Guaranteed advice for never losing a creative pitch

I've never been a fan of pitching for new business, but I now have a guaranteed formula for never losing a pitch. My advice is simple: Don't do it!

After losing a pitch this week, I've decided that it'll be my last. I'm simply not prepared to put together a creative pitch, unpaid, for any client no matter how interesting the project might be. It's quite simply a bad way for clients to select a supplier, and a bad way for an agency to spend its limited sales and marketing budget. I'd rather put the money into small unpaid projects that raise our profile and do something interesting/useful, than into creative work that will be completely wasted if the client makes an arbitrary decision to go with someone else.

I feel a real sense of relief having come to this decision. I wish I had made it years ago.

Comments

[Helen Aspell]

I think some of the comments in "pitching for new business" are arrogant in the extreme. "If you are outsourcing the work, then the chances are that you are not qualified to write the brief (sorry!)" Really? As an NM client I am more than a little irratated that is what you think of me. I am also intrigued at your belief in the arbitary nature of the decision - who is best placed to make the decision on what is best for them, you or the prospective client. You may produce excellent products and demos but that's not really the point if that's the opinion you have of your clients.

[Tom Nixon]

Hi Helen, thanks for commenting, and I’m really sorry for causing offence. I feel awful about that. Looking back at that post I can see how it could come across as arrogant and I don’t think I explained myself very well, so let me clarify what I really meant.

I wasn't singling out you or any particular client. The post referred to was written in 2006, before you began working with us, so please don’t take this personally – I haven’t even seen any agency briefs that you guys may have produced. It was based on a general observation that the vast majority of client briefs that I have seen over the years aren't actually fit for purpose. This isn’t a problem at all most of the time – one of the aspects of our job that we enjoy the most is taking the client back several steps, understanding what it is that they’re really trying to achieve and then working with them to shape the solution. It’s only a problem in a pitching situation where an agency has to put together a response based on an inadequate brief, without being able to involve the client sufficiently. Unfortunately this is all too common in pitches. In these situations, the client rarely ends up with the right solution for their needs which is why the decision can seem arbitrary from an agency’s removed perspective.

I’m not knocking clients for working in this way. Pitching is standard practice in our industry, and often demanded by procurement departments. It’s just my personal belief based on my experience that pitching is bad for clients and agencies.

From an agency perspective, I think that you can only do a proper job on a pitch by investing a huge amount of time in it, and involving the client heavily along the way, as if you were already appointed as their supplier. But essentially this means doing a large chunk of the project speculatively so there’s too much at stake if you don’t secure the work. I just don’t think it’s worth the risk.

In a follow-up post I outlined how I would go about selecting an agency if I worked on the client-side. I’m certain that this approach would lead to far superior results compared to a pitch. This post too was written a year and a half ago and my thoughts have evolved a bit since then, but by and large I think the approach is sound. I’d love to know what you think about this from a client’s perspective:

http://www.tomnixon.co.uk/2006/07/a_better_altern.html

Apologies again for coming across like an arrogant tosser. I was feeling quite passionate and fired up at the time I wrote the post. It was meant to be highly opinionated, but I think I may have gone a bit too far.

[Will McInnes]

Never say never. Do you *really* mean that you're never going to pitch again? Pitching is brutal, but so is everything. I'm not so sure man.

[Will McInnes]

@Helen - Helen, I really don't think this an anti-client 'rant' by Tom.

I accept that his point that 'if you're outsourcing then you're not qualified to write the brief' is broadbrush, facile and patronising - at least if it is taken away from the broader context of what he's saying - but there is something in this point generally.

You are unusual, Helen, in your expertise and you know that from the interactions you have with agencies (keeping ppl on their toes) and with your internal colleagues (where you need to talk at a different level, outside of your direct team).

Many clients don't know as much as you, and so there are organisations like AAR and The Haystack Group to provide that expertise to help clients make good decision.

I think we as client and supplier could also brainstorm more intelligent ways for the matchmaking process than the traditional 'creative pitch' which Tom is attacking.

More and more enlightened ppl I'm coming across are doing things like a 'creds, chemistry and ideas'-led conversation, where you show your credentials (prev. experiences), see how you get on and how good your ideas are.

Faster, less onerous and more human than a classical pitch.

What do you reckon to this?