The Pitching Process

User notes: this article is designed to help you organise and run the PR pitch process, which will play the key role in deciding which PR agency you will appoint.

What is a PR pitch?

Generally, it’s a formal presentation of ideas and strategy from the PR agency to the client in response to a brief.

The client making the choice will either see the agencies alone or with colleagues who are involved in the process - generally the people who will be working with the agency which is appointed.

Meeting agencies and listening to their proposals?

This process typically involves one or two stages. Some people like to see agencies for what they will call a ‘credentials’, which will be less about your PR strategy and more about working towards a shortlist of agencies who will pitch for your PR account.

Other people do the whole thing in one meeting by asking the agencies to pitch based on a brief they have issued in advance.

How many agencies should you see?

This depends on how long you want to spend on the process. If you assume that you will allow each agency up to one hour to make their presentation and then another half an hour or so for some questions, then you can see the process can quickly become pretty lengthy.

Also bear in mind how quickly you can organise a series of meetings like this. If you decide to see 6-8 agencies, for instance, it could take several weeks to fit all this into a busy diary. By the end of the process you may have forgotten the plus points of the first agency you saw, which doesn’t do anyone any favours.

What should you ask the agencies to develop for the pitch?

Make sure you are specific and clear - if you want fully thought out ideas in the first meeting, make sure the agencies understand that this is what you want. They will almost certainly ask anyway, but it’s a good idea to be clear from the outset.

What are the best ways to organise the pitching process?

You can be very specific about the format for your meetings (formal/informal/etc) or just let the agencies work within a general time limit and see how they like to present themselves.

How long will the process take from start to finish?

It depends on the factors discussed above, but if all the diaries can be organised, you could readily go from first contact to appointment within a few weeks. Generally the agencies will be very keen to get going as soon as possible.