A few years ago we ran an important creative agency review for a leading beauty retailer.
The review was for the creative AOR with a great client in a great category. Agencies were thrilled to be involved. We ended up with a very competitive field of enthusiastic, talented and strategic agencies.
By the time we made it to the final presentation, one agency was the clear leader in the competition. They had excelled at every step, seemed to really “get” the challenge and client and had fantastic, related experience. They pitched first on presentation day and our client was eager to hear what they had to say.
And within 5 minutes, they had lost. How?
A few quick notes before we get to the punch line…
- The business challenges were clear in the RFP
- The agency had explored the challenges in multiple interactions with the client team
- We discussed the challenges with the agency on multiple occasions
Back to the story.
They opened their presentation in lovely fashion! They thanked the client again for including them, the introductions were warm yet brisk, and their first slide recapped the business challenge:
At this point, the Mercer Island Group was in heaven.
What a great start! They did not kick off by talking all about their agency like many firms start a presentation. Rather, they made it all about the client, and from the very first slide established that they understood the challenge.
One slide later, they effectively lost the review:
When they launched that second slide, the client CEO said, out loud, “huh”.
They were effectively finished.
They had told an all-star CEO of a publicly traded retailer that her objectives were wrong.
Beyond the simple fact that they were wrong – publicly traded retailers can’t take a year figuring out their brand before worrying about store traffic and comp store sales – they had not earned the right to tell her she was wrong. After the presentations she had to review daily revenue and deal with an assortment of other important issues. The agency got to go back home with a belief that they knew better what her priorities should be than she did.
What a simple lesson. You need to earn the right to tell a prospect they are wrong. You generally need to show that you can solve their problem as they see it before they will listen to you redefine their problem. You need to build a case and make sure they can hear it.
They lost. The winning agency helped this client launch six consecutive years of incredible revenue and earnings growth. And….
The agency helped the client build brand reputation, store traffic and comp store sales.
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.
