Before we get started, let’s clarify what the term “bidding” or “pitching” means to us.

Bidding for work is the process where agencies come up with a quote based on a brief given by a potential client for a new job. And then, the potential client selects their favorite bid to award the job to the lowest bidder.

Pitching is somewhat similar to bidding. But, instead of quoting on a project based on a brief, multiple agencies try to sell their ideas to the client.

Here is what happens with pitching

You write a project brief and send it to 20 agencies and asks for them to present back…and then begin the ceremonial pitch process.

Agencies compete with each other. They show up, suited and booted, ready to impress.

With all fancy PowerPoint, persuading, pages and pages of waffle about why they’re more “creative” than the next one, price squeezing, more presenting, more price squeezing, and last-minute creative concepts and promises that you will be blown away soon.

And then you finally pick the “winner”.

It’s more like a beauty contest than anything else. The best-looking guy or gal with a charming face wins. And then for weeks afterward, you’re chasing them, while they’re busy with their next “beauty” contest.

It’s a process that happens every day all across the world.

And in this article, we’re going to tell you the three reasons this process is so flawed, and what we do instead.

1) A Pitch is Based on Your Brief…But Your Brief Needs Discussion

Pitching is like a one-way conversation. You’re giving the project brief to an agency and looking for their quote.

When you visit a doctor, you discuss your symptoms with them, and you rely on them to offer a diagnosis and treatment plan.

When you go to a car mechanic, you tell them about the fault in your car and they find out what’s wrong with it and fix it.

But when you give an agency your “project brief” and ask them for a quote, it’s like you’ve already diagnosed your own problems and you’ve already come up with the solution.

You can’t pitch a solution if you don’t know what the problem is.

A perfect example of this is Search Engine Optimization. A lot of companies ask for SEO even though they are getting a good amount of traffic, in fact, before they do anything, they would first need to make certain updates to their website so it converts more of their existing traffic into leads.

There’s no point paying to get loads of website traffic if your site visitors don’t know where to go and how to contact you when they land on your website.

What We Do Instead

Instead of pitching on your project brief, we first have a conversation with you about your problems. We understand your business and project goals. And then we come up with some strategy and a plan that’s a better fit for what you need.

We implement that plan and solution for your business if we end up working together. Or you will leave with the plan with better clarity of what you need and your next steps. Either way, you win!

2) Pitching is About Us Pleasing You

It’s NOT about us. And it should never be. It’s about you and your business.

When an agency pitches to you, they talk all about them. It’s about their experience, their past work, and their skills.

They want to blaze you, impress you and persuade you that they are the perfect fit for you. They present slick slides and proudly showcase their many awards. But the thing they miss out on is – they don’t focus on you.

When you choose a company, you need the focus to be on your business and what outcome you want to achieve. You need someone who asks you a lot of questions, listens to you, and cares to understand your business and goals.

What We Do Instead

We don’t pitch for projects because we believe in listening first and then implementing our expertise after that.

We want to actually help companies, and deliver a good return on investment. To do that, we simply need to have a conversation. By having a conversation, both parties can find out if they are a perfect fit for each other.

That’s why we don’t pitch, but rather we have “conversations”.

3) You May Get Half Baked Solution

When companies submit their bid to your project without actually understanding all your requirements, they’re usually guessing on what your business really needs.

The major problem with this approach is that you may get a half-baked solution that delivers only a portion of what you want and later it requires additional work to get it right.

The other problem is their initial quote also came out on guesswork based on your brief or they placed a low bid to win the job, but later on, they may hit you with hidden fees or extra costs to complete the project.

What We Do Instead

We don’t pitch on projects, because we believe that every successful project is a result of an in-depth conversation between the agency and client, talking about clients’ needs and going through the process of discovery, and then mapping out the best plan for the project.

We’ll ask you a lot of questions to uncover the truths (and you can ask us questions too), and we’ll give you our unbiased advice and guidance about the best way forward.

Our Way Of Doing It — Process, not Pitches

So we don’t pitch. Instead, we have a process.

Our process is built on communication, strategy, and THEN collaborating to implement the right solutions for your business.

We believe in process, not pitches.

We believe in collaborating, not guessing.

Every project we work on starts by having a call with you. There, we deep dive into your business, your goals, challenges, your audience, and how you will measure the success of this project.

Then we go through a strategy session where we analyze where you’re currently at, what you’re trying to achieve, what are the roadblocks, and how we can help you get there.

Here is our complete process of how we serve our clients.

If you’d like to discuss your project idea or need some help, let’s book a 15-minute call with us. We’d be glad to talk to you.