New Business Guide

1. Marketing 2. Prospecting

Getting started

3. RFI & credentials 4. Work sessions 5. Final presentation

In the pitch

6. Closing & negotiating 7. Transitioning & on-boarding

Building a relationship

Step 3: RFI & credentials

You want to:

1. Effectively position the agency against the larger pool of candidates; know the prospective client:

Research background on the prospect's business
Research background on the clients key personnel
Learn about the prospect's existing agency relationships

2. Start to demonstrate an understanding of the category, consumer, competition and marketing challenge:

Research background on the category and trends (category)
Research consumer insights and journey (consumer)
Conduct a competitive analysis on prospect's business (competitors)
Understand the marketing objective and challenge (challenge)
Research prospect's past media allocation and spend

3. Get to the next round:

Select relevant work samples for your marketing materials

How WARC can help

If the prospect was not researched already as part of your agency's prospecting, be sure to see "how WARC can help" for Prospecting and cover those steps.

Qualifying the RFI and Setting Selection Criterion
Just getting an RFI doesn't mean it deserves your resources. Make sure you have a process in place to make that decision.

10 tips to win the pitch
WARC offers advice on how to effectively position your agency against the competition. Read how to align what makes your agency special with the "hidden agenda" of your prospect.

Get ahead of the game
Use WARC's Pitch Builder tool to read all the most important and recent content from WARC on your prospect's category and target audience. Look for two or three nuggets or twists in thinking.

ROI Benchmarker
Show you can deliver effective work by using WARC's ROI benchmarking tool.

Step 4. Work sessions