A CONFESSION

Before I launch into this incoherent ramble, there is something I should admit up front – I once worked in sales. I ran the whole gambit, from cold calling, to laughable close attempts. I probably messaged a few BBH’ers back in the day (please don’t check your emails). The product I was selling was social listening software – as a clue for how good I was, BBH currently uses Netbase to do its social listening. 

I didn’t work for Netbase. 

After sales purgatory, I shifted to the new business team at Publicis Media - and into a real chalk-and-cheese situation.

Based on that stint in ‘classic’ sales and agency new business, I learned one thing: the way in which agencies are able to secure new business from brands is flawed.

‘New business’, as an agency term, has lost connection with its true meaning – sales. This loss of connection has contributed to the mystification of how best to win pitches, in particular how to close them.  

HOW ADLAND PITCHES

The typical agency/brand new business process encompasses and encourages many of the behaviours which sales theory dictates that you should at all costs avoid.

The current structure of an average agency pitch process is a Sisyphean Mountain of ‘deliverables’: RFIs, RFPs, tissue meetings, chemistry meetings, final meetings, commercial discussions, legal wrangling and general faff – all happening amid the work that the agency is actually being paid to do. 

Campaign estimated in May that an average pitch for a creative agency takes between 900 and 1000 hours, rising to 1500 if it’s procurement-driven. That is, as a minimum, 37 days of working on nothing but the pitch – resulting in, as you’d probably expect, vast expense (approx. £170,000), burnout, and lowered morale. 

There have been attempts to improve these structures, including a May 2022 joint effort by the ISBA and IPA to improve the pitching process: the Pitch Positive Pledge. This pledge outlines that, to be positive, a pitch needs to be necessary; takes wellbeing into account; and provides a positive resolution. BBH is one of many agencies and brands to have signed up to the pledge.

From client side, the Pitch Positive Pledge it has been described as "a common framework of expectation on what a good pitch looks like" (Pete Markey, Boots) and from the agency side it has been couched as "a great opportunity to set a new standard" (Charlie Martyn, Wunderman). 

Areas which remain unaddressed however include clear indications of budget sizing; committing to writing clear briefs; limited RFI lengths; and fees for speculative creative work requested during a pitch.

Well documented burnout, expense, and inefficiencies arising from these pitching conditions are not only bad for the industry – they don’t reflect established, data-backed new business practices.

NEW BUSINESS IN OTHER INDUSTRIES

How new business is conducted across any given industry can be viewed along a single spectrum, based on the complexity of the item being sold – from lemonade at a lemonade stand to complex marketing services at the other. 

In most industries however,  there are still dedicated, “old-school” sales teams. From financial services to fintech, commercial space flight to social listening software, the vast majority of industries rely to some degree on a traditional sales team. 

MEET ‘THE CHALLENGERS‘

‘The Challenger Sale’, a seminal book which sought to establish key behavioural traits in successful sales reps to build a model for how any aspiring salesperson should seek to improve, was a paradigm shift for the profession.

The findings were revolutionary, and are now gospel among virtually all sales departments. 

The primary finding was that high performers selling complicated products were nearly three times as successful as average performers. The performance generated by those high-performers does not manifest randomly - their success is predicated on a narrow range of predictable and repeatable behavioural patterns

Having broken down the hundreds of attributes and behaviours exhibited by all sales reps in the study (6,000 globally), three key attributes coalesced into the model of the most effective performers: ‘The Challengers’. Those attributes were the ability to do three things:

1: Have a unique perspective on the customer’s business and robust two-way dialogue

They can teach for differentiation.

2: Have a superior sense of economic and business value drivers

They can tailor for resonance, tailoring messages to individual stakeholders within an organisation.

3: Be comfortable discussing money and when needed, pressuring the client

They can take control of a sale.

Though what we as agencies sell is simply too complex and unquantifiable to be sold over the phone, or without some sort of briefing & response process, there are actionable insights from The Challengers which will allow us to win more, while spending less. 

Sales Jesus’ Three Commandments – WHAT THIS MEANS FOR AGENCIES

An overarching feature across the entire sales process which Challengers develop and benefit from is control. Control over which stakeholders hear what; control over budgets and timing; control over the final outcome. Sales processes run by a Challenger are entirely on their terms, and are punctuated by numerous information-gathering discussions which always benefit them. 

In adland, we have: excessively long processes; no meaningful oversight of budgets or deadlines; and constantly expanding tasks constitute the antithesis of a well-conducted process – all curtailing the methods via which Challengers succeed. There is no control, no continuity, no leverage. 

These are the pitches where a Challenger approach can help. 

IPG Mediabrands UK and Ireland chief executive Richard Morris advocated a “low-preparation, initial discovery meeting (not the chemistry)... where the client and agency come to a combined agreement about whether the agency should progress.” 

This sort of meeting is standard practice for sales professionals. It is known as prequalification, or prequal in sales parlance. Prequal is the foundation stone for any successful process; it is the first leap in information for ascertaining whether a pitch is worthwhile doing, and if so, what levers (pain points, stakeholder needs, budgets etc) must be pulled in order to win. Without good prequal, a sales process cannot be won. 

Based on this, a simple re-evaluation/sharpening of what we want to achieve in meetings with potential clients – particularly in the early stages. By establishing through targeted questioning what a brand’s pain points, business needs, and agency’s strengths are, we exponentially improve our chances of winning the pitch in its latter stages, by directing our responses against their needs. 

Based on those three behavioural traits displayed by Challengers therefore, I’ve set out three sales commandments below. 

Challenger sales commandment 1 – Teach for Differentiation

Questioning, questioning, questioning. Do not take the brief as gospel. 

Challenger sales commandment 2 – Tailor for Resonance

Varying messaging must be used for varying clients. Make sure that none are neglected. 

Challenger sales commandment 3

Price is only one Weapon. Give your prospect no choice but to select your offering, even if it costs more. Your price is only one of many levers to be pulled, when convincing someone to purchase your services – the lowest price does not result in an automatic win. Therefore, do not get caught in a race to the bottom on price, instead show to a brand why we’re worth paying more for. 

THAT’S MY PITCH

That’s pretty much it. Go forth, and let those three commandments guide you and inspire you, on your path to sales greatness.

In the name of the cold call, the Salesforce entry and the cheeky Q4 discount incentive,

Amen.