Why we’ve decided we wont be pitching for your work
By HGB , Sep 11 2018
We always knew, in the back of our minds, that pitching for work wasn’t the way to go. But you must admit, there is a level of flattery in being asked. Especially as HGB is considered a relatively new player in the established Waikato market.
Our approach is different. We believe in relationships and building meaningful experiences, rather than the old-school approach of bringing a creative piece to the table, without the insight and deeper understanding of the client’s goals and objectives, outside of their three-page brief.
Not only does this consume our precious time, it takes us away from exceeding the expectations of our fantastic clients. And as a client, we know where you’d prefer our focus to be.
Prospecting is different to pitching
When our phone rings, leads come in via our website, or our clients refer us, we’re greatly excited by the opportunity to explore these new relationships. We’re proud of our work and so are our clients, which in turn speaks for itself when people are exploring their options.
Every week, we meet the ‘hidden gems’ of the Waikato business world. Business owners who are flying under the radar and doing amazing stuff. Meeting these people is inspirational. We come away buzzing, super excited and full of ideas regarding how we can become part of their team.
Our past pitch experiences included:
• The incumbent tightening their pricing,
• A partnering supplier predetermining the outcome,
• Being part of a tick-box process,
• Not bringing creative to the pitch due to focusing on understanding the clients pain points (and it wasn’t a creative pitch!)
We believe there’s a better way, and we’ll let you in our not-so-secret secret…
What we do instead
HGB was born through a desire to bring a more meaningful experience to marketing – to us as individual marketers, to agency life and to you as the client. We do things differently, we do things genuinely, and we do things according to our values. We’d love you to experience them too, and we’ll meet you at every opportunity:
Come and meet us
Up a flight of stairs in Hamilton central lives a fantastic bunch of people. AND, we love it when you ascend those stairs to meet us. Not only can we show you where we work, but you can get a feel for our place – the positive vibe, the team’s energy – and chat to the various people involved.
We always have coffee on hand and plenty of time to answer all your questions (we’ll be asking loads of them too).
Have lots of conversations
We talk. A lot. After our first meet and greet, we will chat with you on the phone, again in person, or at the local café if that works best for you. The more we know and understand you, the stronger our partnership can become.
Pay for a discovery phase
You don’t build a house without architectural plans and we don’t start marketing without a plan either. Starting with strategy gets us all on the same page, talking the same talk, walking the same walk.
We know our strategic positioning methodology is insightful and essential in defining your DNA – your core purpose, values, key messaging and often the way your brand (not just your logo) looks. This is the platform on which we will build all your marketing upon.
Couple this with the development of your marketing strategy and we’re ready to fly.
Collaboration is key
Our team becomes your team. We’re an extension of your resources, just sitting in a different building (but you’ll find us regularly sitting in your building too!).
We know successful marketing depends on understanding your story before offering our recommendations. We also know that working together, we can achieve great things.