The Agency Pitch Team Illusion
Managing Agency Talent After the Pitch Win
Imagine you’re a pharma client, thrilled with the dynamic pitch team an agency just showcased. Their polished presentation, brimming with innovative ideas and strategic insights, has you convinced they’re the perfect partners to take your business to the next level. Fast forward three months, and reality hits – the dream team you bought into is nowhere to be seen. The agency pitch team illusion. Instead, you’re faced with a revolving door of unfamiliar faces and a noticeable absence of those senior experts who impressed you initially.
For agencies the delicate dance of managing client expectations while securing new business is a daily challenge. The top talent that wow during a pitch is rarely waiting in the wings, ready to leap onto a new project. They’re likely doing their best to stay above water, balancing this new business opportunity with existing client & team demands. A reality that often leads to burnout during pitches.
For clients, it’s crucial to understand that the agency ‘A-Team’ isn’t on standby, ready to drop everything for ‘your’ account, as important as you feel it is to the incoming agency.
Successfully navigating this phase on both sides can lead to a thriving relationship that brings positive business outcomes for all; mishandling it can set the stage for a tumultuous start that is very difficult to recover.
Speaking to both clients & agencies alike, solli dives into how solli dives into how to manage agency talent after the pitch win.
From the Agency’s Perspective
Agencies are high-paced environments, perpetually balancing their clients’ demands with their teams’ well-being. When a significant pitch is on the horizon, senior executives’ excitement can quickly be counterbalanced by the delivery team’s anxiety. Aspirational team members want to participate, showcase their skills, and drive business growth, but they’re often already stretched thin with current responsibilities.
Even before the elation of winning the client’s business, there needs to be clear actions to set up the team for success post-win.
- Be Confident Your Offering is Bigger Than Pitch Talent: Present your offering in a way that celebrates your overall capabilities, not just your star talent.
- Be Honest About Team Timings and Setup: Transparency is key. Clearly communicate the availability and roles of team members during the pitch and after. Go long with the transition, even if the earlier revenue may seem enticing. Better to get it right and retain, than wrong and complain.
- Set Expectations for Senior Input: Establish an escalation process to prevent senior team members from being overburdened with minor issues.
- Communicate Early with Other Clients: Carefully manage the transition of team members from existing clients to the new account. Otherwise, this win could result in other losses.
- Maintain a Talent Roster: Maintain a ‘little black book’ of talent and ensure a robust talent acquisition team that can move quickly.
From the Client’s Perspective
Embarking on a pitch process is time-consuming and often involves many layers of internal dynamics to navigate, let alone prepare, deliver, and decide. Within this, the nature of the multi-faceted global pharma industry means there will be a brilliantly diverse set of opinions across brand / local teams on the pitch on which you are about to commence. Some will be eager for change, some are loyal to the incumbent, and others are indifferent and won’t respond!
How do you ensure that once you’ve done the hard work, you set up your new agency for success and get the agency team to expertly deliver the vision you bought into?
The following may help bring the vision into reality:
- Clarify Roles and Commitments, with Honesty and Without Ego: Be clear about who will work on your account, how much time they will spend, and when they will start. Push for honesty about how to get the team to work on the account, knowing that they may not be immediately available. Understand that there will be other agency work outside your account.
- Identify Incumbents Key Talent: Consider retaining great talent from the incumbent agency who might transition to the new agency.
- Allow for a Long Transition: Don’t rush the process. Give ample time for the agency to adapt, get it right, and give yourself the best chance of long-term success.
- Manage Internal Expectations on the Agency Team: Ensure everyone within your organization understands the team and timeline. Focus on the agency offering rather than any individual talent within the agency team. Break down the challenges by brand/market, and approach systematically.
- Consider Financial Support: To facilitate a smoother transition, consider guaranteeing revenue for the incoming agency and /or paying an additional performance-related fee to the incumbent to facilitate a begrudgingly good transition
In summary
Of course, there is a huge amount more that goes into a successful agency transition, and solli will explore this in a future comprehensive transition process checklist.
From the perspective of ensuring that agency talent is given the best chance of success and your new agency/client partnership flourishes, these steps above are a good foundation on which to build. It requires a realization that this topic needs conscious thought and early attention. Ignore the topic at your peril, or both sides will be left with broken teams and broken promises.
Great agencies will proactively avoid the agency pitch team illusion, and wise clients will prepare accordingly. Remember, there isn’t an ‘A-Team’ waiting for business.
