Trouble is, your in-house team are tied up with existing projects that can’t be passed over, so you decide to freelance the pitch. You’ve got some great contacts to draw on and you put together a dream team to help win you the work.
Team Freelance take over the studio and the space buzzes with scripts, scamps, long lunches and all-nighters. Whilst your pitch team are putting together something new and exciting, studio staff plod along with the bread and butter work, dodging the occasional high five or flying sharpie.
And then you win. High fives again! Except, the client want work to begin immediately and they want the pitch team to deliver the project. The talent is what sold them in the first place. This means months of paying out expensive dayrates whilst your in-house team are caught in a repetitive cycle. Morale is low across the studio, and with freelance rates and pitch costs stacking up, you’ve won the work, but at what cost?
But it’s not all bad. Pitches can be a fantastic way to grow your agency, winning new clients, expanding your repertoire and finding your way into new sectors. Pitching is a great way to keep a team on their toes, staying abreast of new trends and technologies and what your competitors are up to. Pitching can event be good for your existing clients as they reap the benefits of a creative team who are active and explorative.
The important thing is to ensure that you avoid pitch-pitfalls where you can, and make the most of your investments of time, energy and ideas. In our next blog we’ll take a look at some practical ways to ensure pitching works for you —whether you win the work or not.
