For marketing leaders and procurement professionals, the agency selection process—the pitch—is arguably the most critical and high-stakes decision you will make. It determines the creative trajectory, media efficiency, and overall market performance of your brand for years to come. Yet, for too many marketers, the pitch process is a chaotic, opaque, and ultimately frustrating experience.
Agencies are speaking up. The trade media has been clear: The pitch process is broken, and the core problem often lies with how marketers manage it. The sheer volume of poorly managed, amateur-hour tenders has caused cynicism to set in. The best agencies, the ones you desperately need to win your business, are becoming increasingly selective about which pitches they participate in.
If your pitch is poorly managed, confusingly briefed, or unnecessarily protracted, you run the very real risk of alienating top-tier talent. Instead of selecting from the elite, you find yourself fishing in the “shallow end of the agency talent pool,” resulting in disappointing outcomes, unnecessary costs, and a partnership doomed before the contract is even signed.
It is time to acknowledge that running a successful pitch is not a task for spare time; it requires specialized knowledge, rigorous planning, and an expert-level understanding of over 100 critical considerations. It’s time to equip your team with BetterPitch Power Coaching from TrinityP3.
The Three Traps Undermining Your Pitch Performance
To run a better pitch, marketers must first understand the common, self-inflicted wounds that sabotage the process. Our extensive experience managing dozens of pitches annually reveals three major issues that consistently infuriate agencies and compromise your results:
Trap 1: The Decision Drag—Requiring Speed, Delivering Delay
Marketers often impose punishingly short deadlines on agencies, demanding massive strategic and commercial responses in a matter of weeks. The assumption is that rapid submission equals efficiency. However, the process inevitably stalls on the client side. Weeks turn into months as internal teams struggle to provide feedback, clarify requirements, or, most critically, make a final decision.
This misalignment, (fast input required, slow action delivered) is incredibly expensive for agencies and signals a fundamental lack of respect for their time and effort. Agencies interpret this delay as incompetence or a lack of internal consensus, making them wary of the long-term relationship. A successful pitch requires momentum, and delay kills it.
Trap 2: The Onerous Ask—Too Much for Too Little
When agencies are asked to meet burdensome requirements—often providing vast amounts of strategic and creative output—with little to no commercial compensation, the cost of their input becomes excessive relative to the potential contract fee.
This is a failure of governance and planning. A professional pitch process should be designed to gather the necessary data for a well-informed decision without demanding a “free trial” of months of work. When the input cost is too high, it becomes a barrier for the most financially stable and successful agencies, forcing them to triage their resources and often choose to pass on your brief. Are you testing their strategy, or merely testing their desperation?
Trap 3: The Black Box—A Failure to Communicate and Engage
A lack of adequate communication and transparency throughout the pitch process breeds suspicion and wastes time. When agencies are left to guess the requirements, the selection criteria, or the next steps, they default to over-delivering in areas that may not matter, or worse, completely missing the mark on critical needs.
The pitch process is a dialogue, not a dictation. A successful relationship is built on trust and partnership, and that foundation must be poured during the pitch. Failing to engage, clarify, and update agencies leaves them frustrated and creates an environment where they believe the process is rigged or run by amateurs.
Pitching is Not Simple: It’s a Governance Minefield
The greatest fallacy in marketing management is the belief that selecting a new marketing supplier is so simple that any mid-level marketer can handle it in their spare time, or that it is merely a box-ticking exercise that can be handed off entirely to a non-specialist procurement team.
The reality today is that agency selection is navigating a complex minefield of modern business requirements:
- Technology Deployment: Understanding and assessing agency stacks, martech and AI capabilities, and data privacy compliance.
- Commercial Structures: Moving beyond simple hourly rates to evaluate complex performance-based models, value-based compensation, and risk-share agreements.
- Due Diligence and Governance: Managing competitive conflicts, complex contractual requirements, and rigorous financial and legal compliance mandated by modern corporate governance.
Today, managing a pitch requires the same strategic expertise you apply to a major merger or capital investment. It demands proper planning and preparation to avoid Piss Poor Performance—a lesson the British Army taught us with the 7Ps, and one TrinityP3 applies every day.
