Change the Agency Pitch Process?

In a recent AdAge article about the agency pitch process, it is argued that the pitch process needs to change because it is too taxing and emotionally and fiscally draining for agencies.

Globally, 86% of agency respondents find pitching excessively time and cost exhaustive and 64% of agency respondents find pitching damaging to agency culture, according to the media consultancy’s “Pitch Smart” study.

I would argue that it isn’t the actual activity of pitching that’s the problem, it’s what goes into it and the structural make-up of the pitch process that is the issue.

When agencies participate in pitches run by my firm, RSW/AgencySearch, they characterize it as “refreshing”, “fair”, “open”, and “transparent”.

Obviously it’s not all about the agencies.  Afterall, it’s you, the marketer, that are bringing us on board to help with a search.  But that said, a happy agency going into a positive search with you, makes for a high probability successful relationship.

Generally speaking the group of you marketers feel the same way…but in a different way.

In most cases, marketers find it very difficult to make a decision between finalist agencies because they’re all so solid.

The last two searches we ran, one for Hamburger Helper/Suddenly Salad and the other for Cinch Home Services this was exactly the case.

Might have something to do with the fact that I started my search consultancy wanting to do things very differently than the typical agency search firm.

I wanted it to cost you nothing to have my firm manage the search.  We take a small commission from the winning agency.

I didn’t want cattle call pitches where the number of agencies involved got so big, it became overwhelming.

I didn’t want to only bring agencies into searches that “subscribed to a service I offered” like some other firms do.

I didn’t want to make agencies do comp work.  I was more interested in their thinking and the degree to which the problems they solved paralleled the problems of the marketer I was representing.

I didn’t want be overly limiting on how much time we gave agencies – but still keep things moving along at a good clip.

I didn’t want to be secretive relative to things like budgets, scope, needs definition.  The more I felt we could push out there in front of the agencies in the final pitch, the better the output we’d get.

I didn’t want the incumbent involved in the search unless the marketer really felt like they had a shot of winning back the business.  Not fair to them.

If all I’m telling you is too little, too late because you’re already deep into a search, here is a post I wrote a while back about how to best pick apart a marketing agency pitch.

Might help you work through some of the deficiencies of other firms in their attempt to get you to select a winning agency.

If all I’m telling you isn’t too late, think about doing just the opposite of all the “I didn’ts” above. You’ll end up with a better trusting relationship with your selected agency going in.  They won’t feel used and abused and/or mentally and fiscally exhausted.  They’ll be charged up and ready to kick-start the relationship!

If you’re in need of some help finding a new/better agency, drop us a line (mark@rswas.com).