The worst word to hear after a pitch? ‘Maybe’. If your client concludes your meeting with it, there are a few things to consider right away. 1. Am I negotiating with the right person? If your prospect has to sell it too far up the chain, it might be better to speak directly to their bosses. 2. Is this brand bold enough? Some organisations are happy enough to hedge their bets, they do this by commissioning banal work that goes unnoticed. 3. Should we stick or twist? All too often ‘maybe’ is just a dragged-out way of saying ‘no’. Sometimes it’s better to put energy toward the next client instead. Your agency should seek out clients that display courage. Great work is bought by powerful people. What’s the gutsiest thing you’ve ever coaxed a client into? Or if you’re brand-side what’s the boldest thing you’ve driven yourself? #agency #sales #courage #businessofcreativity
I was a client. At BT Group. I sat in all our big pitches from advertising to CRM to media. I can honestly tell you that we always knew, without fail, on the day who had won. Maybe in 2% of cases a maybe means maybe. But very very rarely. And it’s annoying, cowardly, often sneaky & simply unfair. Leadership is not about being there for the good times. It’s about stepping up in the tricky times. People should just grow a pair and deliver the news.
Or even better seek out clients with the 'wit' not to pitch out work. Best to find clients with the capacity to choose an agency on its form , reputation and fit. #ditchthepitch. Outdated old school nonsense.
“Maybe” is the result of both a knowledge and power vacuum. Clients say maybe because they dont have the authority or understanding necessary to make decisions. So they don’t make any. “Maybe,” really means “let me go back to the completely worthless third party data that was collected passively through only a handful of platforms that dont reflect a consumers active decision making because that is what my company was duped into using, instead of having expert knowledge or experience, and I’ll get back to you in three weeks with an email from the pitch consultant that says “no” and blames the creative for not being “good” enough.
I was working at a design agency and we had a big pitch to a pharmacy business. On the day of the pitch I turned up to work to find the business was ceasing trading. So, with the creative director, I went to the pitch anyway and we told the client what had happened and that we were starting our own agency. We persuaded them to ignore their own protocols and purchasing procedures and go with us. The design concept won Retail Week's Store Design of the Year award.
After 19 years as the lead ad agency for the market leader, it was time to call it quits. The love was dead. The #2 in the market always admired what we did but had doubts whether we would ever leave as their budget was smaller. As business and creative lead, I proposed resigning the long-standing client with a ‘dear John’ ad in the national press. The full page ad ran. We got calls from other agency heads, complimenting us on our chutzpah. The incumbent client threatened to sue. Our global bosses on Madison Avenue threatened to fire me. The lawsuit did not go through. And three months later, we had a replacement client who supported us by approving one ballsy campaign after another. All without a pitch.
To be honest, all this talk of bravery, boldness, vision and so on…. kind of feels super 90s. People want to know if you believe, and have done the due diligence to create something that will help sell / move the needle / create impact. Lots of ‘liking’ is all well and good. But how do you plan for it to work, and how will you listen / course-correct if it doesn’t do as well as needed.
I used to have a client who would ask for “big ideas with no limits” and then when you presented them they would say, “I get it, but I don’t get it?” with an inflection up at the end to make it sound like a question for us. It still stands as the single most dysfunctional thing anyone’s ever said to me.
From 1975 to 1991, I was responsible for all marketing communications for Wrangler jeans in the UK and Ireland. My book, "More than A Touch of Jeanious" (availalable from Amazon) provides a "warts and all" account of many client/agency pitches and creative presentations during this period. It provides a unique picture of the client/agency relationship during a golden age of advertising. Definitely not maybe.
Not sure you have a story here, Sir John. I too did loads of pitches selling ideas for new brands, not ads. If, as happened most often, I was working for someone who knew me well, the responses were either "Great, let's do it!" or "No, you're not there yet. Keep trying." If I was pitching to someone new, the answer was often "We're also talking to other people, so can we get back to you when we've had time to consider?" They could, after all, be shown a better idea than mine! I always respected clients taking time to consider a decision. After all, it was their money. But nobody ever used the idea of 'maybe'.
Global Media Comms Innovator
2moRemembering when JWT did the BT ads with Maureen Lipman (an ology…if you’ve got an ology you’re a scientist) written by Richard Phillips. The series of ads researched so badly, that I believe, they still hold the record for the lowest approval scores. The client looked around the room while everyone was laughing and smiling, and said, if we’ve all enjoyed them we’ll ignore the research and run with them. Brave client. History proved they were some of the most successful, and loved, ads for BT. Also just shows sometimes research could be used as a crutch not a benefit.