Talk a lot about your agency history
Introduction
Talk a lot about your agency history
Assume you know more than the client
Forget the client's budget constraints
Be oblivious to the client's other agencies
Ignore the RFP
Staff the pitch with who is available
Conclusion
The internet has changed the level of information that clients can gather about you before you even enter the room. In fact, the client may know more than most of the people in your agency about what is going on with your agency.
Many clients are becoming quite savvy about pitches from online agencies. They scour your website, absorbing how you're structured, what clients you have and where your competencies are based. They look at whether you have the ability to service the account locally or will be farming work out across your agency network. They find out where your media and creative teams will probably be located and whether they will be in the same office. They do blog searches on your name, see what accounts you've won, which you've lost, and what the public's perception of those losses was and why. They can find out whether you have a structure based on "centers of excellence," which is another way to say that you are structured for your efficiency, not the client's.
So why do online agencies keep coming in and wasting 30 minutes of precious pitch time on telling the client who you are and explaining your process model?
Be serious. Does any agency really operate by the process model they throw up on the board for the pitch presentation? All the model does is remind every agency person in the pitch how they are supposed to be operating with their other clients, instead of how the work actually gets done. There are a few notable exceptions where the process dictates how the agency produces work. But agencies that are that rigid in these processes often find themselves unable to adapt to differing client models.
The client does not care about your process, only that you have one. As far as the client is concerned, the agency is magic pixie dust. They call the agency. The agency does a scope of work. The client signs. Magic happens. Magic is reviewed and measured. The process repeats.
Bottom line: Stop taking up time telling the client who you are. They know. They invited you to pitch.
Next: Assume you know more about the client