You, You, You-The Agency Pitch and New Business 101

Part of what I like best about my job is talking to agencies and agency principals. It’s a world I enjoy, in main part due to the outpouring of creativity and passion usually associated with it.

And so I was speaking with an agency principal yesterday, and turns out they just signed the contract on a new piece of business. Not giant business, but good business and they’re a small agency, so were pretty happy about it. Even sweeter, they beat out a larger competitor. The million dollar question: how?

The answer to that question is one of the many reasons we (RSW/US) exist as a company. We work with agencies of all sizes, and each one has its similar as well as unique challenges, but as I spoke with this principal, my post from last week regarding the changing face of smaller agencies came to mind.

The principal’s answer to that “how” question in this case? The first thing out of their mouth was “What can we do to help you?” Simple right? And goes back to one of the golden rules of new business, “It’s not about you.” Yes, you’ve heard it before, but it never hurts to hear it again.

The competitor in this case essentially did just the opposite. A few examples:

-They never really asked that “How can we help you question.”

-They required, with little to no flexibility, a fairly large sum up front.

-They instructed the CEO fairly early and dogmatically that their company logo had to be changed, to the great displeasure of said CEO.

-Apparently they didn’t have a conversation with the CEO and his team, they talked at them.

Now, this isn’t a knock on larger agencies and shouldn’t be taken as such, but it is indicative, I think, of the changing nature of the industry as a whole. Smaller, more nimble agencies, seem to be winning business because they are more flexible, they truly listen, and with trusted partners and freelancers supplementing staff, are able to handle just about any project.

More to come, but interesting to see this evolution continue.