“Dos and Don’ts” of Writing the Perfect Pitch for Your Agency

My monthly musings often grow out of real experiences working with leadership at small agencies. I see patterns that other agencies are likely to be experiencing and that inspires me to share my ideas and observations.

For reasons only known to the universe, I’ve found myself working a lot lately with my clients on creating good content for their outreach to prospects, mostly through email.

And I know why they seek my help—because it’s hard! Maybe not rocket science-hard but it stumps enough of us that we manage to find a hundred other things we really should be doing just to avoid it.

Whether proactive outreach plays a large role in your business development strategy or a minor one, you will undoubtedly be called on at some point to make a short, compelling pitch to someone who’s busy and not predisposed to interruption.

Here are some dos and don’ts to put you on the right track towards making it worthy of their attention.

DON’T hit send if find yourself doing any of these:

Don’t state the obvious. Starting an email with “allow me to introduce myself…” is superfluous.  The reader already has an idea of who you are based on the “from” field in the email header and if they don’t, a quick glance at your email signature should supply your name, company name and your title. 

Likewise eliminate openers like “I know you must be busy…” Not only is it obvious (and, if it’s not, then it’s inaccurate, which is just as bad), but it leaves the reader asking “if she knows I’m so busy, why is she interrupting me?” 

We do this because launching right into the heart of the matter can feel so sudden. And an intro feels appropriate and polite. But that’s only our perception. To the reader, it telegraphs a lack of confidence so she’ll probably take your email much less seriously.

Don’t assume they care what you’d love to do, as in “I’d love to have a chat over coffee…”. Or what you’d be excited about, as in “I’d be excited to tell you more about our new work.” Or what you’re hoping, as in “I hope you’re well”, “I hope you’re staying cool in this heat!” or, “I’m hoping I can interest you in…”). 

The only reason they care about what you’d love to do is if they already love you, in which case you’d be writing an entirely different email. 

Don’t add unnecessarily to their busy day by asking them to tell you about their issues. I understand the logic behind this. How can you possibly offer them thoughtful, customized feedback unless you know more about their business? 

That’s true, but unfortunately the opportunity to do that only comes once you establish a level of familiarity and trust. No one wants to invest time that they don’t have to tell you about their issues so that you can maybe figure them out.

Don’t give them options. You may be trying to be generous or display a wealth of resources, but don’t invite them to download a free report OR subscribe to your newsletter OR link to this case study OR respond to this email. 

Asking them to do more than one thing causes confusion and a confused mind always says “no”.

Don’t disguise a pitch by pretending to ask a professional favor. And if for some reason you decide to ignore my advice and do so anyway, make sure you do a better job than this person did in his email to me: 

“It is my intention to borrow twenty minutes of your time. With your experience you can give us invaluable feedback on how to continue to develop our tools and carry on tailoring this to the needs of marketers everywhere.”

Instead, DO:

Be brief and follow this formula: 1) state the benefit (what's in it for them?), 2) offer a differentiator (why should they buy it from you?), and 3) offer a call to action (what do you want them to do next?)

That’s it! So reassuringly simple, right? 

Here’s an example of a pitch that follows this general formula, slightly altered, that I got on LinkedIn. 

Hi Jody,
Hiring graphic designers is hard, time-consuming and expensive.
At [Company Name] we take this burden off your shoulders with our Unlimited Graphic Design service, delivering your design requests in under 24 hours for a fraction of the traditional costs.
Is this something of interest?

In fact, it was not of interest to me. I don’t need this service at all. But I can absolutely imagine someone who would! And I can imagine that person responding “yes” to this message.

And, okay, maybe this 24-hour graphic design service is way more transactional and tactical than what your agency offers, but assuming you have a compelling proposition, this formula can absolutely work for an agency that offers bespoke, customized services. 

(Feel free to challenge me on this. If you don’t think this would work for your agency, let’s talk—I’ll offer you a complimentary 45-minute session to see if I can figure it out with you.)

Be clear in your objectives. You don’t want to overwhelm them with choices, so what do you want them to do? What’s your objective? 

Is it to get a meeting? Then ask for a meeting and only a meeting. 

If they don’t take you up on your offer, you may need to alter course. Allow them to get more familiar with your agency and build up some trust and goodwill. One way to do this is through an exchange of value, like inviting them to download a free report. 

Draw on what you already know. If you’re being strategic in your prospecting for new business, you are targeting a group of clients that you’re qualified to work with in some way. 

