Anyone can run a pitch to select a new advertising agency?
Or a new media agency? Or a new digital agency? But are you prepared to run a pitch well enough to get the result you expect? And without risking the process falling over halfway through or becoming the talk of the industry for poor performance?
You may not have noticed, but agencies are getting fed up with poorly managed pitches, and they are speaking up. The pitch process is broken, the trade media proclaim, because too many marketers are running too many pitches badly.
This coaching session is for people want to manage more successful pitches.
This coaching session is for people want to manage more successful pitches.
- Are you planning your pitch process?
- Are you sure you have all the bases and nuances involved in a successful pitch covered?
- Do you feel you would benefit from receiving advice from experienced consultants, but are not able to justify a fully managed search process?
- If so, our Pitch Power Coaching session is for you.
What will you get from this session?
In a two-hour coaching session, our experienced and expert pitch consultants will take your pitch team through a facilitated process covering all aspects of your pitch, from purpose and planning through to appointment and transition.
We’ll uncover any gaps, provide detailed counsel and recommendations through which you can further refine and optimise your process, and deliver the best possible outcome for your business.
The key sections of the coaching include:
- Defining the purpose and successful outcome – clearly articulating the why of the process and defining what the outcome should deliver as an improvement on the current state.
- Preparing for the process ahead – there are multiple ways to manage a pitch process based on the desired success factors, the timing, the capabilities required and a dozen other factors that need to be considered.
- Planning the logistics of the pitch process – Before engaging with any agency, you need to plan out who is involved, how you will execute the process, when and where the meetings will take place, and more to ensure it runs effectively.
- Pitch implementation – for all the planning, there are logistical and political issues that can and will arise along the way, and you need to consider contingency plans for the more common issues that are likely to occur.
- Deciding the financial and contractual requirements – hoping that the financials will sort themselves out is a recipe for disaster, so having a clear view of the current financial and contractual arrangements and the preferred future position is essential.
- Assessment methodology and scorecards – the fastest and easiest way to align the selection team to the desired outcome is to plan and agree on the assessment process before you even commence.
- Negotiation process – these can drag on and slow the appointment process down or rush and overlook some important considerations that will set the relationship up for success.
You can read more on our Pitch Power Coaching here.
Coaching Session Format:
The coaching session can be either face-to-face or online, over a two-hour period, working with two of TrinityP3’s experienced and expert pitch managers who have a minimum of ten years of experience managing agency search and selection processes across multiple categories and regions.
Who is this session for?
- Marketers planning to undertake an agency selection process (from brand managers through to head of marketing and CMOs)
- Procurement professionals managing an agency tender process (particularly non-direct category managers)
Expert Coaches
At best, most marketers will be involved in selecting an agency once every two years. Procurement professions may manage more tenders, but selecting different types of agency vendors requires nuanced approaches. And while agency people may participate in many more pitches, this is a perspective that lacks the insider knowledge that provides due diligence and governance.
The TrinityP3 consultants manage dozens of pitches for our clients every year, providing a unique and powerful perspective on how to prepare and manage a powerful pitch process.
Book your Pitch Power coaching session and be pitch prepared.
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In our unique role of identifying and solving the big challenges facing marketing management we create a huge catalogue of insights and build our knowledge and wisdom, which we share with the industry.
FAQs
First, we instigate discovery. We need to understand your needs and requirements in depth, before commencing. Second, we overlay process – a process refined over twenty years, using bespoke tools and data and designed to assess and evaluate the strength of supplier’s proposition, people and culture, financial and commercial competitiveness and sustainability, quality of tested outputs and potential value of those outputs to your organisation. Third, we utilise our deep experience. Decisions about which agency to select are yours to make, but we are here to listen and advise at every step of the way.
We can assess contractual documentation and provide change recommendations. However, we are not legal practitioners; any contractual negotiation or wording of terms requires the engagement of your legal counsel.
The aim is to construct a process so that conflict of interest is eliminated before we begin. We do this by ensuring that we understand exactly what the boundaries of conflict are, in your organisation. Every organisation has different compliance requirements. The first thing we do in any process is embark on discovery with you, including discussion and reverse briefing that enables us to understand what you can and can’t work with, including any specific agencies or individuals that are ineligible due to any past circumstance. We then tailor our search accordingly to bring you a list of candidates free of conflict. We also conduct due diligence checks with all candidates prior to presenting them to you.
You are critical to the process and are fully involved at every step of the way, including the choice of initial candidates selected for RFI, which we workshop with your team. An often misunderstood perception is that as pitch consultants, we are ‘making the decision’ about which agency you choose. We never make any such decision and we are always objective. Our process is designed for you to make decisions, with the benefit of our expertise and faciliation.
Yes, we can. Our consultants have extensive experience in international markets. We have on-ground presence in EMEA and North America, and can engage affiliates in other parts of the world as necessary. Our work has taken us everywhere from Britain, to Japan, to Canada, even to Iraq!
Yes, we do. You can choose to engage us in the immediate term to advise in account transition; longer term, additionally, we work with ongoing agency relationship assessment via our proprietary Evalu8ing tool, which measures multi-directional agency relationship and performance strength.
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