Brand
Pitching Digital – The Line in the Sand
I have had cause to proposalate in the last few months. Proposalation is the line that, as an agency of repute, one draws just before dropping one’s drawers and taking it up the Mohave Desert. The ‘before’ part is an important distinction. Pitching is bullying in my mind and so it simply won’t compute. I hate dedicating the resources of the agency for no reward – we have clients who pay for such a service and there isn’t a credible reason I can give those clients for making them pay, and yet give others the same service for free, or ‘speculatively’, or for the ‘potential opportunity’, or however the hell you try to justify it. It’s simply unacceptable.
So, now that that’s clear, what have we got left? Well on the basis that the prospective client has equally staunch views on ‘sampling the merchandise’ and requires more than a lifetime of credentials, case studies, awards and testimonials because, you know, what if overnight you suddenly start delivering shit…? Well, that’s where the agency can proposalate – write a proposal, show an ankle, but whatever happens, keep the drawers firmly in place.
And so I have proposalated for the last few months – with mixed results. On the plus side, almost every client proposal has been approved and progressed towards something wonderful. On the down side, almost every prospect proposal has met with anxiety, procrastination and a nervous twitch.
I’ve learnt a few things in the last few months. The first, and probably the most important, is that in a difficult economic climate and in a rapidly evolving digital space, the trust of an existing client is far more valuable than the potential riches of an uncertain prospect. There are brands that are willing to embrace digital change and those that would prefer to produce the same old, same old in the vain hope that it might work this time (even if it didn’t work last time). No matter how compelling the proposal, nothing changes the basic fear of the unknown.
The digital space for B2B brands is currently one of chance – the chance to change, to do things differently, to evolve. The vast majority of the work that I am currently proposing simply hasn’t been done before. There are no case studies, there are no measures or benchmarks. That’s quite a hard sell for the traditional B2B prospect. Actually, it’s pretty difficult for an existing client, but the at least client has trust. The measures are therefore not what has been achieved for other clients, but ‘how much do you trust me?’ We’ve never done it, you’ve never done it, no one’s ever done it… but it’s cool isn’t it? Trust me. Spend some money on it and let’s see what happens… Like I said, a hard sell.
So I’ve learnt that I’m wasting my time speculating on prospect proposals. Digital brand strategy and delivery is too risky for the majority. Those closest to accepting and embracing change are already our clients so it makes sense to focus on them. They will become the case studies that the other laggards eventually follow.
It makes no sense to continue to educate the market in the art of the possible when the market makes little tangible investment in that process of evolution. They’re interested in it alright – it’s the interest that simulates the proposal in the first place. They’re even excited by the potential – “incredible… that’s amazing… can we really do that…?” Well, actually, no, you can’t, because you’re not prepared to pay for it and I’m getting tired of telling you while you jack-off in the corner.
That leaves a few, a happy few, a band of brothers. Whichever way I look at it, it’s still a hard sell. And so I’m going to stop proposalating. I have better things to do. For a start, I have some needles in a haystack to find. They’re out there, but I’m no longer going to try to write a proposal to find and convince them. Once they’ve narrowed their options, they’ll find me. We should all draw a line in the sand. Not in the Mohave Desert though.
Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
31/01/2011
Additional/Related information: Fast Company – The Future of Advertising
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3 Comments
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hide commentsScot, a VERY wise man in the PR industry once told me that he reckoned pitches are split three ways: a third of them are rigged, a third of them are random, and a third of them are right! Well, as someone who has spent large chunks of my career pitching to the public sector through unnecessarily complex and frankly bizarre tender processes, you can work the odds in your favour.
I’d say you’re you’re doing too many that are “rigged” (i.e. a competitor has a better relationship already and you’re providing competitive tension because they’ve heard of you) or “random” (i.e. for some reason you’ve not fully got hold of what the client REALLY wants and therefore the ultimate decision looks mad!).
I know this is teaching granny to do the proverbial, but ensure that you’ve got the inside track as many times as possible – build the close key relationships to “rig” as many in your favour as possible; and minimise the “random” ones by making sure you genuinely understand what they’re actually buying (yes, probably not what they actually need, but you can work on that afterwards!).
Your hit rate will rise – don’t withdraw from pitching to prospects altogether – just reserve your time for prospective clients who you know and already like enough to bet your valuable time on them. Something tells me they’ll be the ones who know you and understand you well enough to have already chosen you.
Graeme Trigg
08:52 25 January 2011
Hi Graham – I think at the heart of my frustration is not so much the ‘Rigged’ or ‘Random’, but more that they’re simply not ‘Ready’. (There were other words for those prospects that sprang to mind beginning with ‘R’ – ‘Rectum’ was one…). Nevertheless, those are 4 of the most insightful paragraphs that any visitor has posted to our site – thank you for sharing.
S.
Scot
14:49 26 January 2011
On improving hit rates:
When I was a DM agency new business manager I would send the prospective clients a draft copy of the proposal document some time prior to the pitch date – ostensibly to ensure we were on the right track and to ask for comments.
I happened to be strong on doing background research for pitches, which went in the appendix as the ‘we did our homework and aren’t making it up’ evidence. People used to like this – it showed them the agency had gone to some trouble to educate itself (it always looked more impressive than the effort had involved.)
At least some of the time this would push them into thinking about whether they were asking impossible questions, whether they genuinely wanted to hear any answers other than their own, etc. It also meant that if I had got something wrong there was an opportunity for them to say so and me to address it.
More to the point, this tactic meant I got in first and the agency I worked for set the benchmark.
Way back in 1982, when I was attending undergraduate social psychology lecures, one of the things that came in useful years later was how the dynamics of debates are affected by the order in which the person making the judgement hears the arguments. The first is that which the subsequent ones are measured; the last is the one best remembered.
On that basis, your chances are optimised if you can both set the benchmark (by sending in your draft proposal and making yourself the best remembered by getting the last slot. Finally, I realised that often the person making the final decision was often not at the presentation. Those attending would make recommendations to the ultimate decision-maker, which meant they needed to remember what was presented. Giving them a proper document that explains it all to pass to the big boss means he/she has something that stands alone without need for further explanation.
This approach does make some assumptions – that you have time to write a really good, cogently argued and interesting document, that you have done your homework, and that you can find out when the various presentation slots are. But if you can get at least some of these factors on your side, it cannot help but improve your chances.
Amy Silverston
17:02 4 February 2011