It's a familiar tale to many a marketing agency. Your team is assembled, the caffeine is kicking in and the powerpoint is ready to roll... but still you lose the pitch.

In the words of one of our registered agency bods, in the marketing agency search and selection business, teams really do have to kiss a lot of frogs before winning that hard-earned brief. So why do marketing agencies lose pitches and what can they do to improve their chances?

Here are our 7 common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as told by our in-house client/agency matchmaker, Annabelle.

Reason #1: The marketing agency is ill-prepared

There are few places to hide during a pitch and poor or inadequate research speaks volumes to clients. So then, when a team walks into the room ill-preapred, it's clear from the get go if they haven't done their homework.

Being unfamiliar with a potential clients' structure, their current marketing mix, their key players, audience, brand voice, objectives, etc, rarely bodes well for the hopeful agency.

While horror-stories, like lost memory sticks, overrunning projects or office-wide flu pandemics do happen, there are no excuses for agencies who haven't made the effort.

Solution:

Clients need to be treated with respect and their time valued as much as that of marketing agency.

To avoid any red faces, either side of the table, swot up and research not only who the client fundamentally is, but what they're asking for, how you'll deliver it and what their ethos/approach is. If your marketing agency or team has neither the time nor inclination to do this, are far as we see it, you shouldn't even be in the room.

Reason #2: Pitch is padded, lacking in substance or not detailed enough

Occasionally marketing agencies elect to go for style over substance when it comes to the brief, perhaps out of worry that their experience, research or aptitude is insufficient or because of time constraints.

Clients tell us frequently they are often disappointed with poor quality pitches that don't say much but take up a lot of time.

Solution:

Here is a rough guide on what is always worth including:

• Be inspiring- offer something new, exciting and appealing
• Provide clear action for achieving objectives
• Explain how you will measure success
• Detail reasoning and research
• Connect- show that you have listened, care about the client's needs and understand not only what they're after, but what they're about
• Be frank about the challenges and obstacles that lie ahead

To quote Howard Margulies of adage.com, “often inarguable, self-evident truths are ladled into a creative brief under the guise of insight. This will not go unnoticed.” We agree!

Reason #3: They haven't got the right experience

It might sould irksomely obvious, but some marketing agencies have a habit for reaching for briefs that they don't have the appropriate experience or knowledge for.

This could because they simply like the brief, want the experience or could use the extra income.

“You'd be surprised at the amount of times a brief, say for an FMCG client comes in and marketing agencies with absolutely no FMCG experience want to go for it,” says our in-house brief guru, Annabelle. “It's a waste of both the agency and the client's time but happens more often than you might think.”

Solution:

Make sure you have the relevant, or at least transferrable, knowledge and/or experience the brief calls for before throwing your hat into the ring. This will save you disappointment and the valuable resources that the pitch and marketing agency search and selection process incurs.

If you're unsure, ask about the kind of things the client wants you to bring to the table. If you feel unable to provide or don't think you're a good fit have the sense to bow out gracefully. 

Conversely, if you think you do have the right experience gather and compile case studies, ask previous clients for references (perhaps even ask if they'd be happy to talk to the prospective client) and brush up on what's changed since your last project.

Got any of your own tips, or even mistakes, you want to share? Tweet us and Annabelle at @wefindgood and stary tuned for part two.