00:00:00 Chris
Very hard, surprisingly hard to really distil down what it is that you want to offer the outside world. And I know that you've got a sort of formula for a good proposition, which is big, simple, unique and true. Could you just break those down for us? So what does big mean, for example?
00:00:19 Dan
So big, in terms of the value to the client and the benefit they get from it, something they need is what we talk about in big.
00:00:32 Chris
So it's a must have. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. OK.
00:00:37 Chris
Unique is probably self-explanatory.
00:00:40 Chris
What about the other ones?
00:00:41 Dan
Simple means someone has to be able to
00:00:43 Dan
understand it.
00:00:44 Dan
There's no point in having this big proposition that no one can get their head round, because they just won't bother and they'll walk away.
00:00:51 Chris
So we've got big, simple, unique and true.
00:00:54 Dan
True means that we can evidence what we've done.
00:00:58 Dan
So that's normally in the form of testimonials or some other form of evidence. You know, ROI (return on investment), whatever it may be, so that people can say, you know, are you just saying that?
00:01:10 Dan
Or can you actually really deliver?
00:01:12 Chris
I think it's a really good test actually, and I invite people listening to this podcast to look at
00:01:17 Chris
their own firm's proposition.
00:01:19 Chris
And just work out: does it match those tests? Big, simple, unique and true and I suspect a huge number will not.
00:01:26 Paul
I think that's definitely what we find when we do it as well, to do this exercise. I think there's an acceptance with agencies that as a broad rule that sort of a 25% pitch conversion rate is acceptable.
00:01:42 Paul
When we do this exercise, the leading agencies, they find a niche to hone down in and we definitely do work with agencies that have a pitch conversion rate significantly north of 50%.
00:01:55 Chris
Oh yeah. I agree entirely. I'd say to people if you're not winning 75% of the pitches you choose to go after, you're doing something seriously wrong. And it it's not just agencies, it applies to other companies too.
00:01:57 Dan
I'd say 70 is a good benchmark.
00:02:10 Chris
I worked for one of the Big Four and they were saying there's four of us, so one in four is an acceptable win rate.
00:02:17 Chris
Yeah, horrifying, there we go.
00:02:18 Chris
Do you want to choose another area in
00:02:21 Chris
the 360 and talk about it?
00:02:21 Dan
Well, I mean.
00:02:22 Dan
Yeah, following on from that, I
00:02:24 Dan
mean. You know, I think differentiation is really important.
00:02:28 Dan
So one of the things I would do is line up their proposition against five of their competitors and see if you can actually spot a difference.
00:02:34 Dan
I think that's a fun exercise to do, and very often quite telling. And the other thing I think is:
00:02:41 Dan
A lot of the clients I work with, think they know what their clients value but don't know what their clients value.
00:02:50 Chris
That's interesting. They think they know what the clients value. They don't know what
00:02:53 Chris
the clients value. That is interesting.
00:02:54 Dan
It's a very easy way to find out and I'll do it. I do it for clients. I'll speak to their
00:03:01 Dan
customers. I'll talk to them and I'll feedback on what they say. And very often that exercise
00:03:08 Dan
is one of the most useful exercises
00:03:10 Dan
I'll do for
00:03:12 Dan
clients and very often has the highest ROI of everything we do.
00:03:17 Chris
That's interesting.
00:03:19 Dan
And there's another thing. In this industry,
00:03:25 Dan
your potential buyers
00:03:27 Dan
will do that as part of due diligence. Very few, these days, transactions happen without that kind of exercise happening. It probably happens late in the day.
00:03:37 Dan
And if you've got some key customers that your agency is reliant upon and the buyer speaks to them and they put them off at that point, you've wasted a huge amount of time.
00:03:51 Dan
Yeah, so having an idea what they're going to say before you get to that point, it's probably quite valuable.