Somebody very wise (Often misattributed to Mark Twain, but was actually Blaise Pascal) once famously wrote “Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte”.
The point being, keeping things focussed and to-the-point takes planning and thought. Once that is in place, we can move quickly, effectively, with pace and with purpose.
The importance of a focussed pitch process
Moving faster doesn’t mean cutting corners – it needs a sharp focus on discipline and rigour, attention to risks and a well-structured decision-making process. In other words, all the things you expect when selecting an agency partner.
Without this focus, a pitch process can simply drag on, becoming ever less involving for all concerned and running the risk of reaching no clear conclusion. Agencies begin to wonder whether the effort is worthwhile, quality of work suffers and decision making by the marketing and procurement team is delayed and deferred. This is unnecessarily time consuming, as well as being unrewarding and unsatisfactory for everybody concerned.
Far better to act with a clear and agreed focus – investing time in a plan which is clearly understood by client team and agencies alike, outcomes and a process that maintain momentum and a clear and an agreed outcome that everyone understands and signs up to.
Plan with focus. Then focus on the plan.
So, the big question to answer is – how does a team achieve this focus? Let’s define five universal focus points and how to plan them.
1 – Define the outcome. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But it’s surprising how often a pitch is set in motion with no agreed objective, just a vague feeling that things need to improve and a pitch is the way to do it. So, focus point number one is to define the objective. Not just “Recruit a new agency”, but a statement of what success will look like, a definition of the problem that is being addressed (how did we get to the decision to pitch?) and agreed objectives at the end of the planned pitch. This will define everything that happens during the pitch process that will follow.
2 – Appoint the team. Focus Point number two is to decide who needs to be involved and make sure they stay involved throughout the pitch. Who is the project owner? Who signs off the result and the budget? Who has the key interest in the result? Who will need to work with the appointed agency? Get those people signed up, and make sure no unnecessary team members are involved to voice an unnecessary opinion.
3 – Agree the scope of the pitch. It’s so easy for the scope of any project to grow into unplanned directions as it proceeds. Avoid this with Focus Point number 3 – define the scope and maintain razor-sharp attention to make sure no-one strays from it without a clear understanding of the ramifications of doing so. Extra management time, a longer process, distraction form the agreed objectives are the perils to be avoided.
4 – Maintain focus throughout. The timing plan is all-important for Focus Point Number 4. This is the framework that the team will work within, so it is best kept as tight as possible with good pace to keep the team engaged. Define the milestones and mark the occasion each time one is achieved. Review progress regularly. Keep resources channelled and tightly managed. Make sure key team members are not sidetracked and removed from the decision process.
5 – Ensure good leadership. A motivated, committed and properly empowered leader is the essential Focus Point Number 5 that will keep all this on the road. Authority in this role will make sure there is clear commentary from team members at all decision stages, distractions are avoided, mission creep does not take place, milestones are marked and decisions clearly reported. And, the ability to say “No” to distractions and non-essential changes to the plan are vital here.
The pitfalls of an unfocussed pitch process
TrinityP3 has seen the results of a lack of focus at first hand, and we occasionally are called in to rescue failing processes. We’ve seen it all.
- Pitches with no clear end date.
- Pitches where the objective is not agreed or understood by all parties.
- Pitches where the procurement team drives the process without a proper brief from the marketing team.
- Pitches where marketing has run the project and involved the procurement team late in the process, resulting in long delays while everything is re-examined and renegotiated
- Pitches where huge amounts of inappropriate information are demanded from the agencies too early in the process.
- Pitch processes with stages that are only there because “That’s how we’ve always done it’, which nobody felt empowered to question.
- Pitches where agencies are asked to pitch for an poorly defined – or even undefined – result. For example; nothing upsets an agency management team like a six month full-on pitch which turns out to only entitle them to a place on a pitch roster for future project. This might be OK, but only of that is what the agencies understand from the outset and the process is designed and focussed on recruiting the best agencies for that specific job.
Mission creep, scope changes, lack of focussed leadership, unenforced timing plans, undefined sign off processes – they all happen and all too often.
We prefer to be involved from the beginning to help design an appropriate process that is focussed on the required outcomes from the outset.
BetterPitch to keep the focus
TrinityP3 has applied the experience of many hundreds of pitches to the development and design of BetterPitch. This process provides a guarantee that focus will be maintained at every stage, beginning with the agreed objectives.
We make sure that the appropriate time is invested up front to be certain that the process stays focussed – with clear, agreed objectives and outcomes to channel efforts and clear outcomes designed to ensure the desired success criteria are achieved. And we work to maintain focus throughout, for marketing, procurement and agency teams alike.
That way, the pitch equivalent of that famous unnecessarily long letter that Blaise apologised for all those years ago can be avoided.
Focus is one of our five guiding principles for BetterPitch, along with Fit, Focused and Fair. All are closely inter-related. Our promise is to bring them to every pitch we run, to achieve a better result for everyone involved. You can read more about the BetterPitch process here or contact us for a confidential discussion about how to pitch better.
