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Blame it on Mad Men. Blame it on those bloated Madison Avenue profits. Or blame it on the first agency executive who uttered the phrase, “Why do this pitch meeting over the phone when we can come and do it right there?”
Whoever caused it, the result is the same: whenever an agency pitches for new business, they’re expected to do so in person and often, en masse. But as someone who’s been on both sides of this strange equation – both pitcher and pitchee, if you will – I’ve long wondered why this strangely anachronistic rite remains at the center of the client-agency dynamic.
It made sense years ago, of course. Faxing over presentations and having both groups gathered around a phone is hardly optimal for creative thinking. However, we now have the technology at our fingertips to easily hold engaging virtual pitch meetings, yet we persevere with expensive in-person client pitches. And they are expensive. A report from the UK’s Campaign magazine found that agencies were swallowing costs as high as €83,000 on pitching to a single client.
The problem can be boiled down to a single word: chemistry. According to marketing consultancy AAR Group, the chemistry between the brand and agency is still among the top five reasons that an agency will succeed at a pitch meeting, as is the feeling that “they just get what we’re trying to do.”
It’s hard to argue that it’s easier to build a bond with someone when you look them in the eye, shake them by their hand and maybe even share a meal with them. So, the minute one agency puts its top people into a taxi, train or plane to pitch at the client’s HQ, all agencies have to follow suit. In that sense, COVID-19 has been a great leveler.
Read through the marketing press and you’ll find opinion pieces from senior agency executives explaining how they’ve adapted their pitch meetings for the pandemic era. However, pretty much all these bosses lament the loss of in-person pitching and see the virtual pitch for new business as a temporary, but necessary, inconvenience. This is where the most significant opportunities for disruption lie.
Putting the ‘Digital’ into Digital Agency
Why not be the agency that not only accepts the virtual pitch as a new reality, but actually embraces it? Build your pitching process around it. Be proud that even when the pandemic is in the rearview mirror and we all head back into our offices, virtual pitching will be your new normal. You might not use it for all your pitch meetings, but it’ll still undoubtedly be a powerful weapon in your armory.
Just as remote work isn’t less than onsite work, pitching for new business virtually is simply another option and not inherently better or worse than an in-person pitch. Both options have their pros and cons. And it’s worth remembering that, rather than being the poorer relative of the in-person pitch, the virtual pitch has several clear advantages:
There is a lot that virtual meetings can do to improve your business, but people continue to have reservations. In our The State of Meetings report, we also discovered that three-quarters of professionals prefer face-to-face pitch meetings to calls or video chats. Part of the challenge of pitching virtually is helping clients overcome years of experience of bad online conferences.
Pitching Virtually: The Basics
In our research, we discovered that the top three causes of ineffective meetings, ranked by participants’ levels of irritation, were:
Addressing these issues is key to convincing executives of the value of virtual pitch meetings. Executives also told us that, in their opinions, the critical elements of successful meetings were:
But what are the other foundational tips and tricks that digital agencies should be obsessing over to ensure that they’re productive when pitching and working remotely?
Use a meeting planner that allows everyone to choose the best time, preferably with their online calendars integrated, to make organizing the meeting painless.
Ensure that all participants at the pitch meeting have great internet connections.
Even if you use Zoom internally and you always send out the invites, make sure you all know and are comfortable using Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, WebEx and any other major meeting platform providers. That means that you have their apps on your laptop, you’ve checked the audio and microphone settings and you know exactly where the ‘Present’ and ‘Mute’ buttons are located.
Invest in the visuals. Your home office and how you appear on the screen now take on enormous subliminal importance – a white wall and your laptop microphone aren’t good enough at a client pitch meeting. Take the time to make your background attractive and welcoming – a bookcase in the background is always popular, but you could even add a colorful bunch of flowers. Now is also the time to invest in a ring light and a podcast-quality microphone to ensure you look and sound like the most polished agency in the pitching process.
All participants from the agency side should join the call separately, even if they’re in the same building as their colleagues. As Claude Zdanow, founder and CEO of The Stadiumred Group explained to Campaign US: “Having a group video call, where a bunch of people are sitting around a table staring into one camera, tends to leave everyone feeling like they are staring into an abyss of a room with no direct eye contact, and it takes away from the importance of creating chemistry from person to person.”
A virtual pitch meeting calls for the same etiquette as an in-person one. Your entire team should be experts at using the mute button. If you’re not talking, put yourself on mute. The same goes for notification alerts on your various devices.
Advanced Tips for Great Virtual Client Pitches
With the nuts and bolts taken care of, now comes the fun part: actually winning the pitch. Once you’ve scheduled the virtual pitch, the rest comes down to your whole agency accepting and internalizing one simple assertion – just as digital campaigns aren’t TV campaigns on a laptop, a virtual pitch meeting isn’t the same as an in-person pitch delivered online.
If you perceive the medium as an advantage rather than a hindrance and focus on what the technology enables you to achieve, you’ll quickly put your agency ahead of the pack.
Separating the Best from the Rest
Some agencies will view a virtual pitch for new business as an excuse to cut costs and to put less time and effort into the client pitch. This gives other agencies committed to virtual pitching an enormous advantage. Without the benefit of being able to read a room or see the cues of colleagues, virtual pitch meetings need to be practiced over and over again, with particular attention paid to the handoff from one speaker to another. It’s harder to hold attention when meeting virtually than in person, so a clear and clearly told story is essential.
Redesigning your pitch process to be more conversational can also keep clients engaged. With most senior executives reporting that they spend 20 hours per week or more in meetings – mostly virtual these days – having them take an active part in the client pitch will ensure they pay attention and remember your pitch above other one-way presentations.
Finally, profiling the client and their participants can help you build chemistry despite the distance between you. Every member of your team should know who’s going to be present at the pitch meeting, what they’ll be looking to take away from it, how they’ll make their decision and how to build trust with each of them. The Head of e-Commerce is likely to have different needs than the CMO. Make sure both feel seen and understood.
The pandemic has, in many ways, made the pitching process more egalitarian. The agency that prepares the best and most well-constructed pitch is more likely to win now than ever before. However, if you can convince clients that receiving pitch meetings virtually is in the interest of their time, budget and convenience, you’ll be able to acquire new business through virtual pitches long beyond these pandemic days.
If your organization is making the change to online meetings and looking for ways to master your virtual client pitches, Doodle’s advanced scheduling features can help speed up that transition. Feel free to reach out to us for more information on improving meeting-related organizational productivity for you.
