Four Common Negotiating Mistakes Agencies Make During the Pitch

When it comes to pitching for new business, agencies are so accommodating!

They put in late nights and give up holiday weekends. They divert their best teams from paying clients to do spec work. They put up with terrible briefs and minimal information.

Are they too willing to play on the client’s terms for the chance to compete for new business?

I’ve identified four points in the pitch process where agencies should set their own terms, both for the sake of the future client relationship and their ability to pursue new business from other clients.

What Makes a Good Agency Credentials Deck? (And, Does Your Agency Even Need One?)

I’m not a big fan of the creds deck, at least not the 10-15 slide deck we’re most familiar with. Agencies use their credentials decks too early in the sales process and expect them to do more than it’s designed to do. While I’m not going to single-handedly eliminate the credentials deck from the agency new business toolkit, at least I can help you make it better.

Create a Captivating Agency Pitch through Storytelling

Stories are a perfect pitching device. Yet, despite the many agencies that declare themselves “brand storytellers”, they don’t always deploy that same skill on their behalf.

They get swallowed up by their own jargon or blindly grasp for the right words to describe the intangible qualities that make them different from their peers—with the ironic result that they end up sounding exactly the same.

If this applies to you, then I want to offer you a technique to use on your next pitch.