Insulate your agency from the fickle world of pitching
Pitching is not the key to prolonged business success, but, says Julia Vargiu, there are five key behaviours and strategies that are.
A pitch is not the only way to win new business, but many agencies rely on being invited to pitch as their main ‘strategy’ for growing their business and filling their pipeline.
Let’s call this strategy ‘hope’. Hope is not a sustainable or legitimate strategy for new business. Not only that, there is compelling evidence that reliance on pitching leads to the demise of many an agency. Even if you’re winning, it’s a gamble that you’ll get on enough lists.
Then, many agency CEOs believe the average industry win-rate for pitches is one in four. That means there’s a 75% loss rate. This would get you fired in any other industry.
Pitching is a long-term expense even when you win: up to 30% of an agency’s earnings from a client won in a pitch may be needed to wipe out the expense of the pitch and turn the client to profitability. How do you write off or recoup the cost of pitching when you lose?
