The Pitch: A client's perspective

All agencies fear the pitch, one way or another. Jae has sat client side in countless pitches, rejoicing at the brilliance of some and recoiling at the awkwardness of others. Over the past years she has realized that there are certain do’s and don’ts- some obvious- but not obvious enough for all agencies to follow. Jae has outlined what she believes makes clients tick, for better or for worse, when agencies are delivering how they believe they can match the brief.

The do's

• Be brilliant - it's in all our interests and it makes me look good to my peers and bosses that I have invited you to deliver the pitch.
• Say we. Clients want to work with people who are going to work as a team and build the client relationship further through working together.
• Learn our language. If we refer to 'adventures', 'team members' or 'resorts', and you keep saying, 'holidays', 'staff' or 'camps', it'll feel like you don't value my company's culture.
• Ask me questions during the pitch process. We all want this to be spot on, so check your progress is on-track, and ask rather than guess throughout the relationship.
• Show me the people I'll actually be working with. There's nothing more irritating than loving a member of the pitch team only to be told I'll never see them again, when business is given on that basis.
• Be brave - the reason for engaging an agency is to get a more external, more specialist view. If you pitch safe ideas we've had ourselves we won't see your value. I'm confident we can reign you in if we need to - I wouldn't be confident the other way around.
• Show me examples of where you've done something similar before. It's a much better way to show us your ability than a dull creds show.
• Check spellings, grammar and facts – some of us are easily distracted by an apostrophe in the wrong place.
• Leave me with a copy of the presentation with all the facts and figures.

The don'ts

• Say you'll pitch if you're going to pull out. It is blood boiling.
• Spend ludicrously large amounts of money on the pitch - I know that money ultimately has to come from client fees, and I don't want all mine going on your next pitch.
• Be hideously rude about the work / agency that did the work before the brief was open to pitching. We bought into it - that's why it happened, get over it.
• Surprise me on the pitch day. I'm happy for the other panellists to be pleasantly surprised, but any surprise has the opportunity to be way off. Don't risk it.
• Talk about yourselves more than you talk about us - it will make me question your motives.
• Expect lots of questions at the end of the pitch. We may ask some if we want clarification, but we may just want to talk to each other.