Feedback is a gift.
Yes, it’s a cliché. Yes, it needs to be said again and again.
But here’s what actually matters: how you receive feedback says infinitely more about you than all the work you’ve done up to that moment.
In a pitch, feedback is a test. Not of your work—of your character. When a client offers input and you can’t (or won’t) hear it, you’ve just given them permission to eliminate you. And worse, you’ve signaled what it would be like to work with you long-term. Who wants that?
We’ve seen agencies win pitches not because their initial work was flawless, but because they listened ferociously to feedback and came back with dramatically better work. The client didn’t just love the second round—they loved that the agency actually heard them. They became partners, not vendors.
A negative overreaction to feedback screams, “We’re in the too hard pile.” Clients have a point of view. It’s their money. Their career. Their job on the line. Nobody wants to work with someone who can’t handle that reality.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If you say your work isn’t precious but your ego actually is, you’re lying to yourself. What kind of person can’t take constructive criticism? Who doesn’t need help seeing what they can’t see on their own?
Don’t be the caricature. Don’t be the agency that’s better than the client, that knows more, that’s condescending. Don’t be the shop that needs to talk to the CMO when feedback comes from a search consultant or a junior marketer because you can’t accept what you’re hearing.
Be the agency that gets better because the client made you better.
The rest of us will be looking for you in a museum.
Robin Boehler is a founder and partner at Mercer Island Group. She has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Discover Financial Services, Viator, Sevrpro, Ulta Beauty, UScellular, Seabourn, Kaiser Permanente, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Giant Food, Brooks Running, and numerous others. She is an industry leader, captivating speaker and strategist, often called upon to speak on a variety of marketing services and agency topics.
Mercer Island Group helps marketers and agencies succeed. Company leadership is as much at home with marketers and their C-Suites as in an agency’s boardroom. With marketers, Mercer Island Group is a top 5 agency search consultancy covering all types of agency relationships (creative, media, web, PR, experiential) and assists marketers with marketing organization structure, workflow and critical skill development (briefing, creative evaluation & feedback, etc.). The company also supports leading and aspiring agencies with positioning, pitch and strategy training and pitch support.