The pitch Q&A session is one of the most important interactions that agencies have with a prospect during a formal review. The client gets to see how the agency team handles themselves and has a chance to hear the quality of the questions asked by the agency. The agency has an opportunity to gather critical information that can shape how they arrive at the most compelling recommendations.
Many agencies consider this step a perfunctory and almost administrative effort. That is a HUGE mistake. The right approach to a Q&A can help a client better understand the quality of the agency team’s thinking and can help the agency team stand out. And yet we often see agencies waste this critical moment with poor preparation or the wrong focus, significantly reducing their odds of success. What are the mistakes these agencies are making?
We recently facilitated a Q&A session for a large media agency review. Here is the mix of questions that one agency asked:
62% of the questions this agency asked were technical, process related questions that were not about the prospect’s business or challenge. Only 38% – 8 out of 21 questions – were focused on the prospect’s business.
What a waste.
In our experience, there are five significant, but readily correctable, errors that agencies make in their approach and participation in Q&A sessions.
1. Poor preparation.
The effectiveness of an agency’s Q&A session is largely determined by what the agency does BEFORE the session.
We often see Q&A sessions where the agency team is clearly “winging” it. They aren’t prepared. They haven’t done their own research (whether secondary or primary) into the category, target audience, brand or competition.
2. Talking about the agency.
We often will see agencies spend valuable Q&A time talking about themselves:
- sharing basic agency background
- walking the client through their process
- sharing a case study
The Q&A is the wrong time for any of the above. The Q&A is the chance for an agency to showcase how prospect-focused they are by asking great questions about the prospect, their brand, target audience and competition.
3. Failure to request additional materials.
The Q&A is the perfect time for an agency to request access to a wide range of helpful background materials that may not have been shared up to this point. Target audience research, competitive assessments, MMM results, marketing calendar, product research, awareness and usage research, etc.
The agency is 100% more likely to get access to client materials that they request than if they don’t.
4. Not sharing questions in advance.
We recommend that agencies send their questions in advance – at a minimum 24-48 hours before the Q&A.
Many clients want to see the questions in advance. And most clients appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that is expressed when an agency sends their Q&A questions in advance. And clients have a chance to be better prepared themselves, and therefore provide more thorough responses, if they know what is coming.
5. Asking questions about the process.
Don’t waste such valuable time with your prospect by asking process questions that can be answered in a simple email. Wasting valuable time asking about the process diminishes the agency – it suggests the agency is more interested in checking important boxes than better understanding the prospect’s situation and challenges.
The Q&A session is a high leverage touchpoint for both the client and the agency. It should be treated as such – it’s a key opportunity for the agency to put their best foot forward. We cover much more about how an agency should approach a Q&A in our recently book It’s Not About You: Winning New Business In A Crowded Agency World (available on Amazon).
Steve Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Ulta Beauty, Microsoft, UScellular, Nintendo, Kaiser Permanente, Holland America Line, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Brooks Running, and numerous others. He founded MIG after serving as a division president in a Fortune 100 when he was only 32. Earlier in his career, Steve Boehler cut his teeth with a decade in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, leading brands like Tide, Pringles, and Jif.
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.