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Many businesses looking for creative communication solutions act like caterers at a low budget Ghanaian wedding; so precious about the food with a false sense of omnipotence. “Answer this poorly written pitch brief in three working days. I’m not able to answer most of your questions in detail because it’s not my job to make your job easy and I don’t want to say so much just yet. However, your pitch response will need to be Go-Live ready and as you may eventually discover, we have quite a limited budget. Take it or leave it!”

I don’t respect such pitches or the people who issue them; it betrays their mentality and sends a bad signal for ways of working. Such businesses aren’t looking for communication partners; they’re looking for overly compliant minions.

A business challenge is not a joke! The quality of the solution you decide to implement could make all the difference to your profitability and viability.

What your pitch should determine?

In a country where most creative agencies are executing agencies, you need to find out if your future communication partner has the capacity to actually strategize. What do they do before a creative brainstorm? What kind of questions do they ask? What kind of information do they assess? What kind of feedback and conversations do they have about your brief? However, you need to be sure that this isn’t just over intellectualization or a cheap tactic to buy time.

Do they acquiesce too quickly or they have a strong logically sound point of view? Then how does their idea bring all this thinking to life? Is it truly fresh and creative in a way that builds on the strategy and helps resolve the business objective? Are they people you can respect and work with? If so, you have yourself a winner.

What you shouldn’t do.

• Don’t think you are doing anyone a favor. Yes, your business will give them money, but if you choose right you have so much more to gain. That ‘I’m doing you a favor’ mentality will make you more appreciative of ass kissing than brilliance.
• Don’t go looking for kickbacks. Nothing compromises the integrity of a pitch exercise more than this. If you are able to stoop so low to do this, be brave to accept yourself for the incompetent hypocrite you are.
• Don’t set needless tests, it’s childish. Identify your paramount objective for the exercise; I hope it’s close to what I mentioned above. If it is, then be reasonable with the time and information you give to your prospects. Treat them with dignity and respect and this will help you make a sound decision.
• Don’t go looking for someone to put out a fire, find someone who can help you fireproof your business. The ‘put out fire’ pitches are done in desperation and are prone to gloss over major glitches and telltale signs.

So in one line; get more out of your pitches by being as reasonable as possible with them.

PS: Originally written in Oct 2019 @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ridiculous-pitches-benjamin-anyan/

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