How Pitching Hurts Agencies

The pitch is the way agencies win most of their business and grow.  In the pitch, the end prize for the winner is to eventually get paid for the work done, with the promise of more to come. Yet, they act irrationally, in complete opposite to their economic self-interest. Agencies incur enormous expense pitching for new business, which ultimately impairs their ability to make a profit on the business. Worse, in the pitch they give away for free their highest value product - their strategic counsel. Attempting to make up for the financial gamble that participating in a pitch entails, some agencies inflate the fees of their implementation work. The results are that as time marches on agency margins drop, their cost of doing business goes up, and client relationships are at risk.

Maybe it's time to  for agencies to get pitching right-side up.  

Comments

[Michael Duda]

Very well articulated.

Easier said than done, of course, but it rings true.