The advertising industry is rapidly changing. Will agency pitches and RFPs be a thing of the past and if so, what will take their place for best business development practices that better benefit both clients and ad agencies?
This is a guest post written by Jaci Russo, Partner and Chief Strategist for The Russo Group, a small ad agency (full time staff of 19) in Lafayette, Louisiana, that is having explosive new business growth by leading prospective client conversations with social media. In this post Jaci raises some great questions and hopefully will facilitate dialogue from both agencies and clients.
Guest Post By Jaci Russo:
One of the questions that plagues all agencies is how to get new business and develop more clients. There are lots of theories about inbound v outbound marketing.
I received an email the other day from JC Fantechi in Sweden. He is the founder of Icebreaker which helps ad agencies in Europe win new business. He emailed me because he heard Michael Gass’ interview of me on Fueling New Business about the new business wins we have had this year. I thought his question was great, so I wanted to answer it here:
In your opinion, are pitches/should pitches be a thing of the past? Are they really necessary in order to gauge an agency’s output, or wouldn’t a “chemistry test” be better, to meet a potential agency & its work team to see if there is grounds for a good marriage, then work together to solve the strategic and the creative? Maybe that’s the way you already work, but I’m tired of getting my clients into pitches, getting half decent briefs and only one performance in order to get things right”.
JC Fantechi Founder, Icebreaker
Most companies that work in the B2B space are expected to put forth some sort of outbound effort to gain new business. Most often, that outbound effort involves one of the following:
- RFP – Request For Proposals - Potential client creates a 10-100 page document detailing everything they want to know about their new prospective partner. In the construction industry, a contractor then spends hours researching the blueprints and creating a very detail proposal including costs. The final written documents could at times rival the size of War and Peace and the cost would be enough to purchase a house.
- Pitch – An incredible investment of time and resources dedicated by anywhere from 2 to 20 companies is made at the behest of the client and much like the Olympics, there is only one gold medal winner. The companies involved completely engross themselves in the client and learn everything they can about the brand and the category. Since this is typically done in a vacuum with little or no input from the client there is no guarantee that the research and analysis is on target.
I completely agree with JC. If a sample project were the third option, it would be the best choice every time. A project would allow both sides to really get to know each other. A project is like actually dating vs the RFP/Pitch which is more like a first date where you only know what they want you to know about them.
There is another option though.
We work with our B2B clients to generate inbound efforts. This is the same way we develop our own business. Using a myriad of tools, from social media through speaking and writing engagements, we are able to establish ourselves as knowledgeable experts and that is why we are experiencing unprecedented growth (Q1 09 net profit up 118% compared to Q1 08).
Inbound marketing is great for a lot of reasons, most of which, once the relationship is in place, there is no competition for the business.
If you believe pitches and RFPs should be a thing of the past, then what would practices would better benefit clients and agencies? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Previous interview with Jaci Russo: Ad agency having explosive new business growth by leading with social media
It is so much fun to listen to two people who have already articulated what I have been thinking about for the last three months. Michael Gass and Jaci Russo, thanks for the incredible blogs and tweets.
We have taken this exact attitude in our new business efforts. We were recently asked to pitch for some business against two other firms. We had already done some significant relationship building with the President of the client company (met through a social media reconnect) and we told him that we would not devote a weeks worth of hours to build a presentation for them for free. We had already identified two projects where he needed our expertise. I told him he was loosing valuable time with an agency presentation. He agreed and wrote us a check. You two are way ahead of me but I am catching up fast! Thanks
Chuck,
That is great news to hear. Thanks for the affirmation and for you and your agency having the gumption to stick with your values even if it meant losing this opportunity. I’m sure it was a refreshing shock to the president of this company for an agency to have some “cohonays”.
[...] A comment to a recent guest post written by Jaci Russo, Should Ad Agency Pitches and RFPs Be a Thing of the Past? someone wrote, [...]
After 30-plus years, I have rarely seen an RFP that was not boiler plate, copied from another and/or mostly irrelevant to what really needs to take place for the client. They should be called RFCYA. If the folks who are responsible for one of a company’s most important would-be partnerships needs a document of the detail most require, then they really do not know the players. Social media is a huge opportunity for agencies and clients to take a giant (real-time) step foward. Haden Edwards
Haden, Thanks for your insight. I wholeheartedly agree!
Really great news. Thanks for sharing this.
[...] Should Ad Agency Pitches and RFPs Be a Thing of the Past? [...]
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[...] Should Ad Agency Pitches and RFPs Be a Thing of the Past? [...]
[...] by every agency are RFP (our favorite letters are ROI, btw). These long-winded, inane and arguably unnecessary documents strike fear in the hearts of [...]
[...] When you think about it, it’s not surprising that over the last few years more agencies have been “pushing back” against the RFP process, either by not engaging or participating on their own terms. There has also been a big increase in articles like these calling for the end of RFPs for ad agencies or, at minimum, a complete overhaul of the traditional RFP process. [...]
While I do not work for or own an ad agency, I do have experience with RFP’s from my days in the 1990′s in manufacturing software sales.
If you believed the boilerplate RFP’s we received from the large consulting firms, you would not be surprised that practically all the manufacturing firms in the US all operated in the same way.
We decided that since our software package was different, we would adopt a different approach. Note: If there is a consultant involved, they will not like this methodology.
First, Qualify, Qualify Qualify the prospect. To do this effectively we developed a qualification questionnaire. This document served as a guide to get the prospect to talk about what their requirements were and helped us develop a personal relationship. The result of the hour to 2 hour converstaion is to determine whether or not to proceed to the next step.
Second, if you have determined that the prospect is a qualified candidate for you services, go on a site visit to learn all you can about the prospect and their requirements and make your initial overview presentation of your skills, services, etc.
Third, follow up with the prospect to see where you stand after the opening round. If you are anywhere on the list other than at the top, do not put forth any more effort. Carefully explain to the prospect that while you appreciate being a part of the evaluation, it is in their best interest to start at the top and fully and completely evaluate the candidates ahead of you. The result should be that they either decide to business with one of them or eliminate all of them from the evaluation. But that if they do not find what they are looking for, to please call you.
When they call be prepared to convince them to put some skin in the game by coming to your home turf or engage you in a consulting arrangement which could be credited against a future agreement.
Remember the qualification step? This is when it pays off. Because when they arrive, you are most likely shaking hands with your next client.
Hope this helps!
Mike
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