Another invitation to tender
An RFP arrives from a mid-sized brand. Five agencies shortlisted, a chemistry meeting, then a full creative response with a strategy deck and speculative concepts. The owner is flattered, the creative director is keen, and the team agrees to go for it. Three weeks of evenings follow. The agency comes second.
A month later another invitation arrives. The same conversation happens, with the same enthusiasm and the same lack of data. Nobody can say how much the last pitch cost, how many of this type the agency has won, or whether the procurement-led pitches ever convert at all.
Why pitch effort disappears
- Pitch time is logged to a single "new business" code if at all, so one pitch is indistinguishable from another.
- Senior people, whose time costs the most, are the least likely to log it.
- Freelancers, stock imagery, mock-up printing and travel for the pitch are coded to general overheads.
- The outcome is recorded in the owner's head or a CRM field nobody updates, and the reason for losing is rarely captured.
- Invitations are accepted in the moment, based on how exciting the brand is.
New business is one of the biggest investments an agency makes, and it is the one it measures least.
What not knowing costs
Agencies keep entering pitch types they rarely win, such as open tenders with many agencies and a heavy procurement score. Client work suffers during pitch weeks because the best people are pulled off it. The team burns out on unpaid work with no sense of whether it pays back. When a prospect asks for spec creative, the owner has no evidence to decide whether to say no.
The pitch register we build
- Every invitation is logged when it arrives, with the source, the number of agencies competing if known, whether spec work is requested and whether there is a pitch fee.
- Each accepted pitch gets its own job code in your time tracker, created automatically so staff log to it rather than to a general code.
- External costs such as freelancers, printing, travel and stock are tagged to the pitch when they are bought.
- After the decision, the outcome and the reason given are recorded, with a short prompt to the pitch lead so it actually gets filled in.
- Won pitches are linked to the resulting client, so first-year fees can be set against the pitch cost.
- When a new invitation arrives, the register shows your history with similar pitches: how many you entered, how many you won and the typical effort.
| Pitch attribute | Why it is worth recording |
|---|---|
| Source of the invitation | Referrals and procurement tenders behave differently |
| Number of agencies | Shows how often long lists convert |
| Spec creative requested | Usually the most expensive element |
| Pitch fee paid | Offsets cost and signals a serious client |
| Hours and external spend | The real cost of taking part |
| Outcome and stated reason | What to change, or what to stop entering |
The register can live inside HubSpot or your existing CRM as a pipeline with extra fields, if that is where your new business team already works. We connect the time and cost side to it.
Deciding the next pitch with evidence
The next invitation arrives. The owner opens the register and sees that open tenders with long shortlists have been entered several times and rarely won, while referral-led pitches with a chemistry meeting convert far more often for less effort. The decision is still a judgement, but it is made with the history on the table.
Over time the register also shows which pitches are worth doing properly. Fewer pitches, better resourced, is often the outcome agencies reach once they can see the pattern.
Is this how your agency pitches?
- Pitch time goes to one general new business code, or nowhere.
- Nobody can say what the last pitch cost the agency.
- Pitch outcomes and loss reasons are not written down.
- Spec creative is done without a view on whether it pays back.
- Client work slips every time a big pitch is on.