Pitch doctor Woolley – agencies are promising more senior time than they can deliver
Pitch consultant Darren Woolley has warned that agencies are offering to throw in the time of senior members of staff for free in order to win accounts, although the promise sometimes cannot be kept.
In a post on the Trinity P3 blog, Woolley said:
“In the past year or so I have noticed agencies putting forward remuneration proposals that provide senior agency resources at significantly discounted prices – FREE!
“It is seen as a discount. But experience shows that often the resources you don’t pay for, you don’t get.
Agency over promises in pitch. Oh, wait that’s not news, unless the news is now reporting something that’s been happening every day for over 20 years.
Didn’t Carat just put out a press release announcing 3 new staff hires in the strategy department to bring the total to 5… I wonder how many hours the head of strategy was/is committed to the recent business wins…
No, we don’t have the facts, but no one does and that’s what lets agencies get away with the ongoing pitch BS. As a client you know that half the people who are in the pitch will literally, never be seen again. The more desperate the agency becomes to show some wins the bigger the promises.
I don’t think the issue in this story is the % of Baxter that Mediacom are committing to all their business. As long as all the clients feel they are getting full strategic value that they are promised, then good on ’em. Its the free part that is the issue. No wonder they are being called Mediacomma these days. i.e. all fees start with a comma!
More evidence, I would have thought, that pitches are a flawed way of selecting new partner/suppliers. They cost agencies a fortune and the costs are passed on to clients.
More thoughts here:
http://adnotes-tony.blogspot.c.....pitch.html
I think it’s a two-way street. Agencies sometimes do over-promise, as desperation kicks-in to woo and win new business. However clients are demanding more and more from agencies now than ever, and usually at no additional fee. I was recently told that a new brief handed to the agency would not come with an increase in fee’s, even though it was out-of-scope. Being a customer of that business, I asked if I could get additional services from them at no extra charge…what do you think the answer was? Most senior clients (involved in negotiating retainers) understand the fundamentals of business and commerce, however there are some that need to be reminded of two things – that agencies are in business to make money and that you get what you pay for.
If the someone is committed 75% of their time to a couple of new clients you can bet commitments elsewhere are not being delivered. My suggestion, target their other large clients whilst the “new business” is taking most of their attention. They will learn the hard way that winning with BS is a short term solution and it’s much harder to BS in a pitch as the incumbent. Just a suggestion.
to @Anon (9 Aug 10 1:35 pm) if you’re talking about Carat Melbourne, their Strategy Director is a machine and has always over delivered on his commitments to clients. I’ve met few people as smart and definitely no-one as dedicated.
@mark c…no, I was referring to a name mentioned further up the comments list and an agency who has bought some new business lately with some big promises.