I’m been on the agency side for most of my life, and have been part of many successful pitch teams in my day -- as well in some disastrous ones for sure. But recently I was on the other side of the table, being pitched to by agencies in the US and UK.

We asked the agencies for the usual credentials, relevant experience etc., and we provided them with two scenarios on which we wanted to get their ideas in order to gauge their creativity and approach.

Several things struck me about agency pitches. First, don’t be a dumb ass. I’m not being sarcastic here, just real. It’s incredible how many small stupid mistakes agencies can make that ruin their chances of getting the business. Here are some of my notes from the meetings.

Do some basic research. There is no excuse in today’s world, especially when you can Google anything in seconds. That’s plain laziness.
• One guy’s big idea was that I should start a blog…seriously
• One agency clearly did not even know what businesses we are in
• Several made a bunch of suggestions about stuff we were already doing
• One agency clearly did not even know what businesses we are in

Be prepared. Read the RFP for the love of god. Seriously a couple of folks clearly did not do that.
• Some agencies were clearly not prepared to answer the questions that were written in black and white in the RFP
• One agency sent just one sales guy to “get briefed on what you want” and was clearly not ready to present to us.

The team makes all the difference. Frankly I was surprised how similar everyone’s capabilities content was. Everyone says the same thing about why they are great, and I can’t recall whose presentations was whose. What I did remember was the people and their ideas. Would I want to work with them?
• Some were smart , but arrogant
• Some were not so smart, but personable
• And a couple were both smart and personable (who do you think won?)

Mind the visuals. I hate to say it, but we are superficial – great content in a cheesy PowerPoint deck says less, and doesn’t work as hard as decent content in a wonderfully designed presentation. I actually remember the nice business cards from the lame ones, the binder clips from the nicely covered leave behinds

At the end of the day a pitch is like a job interview. The resume means little once you are in the room. The magic is connecting with the folks who will ultimately hire you on a personal level