Page 41 - index

Instead of having pitching agencies
spend ridiculous hours developing
The Big Idea that might never be
used – or worse yet, might be very
ineffective – clients should have the
actual agency working team commit
to intense interviewing by them and
their consultants.
Sound out the agency principals. Find
out what they believe in. What are they
in the business for? I loved the CMO of
Audi earlier this year saying that a major
reason for selecting their new agency
was that they had shared values.
What is the agency’s vision? Who are
the newest people it’s been hiring? Why
did they join your agency? Get them to
show examples of innovation. What do
their current clients say about them?
The client should be seeing if their
stories match. Ultimately, a client
should be looking for people who might
present something they won’t like,
not just something they will. You want
people who can sell themselves, not
just the idea.
THE PROCUREMENT
DEPARTMENT
It’s timely at this point to bring up
the elephant in the room – the
procurement department.
It’s pretty hard to have a relationship
with someone who doesn’t want to have
one with you. And the people you need
to have a relationship with aren’t even in
the room. The procurement department
has been around for years and doesn’t
look like it’s going away, so let’s stop
grizzling about it. Get the numbers and
transparency right so that when you do
get to meet the actual client that stuff
has been well and truly ticked off the list.
Given the current standard Modus
operandi – where agency credentials/
capabilities are done first with the long
list and then creative with the short
list – a large percentage of the buying
decision is made during those initial
meetings. I can remember being told not to give it straight. I am certainly
20 years ago in a Y&R workshop that not the most successful person in
80% of client decisions were made in our industry. Far from it. But I do have
those first meetings. I suspect nothing perspective from many decades in
has changed. the business.
The easiest thing in our business is I also know only too well that the
to give a client what they want. But they full-blown creative pitch will probably
are hiring you to give them a view on never go away because some agency’s
what they need. Remember, you sell business models are set up to serve
your agency by addressing what the this concept. And some clients can’t
client wants. You solve a client’s real see beyond it. I’ve won and lost in
problem by addressing their needs. this lottery.
? But, maybe, just maybe, there are a
Select your agency few clients out there who might agree
the same way you that there is a better way worth trying.
select managers It’s easy to buy an idea. Try buying
people. I guarantee you’ll get more
If a client really wants to see if you out of the relationship.
can walk the talk, the agency should
be set the task of working on an actual Rod Curtis is Managing Director of the
paid assignment. This will weed out a T20 Group, an advertising, marketing
poor candidate sooner than any long- and communications company based
winded hoop-jumping and tick the box in Melbourne, Australia. He has been
called ‘agency pitch process’. involved in the Australian advertising and
marketing industry for over 40 years.
I make no apology for not pulling any This article was originally published by
punches with this piece. I was asked for TrinityP3, a leading strategic marketing
my views and it would be disrespectful management consultancy in the Asia
Pacific, with an international network of
industry professionals consulting in the
marketing and advertising industry.
?
The fundamental reason for a successful client-agency relationship is people.
A scene from Mad Men, the TV series set in the advertising world of the 1960s
August–September 2016 strategicmarketing 39