Ideally, these companies share characteristics with the businesses you are already working with such as size, growth stage, category, or business model, among others. For example, you may have experience working with restaurant franchises. Your knowledge should be at least partially transferable to other kinds of franchise businesses.

Draw on that knowledge and trust that what you know to be true for your clients is likely to be true for similar marketers.  

Treat it like a campaign. Yep, unless you’re lucky or have an unignorable offer, you will be contacting them more than once. Think about how you might build a narrative that supports your value proposition over the course of multiple contacts. 

It’s like an autoresponder sequence but it doesn't have to be automated. In fact, in cases where you are making a personal pitch to an important prospect I don’t recommend automation at all. 

Here’s an example from one of my clients, a post-production company. I was coaching one of the newer sales reps who was struggling to come up with a reason to make second, third, fourth and more contacts besides the anemic “just checking in” message..

This firm solves a perennially vexing challenge for its clients: the need to tap into the very best talent on demand. 

Production is a personality-driven business. It’s a point of pride for executive producers agencies (this firm's primary type of client) to be able to show they can work with the best directors and visual artists out there. We decided one strategy that might appeal to that desire by leading with a strong value statement (the best talent on demand) followed with subsequent messages that profiled different artists, paying off the value statement.

In other words, make an accurate claim about a need that’s important to your audience and then build trust and familiarity over time by verifying that claim.

Vary the delivery mechanism. Your choices are limited, of course, but you do have choices! 

Email tends to be the default, but LinkedIn is also an effective way of getting certain people to respond. For some, text messages get results (personally I’m not crazy about that method but that may say more about the preferences of my generation than the acceptability of the platform). I think phone and snail mail (for those who are back in an office with a public address) have actually become novel and disruptive. 

Here’s a quick, if not entirely transferable example: the other day I downloaded someone’s “free guide” and thirty minutes later, he called me! Not one of his team members or one of his VAs, but the owner of the company! That was a highly personal touch that got my attention.

Interrupt the pattern. This was an intriguing approach to an agency pitch email that landed in my inbox:

“A lot of people are offering expertise at this time through webinars, online courses, and other free resources. We thought it might be nice to talk directly with you.” 

Hm. I have no idea if it was successful for them, but I like the fact that they called out what is likely to be “free resource” fatigue.

Create contrast between the undesirable state your prospect may be experiencing now and the more desirable state they want to experience in the future if they could only get there. When someone accurately pegs how our life isn’t perfect and also gives us hope for a better tomorrow, we just might pay attention.  

Here’s another example from an email that someone forwarded me recently from an outsourced lead generation service pitching itself to agencies like yours:

“Next to the Great Recession of 2008, the 2020 pandemic was one of the most devastating events for the ad industry. 

The good news is, we can expect a considerable rebound. Projections show that the ad marketplace will bounce back and reach $242.2 billion, a year-over-year increase of 6.2% in 2021. 

The 4A’s Agency Growth Survey found that success in the post-COVID era will come down to focusing on top-line revenue growth, profit growth, and winning new clients.

Forward-thinking agencies are not passively waiting for referrals or inbound leads.

Read what agencies like yours are doing to prepare…”

Again, I have no idea if this email was successful for the sender but I think it’s one of the best sales emails I’ve seen. The sender creates contrast (life sucks right now but the evidence shows it’ll get better). Plus, they deftly present a challenge: forward-thinking agencies are doing this… Are you a forward-thinking agency? (Hell, yeah!).

And they ask you to do one—and only one—-thing: read what your peers are doing (and in the process give the sender your name and email address so that they can make contact with you).

Get your head in the game. Mindset, mindset, mindset. 

I don’t care what you need to do, whether it’s a Jack Donaghy pep talk to your reflection in the mirror or listening to positive affirmations, get your psyche vibrating to a winning frequency. 

You're the expert, you have valuable information to share. You’ve seen and done enough to know this type of client well enough that it's beyond reasonable that they would get value from you. 

And what if they don’t respond? Don’t interpret that as a lack of validation. There are copious reasons why prospects don’t respond and most of them have nothing to do with you. 

A few final "Dos and Don'ts"

Do get out there and tell the world about your agency. Experiment with a style and message that works for you and test it in the marketplace.

Don't anguish over making it perfect--especially if it leads to analysis paralysis. 

Like a lot of things related to promoting your agency, crafting compelling sales messages can be remarkably difficult when you’re trying to do it for yourself. Objective input, whether from me or another business development expert, can save you time, money, and anguish.