9 Essential Questions to Ask During an Agency Pitch
Last update: 24 November 2023 at 12:15 pm
3.00/5When you want to work with an agency, they usually make a business pitch. Most of the time, these pitches focus on the agency’s functional capabilities. These include:
- Its size
- Its skills
- Its expertise
- The projects it has already completed
That said, before choosing an agency, it is necessary to go beyond its functional capabilities. You have to dig deeper and go beyond the commercial catchphrases.
In this article, we explain why and how you can go about getting to know the agency that is making a sales pitch for you.
Why Ask Questions During a Sales Pitch?
The answer is quite simple: an agency’s sales pitch is a golden opportunity to find out if there are any affinities between your teams. Indeed, an agency that appears excellent on paper, or that seems to correspond to all your search criteria, may not be suitable for your project.
As explained at the beginning of the article, it is not enough to stop at the technical skills of an agency, you must go further. We are talking about the chemistry that can exist between your team and the agency you are thinking of working with.
If you don’t check this chemistry at the time of the sales pitch, the agency might not be the right choice.
But how do you know if there is a good fit between your two teams? How do you go beyond the sales pitch and really get to know an agency?
The best way is to start a dialogue between all the participants of the sales pitch. And the best way to do that is to ask the right questions. Let’s see what they are.
9 Questions to Ask In a Sales Pitch to Choose the Right Agency
Below, we present nine questions that can help you break the ice during a sales pitch and find out if there is an affinity with the agency.
If you had to pitch one of your projects, which one would it be and why?
This is a great question to ask. It allows the agency to frame its work and define what is really important to its teams. By being forced to choose just one of their accomplishments, the agency has to prioritize what they have accomplished in the past. This gives you a better idea of their priorities, values, and the style of project that drives them.
How do you handle difficult clients?
You can also ask if the agency has an example of a difficult situation they’ve had to handle with a client, and how they resolved it. The goal here is to understand two things:
- What does the agency team consider a “difficult client”.
- Does the agency team have a constructive approach to solving the challenges they face.
This question also provides insight into the agency’s business approach and how it manages its relationship with its clients. This is always good information to know before choosing an agency.
How do you manage staff turnover?
One of the most common complaints among marketing professionals is team management. And indeed, it’s one of the biggest challenges agencies try to solve.
How do you manage multiple client projects if the agency’s team keeps changing?
For you, the purpose of this question is to prepare you for a very specific eventuality: what happens to your project if the agency team changes along the way?
Take advantage of the sales pitch to find out how the agency handles team turnover and ensure that it can deliver your project.
How do you work internally?
The purpose of this question is to understand how the agency’s team is structured. The objective is also to know if there is a good team cohesion within the agency.
The challenge is obviously to make sure that the agency benefits from a strong internal collaboration, which is crucial for the success of your project.
Who do you follow? What blogs do you read? Do you do regular training?
The agency’s sales pitch is also an opportunity to understand its approach to training. Do its team members have the opportunity for ongoing training? And if so, what topics are they trained on?
This will not only let you know if the agency has up-to-date skills, but it will also allow you to see what synergies and complementarities exist between your two teams.
What do you particularly like about your agency?
The answer to this question helps define the culture of the agency and what inspires people to work and stay there. If you want to reverse the question – ask what they don’t like about their agency, or what they would like to change. This is a great question to ask to get past the sales catchphrases and take the temperature of the agency.
How are you preparing for the future?
This is perhaps the most “powerful” question you can ask. It encourages the agency to share what they are doing for their staff. Plus, it pushes its team members to share how they want to grow and the goals they set for themselves.
What qualities do you value as an agency?
This question asks what the agency values in both its employees and clients. The idea is to see if there are any commonalities between you and the agency, and therefore if there are any affinities that can be found.
Also, if the agency values different qualities than you, this can also be an excellent source of complementarity!
What is your best memory at this agency?
Asking this question to the people who made a sales pitch to you will help you understand what successes are satisfying to them. It’s a great way to understand their mindset and see if there are any similarities between them.
Conclusion
As with any relationship and partnership, things work best when there is a dialogue. Ask questions. Observe how the agency responds to them. Take time to reflect on their answers. At the end of the sales pitch, your goal should be to be able to determine the following points:
- Do you like the agency?
- Is it reciprocal?
- Does the agency team seem cohesive?
- Does the agency have all the skills required to complete your project?
If you want to know more about how to choose your agency, feel free to use our dedicated checklist.
