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Three Top Tips for Pitching

Pitches are unfair, unreal, risky, exhausting, not real life and expensive. Sad but true. However, they are also the lifeblood of the industry and a necessary part of agency survival and growth. And in equal measure they can exhilarating, motivating, brilliant for team building and hugely satisfying – if you win.

Over the last ten years, I have attended dozens and dozens of pitches – some brilliant, some average and some appalling. So what are the insights? What are the best tips? Just a few to start with…

It is about the big things. From the moment that you learn about the pitch immerse yourself in understanding the clients business, their commercial issues and their marketing challenges. Clients are hugely impressed when an agency demonstrates an in depth knowledge of the issues that they face on a day to day basis such as growing volume sales, defending market share, recruiting and retaining consumers customers, competitive threats and from agencies that show empathy that they are doing so with reduced staffing and budgets. They are not impressed with an agency that presents strategy and creative in a vacuum to the reality of what it happening in the market place. Being fluffy is not an option. Real solutions to real problems is.

It is about the little things. Organizing the pitch process is a logistical nightmare. Not only have you to ensure that you come up with the right solutions for the client but you also must ensure that nothing distracts the client from assessing your proposals in a proper light. So do make sure that the little things do not become big things in the client's eyes. Do not underestimate the negative impact of poor presenters, people with no speaking parts, not sticking to the agenda, overrunning on time, loose costings, spelling errors, getting the client names wrong, wrong logos, 'winging it' on answers and so on. They all happen. They all can destroy your best efforts.

It is not about you. "We have the best people, the best planning processes and access to the best resources of any agency in town". Unfortunately, the other agencies on the pitch list have just said the exact same! This is not a discriminator. It is not about you anyway. Actually, it is about them – the clients. Don't tell them about you (not too much anyway). They already know you or else you would not be pitching. Spend your precious time telling them what you can do for them, how they will benefit from working with you and how you can help them fix their problems. Address their agenda. It is far more important to them than addressing yours.

Add to this brilliant people, insightful thinking and outstanding and engaging ideas. The odds are significantly better. It is no longer a lottery.

The Pitch Doctor Express process

This process is recommended for pitching to appoint an agency on a long term basis as opposed to pitching a project.

1. Review the agency videos on this site.
2. Shortlist 3 to 5 agencies and request a short credentials presentation.
3. After the credentials presentations, narrow your shortlist down to 2 or 3 agencies.
4. Supply a comprehensive brief for a direct marketing campaign to each agency
5. Offer all agencies the opportunity to meet with your team at least once before the pitch.
6. Review all pitches and select the agency that best fits your organisation's requirements.
7. Appoint your chosen agency and advise the other agencies of your decision.

Tips to help you through the pitch process

1. When you receive the Agency credentials presentation, find out who they’ve worked with, the results they’ve achieved for their clients and if their culture and approach ties in with what you’re looking for.
2. When preparing a pitch document keep your brief clear and concise. It should include Business Objectives, Creative Requirements and a Budget. This will ensure that the Agency delivers and showcases exactly what you are looking for, within the budget that you have available.
3. Consider giving Agencies a cost template to fill in, this will help you compare like with like; ask for hourly rates as well as actual campaign costs.
4. Share as much as you can about your business, brand and customers in the pitch document, including research and brand guidelines.
5. Include in your brief your reason for going out to pitch. This will help the Agency understand what you are looking for.
6. Meet each Agency after briefing them and before the pitch so that the Agency is completely clear on your requirements.
7. Request that the people who will be working on your account are present at the pitch; chemistry between agency and client is extremely important. Ask for biographies of the team so you can see what experience they have.
8. Ask for client testimonials. Call their clients and ask them for feedback about the Agency, the team and the results of the campaigns that they have run.

Pitch Doctor Express is a service from the Irish Direct Marketing Association. Terms & Conditions apply.
8 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2 Tel: 01 661 0470 fax: 01 830 8914 email: services@idma.ie