Why Building a Successful Relationship Begins Way Before the Pitch

It’s a given that agencies set out to win a pitch - but what does winning mean for brand teams? The holy grail of agency selection is forming a partnership that delivers success for years to come. But to build this kind of relationship, brands must set out with the long term in mind - fully prepped for the inevitable twists and turns of a great adventure.

The fact is, for brand-side as much as for agency-side marketers, ‘winning’ a pitch starts way before the pitch. In an agency selection process, everything counts, and the 90 minutes of the pitch itself is just a brief stop towards your ultimate destination. 

AAR’s Media Lead Consultant Hannah Astill has guided many brands through the complex media landscape to select the right partner for their long-term goals. In this article, she’s teamed up with AAR’s Relationship Management Lead Consultant Vicky Gillan, who helps brands embed new relationships, evaluate performance, and reset for long-term success. Together, they explain how to set off on the adventure of securing a new agency partner with a tank full of gas and firing on all cylinders.

The Importance of Preparation 

Every journey is different, and how we prepare is predicated on the circumstances we are faced with. While an emergency night-time visit to the corner shop during a downpour may involve throwing a coat over your PJs and grabbing your car keys (and praying you don’t bump into anyone you know), setting off across the country with a dog and two toddlers will be much more successful with forward planning. And as two mums of twins (yes, both of them!) this is something Hannah and Vicky know all about. 

It’s the same when it comes to agency selection. The work you do BEFORE choosing the agency matters as much as the pitch process - whether that’s briefing, documentation, or transition planning. So how do you set up any future brand/agency relationship for success - to grow, develop and thrive - as you embark on an agency selection process? Here are our five steps to success. 

One: Don’t Botch Your Brief

Bad briefing. It may well be the marketing industry’s most persistent complaint, and pitch briefs are not immune. The first mistake any brand-side marketer can make is briefing badly and failing to communicate effectively in the early stages of going to market. 

Writing a great brief isn’t possible without asking the big questions of your own marketing ecosystem and agency model (understanding the context is key), alongside the deft management of stakeholders to ensure internal alignment. 

This clarity will then feed into the way you communicate. According to Hannah Astill, the core element of a good pitch brief is the ability to be concise. In her words - “Ask one question. Just one, not two, or five or fifteen. Everything else should be supporting information.”

Two: Be Consistent with the Chemistry

Agency selection doesn’t have to hinge on the traditional, full-throttle pitch process (as there are many options available), but no matter how you go about choosing your new agency, you should always include some kind of chemistry check and make sure everyone that’s set to be involved in the pitch is there. 

Whether it’s dipping in and out of the process or parachuting in for the pitch day without being involved in any of the groundwork, an inconsistent presence from any member of the brand team will create undue disruption and problems down the line. 

Three: Examine Exactly What You Are Asking For

Are you in danger of asking for something but failing to be specific in your needs? Vague or overly generalised ambitions tend to have unexpected outcomes, and the time you spend creating a new brand/agency relationship “wish list” is actually a fantastic opportunity to interrogate your expectations and desires. 

For example, in one annual review, Vicky Gillan worked with a brand/agency team whose pitch brief stated a desire to be challenged in order to push the business forward. 12 months down the road, however, the brand marketer was faced with a relentless challenge at every meeting, every call, and every turn that was stopping progress towards the ambition - not delivering the change agenda everyone wanted. This feedback had been given but wasn’t being heard. 

Without a window into your mind, people will take you at your word, and you will get what you ask for - setting the tone for a relationship and creating embedded issues. This is why at AAR we always spend time at the beginning of an agency selection process unravelling what you truly want and need.

Four: Tune in the Transition

How will the transition between the outgoing and incoming agencies work when choosing your new partner? How are they going to embed into your company? How are you going to make those first few days and weeks seamless? The teams at pitch aren’t necessarily the teams who will be working on the day-to-day business. What’s the process for getting everyone up to speed? 

Answering these questions isn’t a ‘tomorrow’ problem - they should be baked into the pitch brief itself. 

Ask your agencies to respond within either the pitch, their written supporting document and/or the commercials, as well as making sure you are prepared internally. Brands need to lean on the expertise of agencies to streamline the process, breaking down the tasks and asks and working together to manage the transition as smoothly as possible. 

Neglect this, and you will already be heading for the wrong exit, set for a long detour around unconscious assumptions, unarticulated expectations and the inevitable blind spots that hinder success.

Five: Banish your Baggage 

It’s completely natural for marketing teams, managers and leaders - especially if they have been burnt in the past - to be very alert to agency mistakes, and some vigilance can be useful. However, there can also be unconscious biases or sensitivities that aren’t constructive when it comes to getting a relationship off to a great start.

There can be huge value in having an impartial, neutral party on hand, particularly in the early stages of a relationship, to pinpoint what’s working well, what needs to change, and what’s not fully materialised in regard to the original vision and roadmap. Sense-checking where stumbling blocks have (or inevitably will) arise due to snags in the relationship can help smooth out subjectivities and hold up a mirror that reflects the true picture and enables early (and more effective) course correction. 

---

Appointing a new agency is often a moment of excitement and stress for brand teams. Making the right choice and nurturing this new relationship is a big responsibility. When we say “people buy people”, we are usually discussing what agencies need to bear in mind to win new business, but it’s just as important for brand teams. You need to buy into each other and, in this, every touchpoint matters. 

One step beyond…

It’s important to acknowledge that the adventure of any client: agency relationship can be a varied one. At times you are on the motorway in top gear, where everything is flowing and delivering peak performance.  At other times, it can feel as if you are on a country lane, crawling behind a tractor in a painful process that has no end in sight. And when things get really messy and you've lost sight of your destination, clients and agencies alike are just spinning their wheels in a muddy field and getting nowhere.  

What’s crucial is doing the legwork to build strong foundations in the relationship, fueling that desire to re-select each other time and time again, safe in the knowledge that your second, third, and fourth project will be even better than the one before. Now that's an adventure we all want to commit to...

The task of picking the right agency for your challenges, and then keeping your shared ambition on track, is vital - but to get there, you have to put the work in before the pitch begins. If you’d like to discuss this further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Hannah or Vicky.