Dear Prospective Clients,
We would really love to do highly effective work for you that achieves results, makes you and your organization lots of money, and advances your career. Sometimes, however, the way you approach an agency review makes it hard. From experience, we’ve learned that how you handle the review often foreshadows the way you conduct your half of the relationship.
Here are ten “red flags” we notice during the review process that tend to give us pause, along with our recommendations on how to get the best from your review:
1. Comparing apples to oranges to pomegranates. Reviewing a large ad agency, a mid-size PR firm, and a small web development firm indicates you are not sure what you are looking for. Figure out what you need, talk to a few firms casually, and determine the capabilities and size of firm that is right for you before sending invitations to pitch.
2. Reviewing a cast of thousands. Do your homework and narrow your choices to three or four, before starting the review. Please don’t waste everyone’s time, including your own.
3. Setting too short of a timetable for a thoughtful response. Presumably you’ve got business challenges. It’s worth taking the time to research and strategize an approach in order to get it right. Asking for solutions overnight suggests what we might expect if we win your business.
4. Making a hiring decision by committee. Shouldn’t have to explain this one.
5. Not providing access to the real decision maker(s). Our pitch will be more on target (and you’ll look smarter for inviting us) if you let us pick the brain of the ultimate decision maker early in the process. Plus, it saves time. If the decision maker doesn’t want to take the time, it sends a signal about the (lack of) importance of the review.
6. Asking us to jump through irrelevant hoops. The opportunity is important to us, but the process itself is a huge pain. Probably for you too. What we’re excited to spend time on is getting to know you and figuring out how we might help you with your challenges.
7. Not sharing research. We need background info in order to share our best thinking with you. if you have concerns, we’ll happily sign a confidentiality agreement.
8. Not sharing your budget. Understanding your budget constraints helps us make smarter, more strategic recommendations.
9. Asking for spec work. Frankly, until we know more about your organization, we’re just guessing. And our paying clients aren’t all that keen about us giving away our thinking for free. Instead, let’s spend time getting to know each other. After a robust conversation, we would be happy to share our ideas on how we’d approach your business.
10. Not hiring. Please don’t put us and other firms through a review unless you’re serious about actually choosing one of us.
I know there are more red flags. Can you add to the list? Or perhaps you have some from the client’s perspective?
This month BrandSTOKE is one year old.
Ask any project manager: Knowing the availability of resources is critical to achieving the desired outcome.
I know several marketing professionals who love to pursue new business. They enjoy the prospecting, the networking, the strategizing, the problem-solving, the pitching. Yet I know absolutely no one who likes responding to RFPs (requests for proposal). I don’t even know any clients who like RFPs (and they originate them!).
