How to Pitch New Business with Another Agency
For small independent agencies, pursuing new business can feel like trying to surf a tsunami. It’s already near impossible to find time to work on business development, and if you’re like a lot of agencies I know, you have way too many prospects on your “targeted” list.
Even if you’re consistent in devoting hours per week on outreach, it feels like you’re hardly making a dent. And even if you could realistically reach all those prospects, it’s challenging to keep their attention throughout the long buying cycle.
For these reasons and more, I like to help my clients find leverage in their new business operation.
One of the ways to leverage your time and talent in the pursuit of new business is to partner with another agency that offers complementary services to your own.
This can be an effective strategy if the partner agency has a foothold in a market that you want to enter or for you to remain competitive in a category without having to add more people or skills. Together, you can pool your resources and make a stronger pitch.
There’s lots of upside, but there’s a downside as well because it adds a layer of complexity in the relationship with the client.
You’ll both want to be able to negotiate pricing directly with the client.
You’ll both want control over your own brand positioning and messaging.
You’ll both want direct access to the client so that you can react quickly to the client’s needs without waiting for the message to get passed through the filter of your partner.
Pitching with a partner agency is a leveraged business development strategy but it comes with risk. Make sure you establish systems and processes, just as you would for any other sales effort, to control that risk.
Here are a few things to keep in mind at each stage of the sales cycle:
1. Courtship
If you don’t have existing relationships with partner agencies, you’ll have to build them and just because you’re selling yourself to your own kind doesn’t mean you can afford to be informal or disorganized. Have a plan and that plan will share many of the same elements that you’d have in a new business plan directed to marketers.
Consider your revenue goals and how agency partnerships will help you meet them.
Define an “ideal customer profile” for these partners. What services do they offer? How big are they? Which leadership role is your best main point of contact? Do you understand their challenges and do they understand yours?
Be disciplined about contact management and lead tracking.
Most importantly, take the time to define what makes a successful partnership for you.
2. Nurturing
As you nurture the relationship, have a plan for helping your prospective partner to get to know you and your strengths.
Share credentials and case studies.
Add them to your mailing list and your social media networks so they see your thought leadership content.
The tools you’ll use are familiar, but your message will be a little different. Besides demonstrating how you get results for your clients, show them how you’re set up to be a good partner. Customize your case studies to highlight past successful partnerships and why they worked.
This is also the time to set some expectations. Have an honest discussion with your counterpart
When you set up an exploratory meeting with a new potential partner, know what you want to get out of it, who the decision makers are, and whether they’ll be attending—just as you would if you were meeting with a client-side marketer.
3. Conversion
Let’s say one of the relationships you’ve nurtured has led to an opportunity to co-pitch, check in with yourself and make sure that there are guardrails in place to make this a productive collaboration.
This is especially important if it’s your agency partner that has the relationship with the client. You still have leeway to define how you want to get out of this relationship (it will evaporate once the project is awarded and your partner has taken the lead). Don’t let your enthusiasm over a pitch opportunity undermine your best interests. Ask and get answers to important questions, like:
Who are they working with at the client organization?
Are they certain the contact is the decision-maker?
Is the project approved?
Are you the only service provider in your category being presented to the client?
While you’re at it, ask yourself some important questions about this relationship too:
Are you working with the decision-maker at the partner agency?
Have you made known your agency’s policy on access to the client?
To what extent are you willing to put resources towards unpaid spec work if asked?
What are your limitations on the amount of manpower and materials you’re willing to invest in this pitch?
Are you willing to bid against other sub-contractors?
Do you have control over the final content that’s seen by the client?
When you’ve found a project you both want to work on, ensure documents are in place to help you maintain control. These may include a predefined set of services, pricing for agency partners, a master services agreement, and an onboarding guide that describes your expectations.
And be sure you reserve the right to show the final, approved work in your portfolio!
4. Management and growth of the relationship
Be proactive in contributing to a healthy, profitable relationship with your partner.
Regularly revisit your criteria for success, including revenue goals, shared access to the client, and whether this partnership is letting you do the kind of work you want to do. Suggest to your partner KPIs and benchmarks that define your success together.
And continue to build the relationship just as you would with an important client.
Reinforce your value by sharing your agency’s knowledge and expertise. Offer things like lunch-and-learns that add equity to the relationship and give you more exposure to other teams—and, by association, clients at the agency.