PITCHING IT AWAY
BETTER RELATIONSHIPS between clients and their advertising, marketing or PR agencies lead to enhanced value for the fees paid as well as greater creativity, so why are there so many competitive pitches for business? Clients end up with the agencies and output they deserve. Agencies step into the unknown with the expansion they chase so vigorously. Pitching for new accounts is a wasteful drain on resources – for both sides.
In a survey by the Institute of Advertising, clients estimated that the outlay in terms of time and direct expenses when seeking a new agency worked out at over £30,000 a time.
The same survey reported that the cost of pitching has become prohibitive for the majority of agencies. Without a guarantee of at least a three-year arrangement, the investment is not matched by the commercial return. That is how it is for the winners. Losers really are pitching it all away.
The brand being newly supported does not benefit quickly, either. Typically, it takes 12 months or more to integrate an agency into the paymaster’s ways of thinking. The scope and practices of work in such early stages are unlikely to be anything like fully productive.
TRUST
Is it worth all those headaches and possible confrontation? Marketing communications is a people business. We all work best with people we know and can trust: with those we can rely on to deliver all-around commercial value.
Almost certainly, that is why relationships between client managements and senior agency personnel can be highly productive and long-lasting. That is, until someone new arrives at the top, looking to make his or her mark, irrespective of what the lieutenants have been doing.
It makes business sense to foster continuity. New bosses can bask in current glory rather than risking change for the sake of needlessly freshening up the marketing scene. Alright, that requires behavioural change, but there are rewards to be accrued, even though retention is less impactful on peers and observers than a clear-out.
OUTGROWN
Surely, the new-business pitching system has outgrown its purpose. It is all about win or lose. That can only work in the short-term, if at all. Long-term relationships are built on a platform of win-win.
This is about respect, trust and transparency. It can make a significant difference to the quality of both input and output. A win-win attitude between clients and agencies brings clarity of purpose to the tasks that they face.
Both sides can explore how to do things really well and will be more capable of monitoring, measurement and forward planning. Everybody wins.
An atmosphere of co-operative performance and improvement is bound to benefit all concerned. It will allow the partnership to flourish and foster bottom-line success. No need, therefore, to trudge down the myopic tunnel of wasteful pitching for the business.
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