The TrinityP3 BetterPitch Blueprint: Your 9 Stage Plan
TrinityP3’s expertise lies in having managed hundreds of successful agency searches across every market and discipline. We have catalogued over one hundred individual considerations that must be addressed to ensure a successful, robust, and attractive process. These considerations break down into nine essential stages—the roadmap your pitch team must follow.
- Defining Purpose and Successful Outcome
The foundation of a great pitch is the why. We ensure you clearly articulate the process’s purpose and define the successful outcome as a measurable improvement on the current state, preventing confusion and misalignment from the outset.
- Preparing for the Process Ahead
There is no one-size-fits-all pitch. We help you choose the correct process model based on desired success factors, timing, and capabilities required, ensuring the structure is fit for purpose and attracts the right calibre of agency.
- Planning the Logistics of the Pitch Process
Before the first agency contact, you need an airtight plan: who is involved, how the execution will flow, and precisely when and where meetings will take place. This removes the amateur look and feel of a hastily arranged pitch.
- Pitch Implementation and Contingency
Even the best plans hit roadblocks—logistical, political, or personnel issues will arise. We help you consider and plan for the common issues likely to occur, giving your team the necessary contingency strategies to keep the process on track.
- Deciding Financial and Contractual Requirements
Hoping the financials will “sort themselves out” is a disaster waiting to happen. You must enter the process with a clear view of the current financial/contractual landscape and the preferred future position, setting the partnership up for commercial success from day one.
- Assessment Methodology and Scorecards
The fastest and most efficient way to align your selection team to the desired outcome is to agree on the assessment process before you commence. We provide proven methodologies and scorecards to ensure objectivity and clear decision-making criteria.
- The Negotiation Process
Poor negotiation can either drag on interminably, slowing the appointment and frustrating the winner, or rush and overlook critical considerations. We coach you through a robust negotiation strategy that secures the best terms while fostering a positive, mutually respectful relationship.
- Decision-Making Responsibility and Appointment
Ensure the entire organisation—including legal, finance, and procurement—is ready to support the final decision. We guide you to guarantee you do not fall at the final hurdle due to internal bottlenecks or a lack of prepared stakeholders.
- Transitioning to the New Agency
The pitch isn’t over when the contract is signed. The process of transitioning the account, integrating the new agency into your existing roster, and ensuring continuity of work is vital. We help you plan the hand-off to ensure a seamless, productive start.
Your Pitch Power Upgrade: Getting the Better Pitch Coaching
Most marketers manage a pitch once every two to three years. You cannot be expected to maintain mastery of the 100+ rapidly evolving considerations required in today’s complex market. But you don’t need to commit to a fully managed search process to access that mastery.
TrinityP3’s BetterPitch Power Coaching is your rapid, focused intervention designed to solve this exact problem:
- Expert Access: You work directly with two of TrinityP3’s experienced pitch consultants, each with a minimum of ten years of experience managing complex agency search and selection processes across multiple regions and categories.
- Intense Focus: In a concentrated, two-hour facilitated coaching session (face-to-face or online), your pitch team will review your planned process from end-to-end.
- Gap Analysis and Counsel: We will rapidly uncover potential gaps, weaknesses, and blind spots in your pitch plan. We then provide detailed counsel and concrete recommendations, allowing you to instantly refine and optimise your process.
- Empowered Execution: You retain control of running the process, but you do so with the confidence and precision of an expert-vetted plan. You minimize risk, maximize efficiency, and attract a higher calibre of agency.
This coaching session is specifically designed for marketers (from Brand Managers to CMOs) and procurement professionals who are planning a selection process and need a fast, high-value injection of expert governance and proven methodology.
Stop risking your brand’s future on an amateur pitch. Stop attracting only the desperate agencies.
Its An Investment You Can’t Afford to Skip
The cost of a failed or poorly managed pitch—lost marketing momentum, the wrong agency partner, wasted time, and internal chaos—is astronomical. Compared to that risk, the investment in a two-hour session with the world’s leading pitch consultants is negligible.
You have the opportunity to ensure your pitch is run to the highest professional standards, attracting the best talent, securing the best commercial terms, and establishing a relationship set for long-term success.
The 7Ps are simple: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Ensure you are BetterPitch prepared. Book your BetterPitch Power Coaching session today and transform your next tender from a stressful liability into a powerful strategic asset.
Contact us here to book your BetterPitch Coaching Workshop today.
