Why You’ll Lose Your Next Pitch – You Have No Business Being in the Room

Ask yourself one simple question: from the perspective of the prospect, do you have the perceived credibility to beat the other agencies and win the review?

If the odds of winning are not unusually high for your agency, then they are for someone else.

Gather your team for an hour and develop a set of “Pitch Targeting Criteria” – rules that will objectively help you determine whether you should engage with the review, walk away from it… or in fact run.

In my experience as a new business director, I learned never to ask my team, “So, what do you think? Should we do it?” This inevitably leads to a passionate – and completely subjective – case for why the agency should engage in the review, why it doesn’t matter that you have zero relevant experience… and why you’ll easily beat those other hack agencies. Never mind the fact that the client provided a fuzzy brief, won’t tell you the budget, and refuses to actually name those other agencies.

To keep the decision rational and business-focused, use decision-making criteria. Here are four key elements you should consider before engaging in any pitch:

1) Revenue: What is the minimum level of fee/profit that makes sense for us to engage?

2) Relevance: Do we have the relevant experience that will convince the prospect we are the safe bet? Most important to clients is category experience, followed by experience with their specific type of challenge, target audience, etc.

3) Reputation: Does the prospect have the cache that will add credibility to our client roster? Will they provide a good case study with great creative work? What will they be like to work with?

4) Resources: Do we have the resources available to hit this one out of the park? Good enough is not enough. Go big or go home.

by Brent Hodgins

To get you rolling, try using The Mirren Pitch Decision Tool CLICK below to download:
http://mirren.com/uploads/pdf/Mirren_Pitch_Decision_Tool_071008.pdf>