I wrote recently about feedback, with a focus on feedback from project work, along the journey or at the end. There’s another area of difficulty in getting feedback that can be particularly challenging, and I’d like to focus on it separately, as it’s so important – pitches.

It’s boring to give feedback, and that’s probably where this all starts. No-one likes to do it when it’s bad news. It might even be painful for the hyper-empaths (of which I am sure there are many in this sector), who project themselves into the feelings of the recipient. 

But it does matter, today more than ever.

There’s two levels to this – one is simply finding out that you’ve lost the pitch, or that something fundamental has happened to delay or alter the process. The other is getting useful feedback on the pitch itself.

Being in the hyper-empathetic direction myself, I can easily project into the client’s circumstances in the feedback vacuum. There’s contextual factors and more personal factors.

Contextually, there may be a lack of time to give feedback. I know how the diaries of many client-siders look today, and frankly they’re horrible. Rushing from one meeting to the next, day after day. In that context, there’s always stuff that falls down the to-do list, and it’s easy to procrastinate over the things that are uncomfortable. We’ve all done it, I’m sure.

I’m long enough in the tooth to know that there are plenty of pitches that are not level playing fields.  Maybe the clients don’t even realise fully in any given pitch, but it’s common (and understandable) to have pre-existing biases towards one agency, and then to use others to benchmark costs, and to be sure the methodology you favour is optimal. I suspect this is happening a little more these days as budgets tighten.

I’d just ask here for clients to pause. If an agency realistically doesn’t have much of a chance, do you absolutely need to involve them in the pitch? Can you instead just trust in the relationship with your preferred agency, and in your contextual knowledge of acceptable costs? Bear in mind, the agency that has been invited into a process for comparison purposes is going to want an explanation when they lose. What will this be if their proposal is genuinely strong? 

It’s frustrating to learn, for example, that you’ve lost a pitch for cost reasons without having been given a budget (at least a ballpark in the first place), or to learn that the winning agency had done relevant past work so they were favoured by stakeholders.

I do wonder if there’s some Covid impact here too. I have a strong feeling that client-agency relationships have become more distant post-pandemic, physically (less in-person collaboration) and emotionally.

I also suspect the pandemic and now the weak economy are meaning some clients are not just overloaded with meetings but often over-stretched and in stressful situations – dealing with the threats or realities of reorganisations, short-staffed or lacking the time to train juniors (on things like giving feedback!).  They’re often just trying to keep their heads above water by focusing on the essentials. I get it, truly.

Of course, though, all of this has a knock-on effect. This is a small and close-knit sector, and people talk. I know that there are agencies that are having a tough time, there are freelancers who aren’t getting any work from agencies or end-clients.

The Aura Working Well Together charter has a principle ‘we’ll commit to proper feedback’.  I’m supportive of this charter and will be hosting series two of the WWT podcast, which is now out. Feedback is certainly one topic that comes up across a few discussions so far.

In a difficult market, each pitch can count for a lot. At the extreme end, winning a project or two could be make-or-break for some agencies. It’s worth noting here that agencies don’t necessarily go bankrupt due to a lack of work but cashflow. And don’t get me started on painful processes to get POs in the first place, and long payment terms. It’s a tough operating environment, and some are feeling it especially keenly.

Chasing for feedback is often just what you have to do (repeatedly) but I’ll be honest – it can feel a little humiliating. Sometimes we reach the point we don’t even want the work, we just need to know for sure so we can clean up our pipelines, and move on.

It’s worth saying too that there can be pitch situations with difficult timelines. To put yourself forward, you need to be really certain you have the resource in place. This might require complex juggling, not just internally but across partners. It can require people to put plans on hold, or not commit to other work, just in case. To then be left hanging can make things difficult logistically.

Coming back to the fact this is a close-knit sector and the market is difficult, none of us know when we might benefit from tapping into our networks. I’ll go above and beyond for clients that have been great to work with. The ones who have treated me more functionally – less so.

OK, so feedback matters – please give it. We just want to know. The alternative is that you can invite me into non-competitive briefs and just give me all the work. That’s a good alternative. Then you don’t need to give difficult feedback – happy days.