Comments on: That monster called Free Pitch

By: özel ders

özel ders — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:19:54 +0000

I agree free pitching was rife .. the case build a website..Is there a solution, or are the clients just doomed to engage a bunch of firms until they find someone looking for some quick cash or who doesn’t care about developing long-term relationships?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:02:30 +0000

Well said. I ran across this over at NO!Spec and have to say that being a fairly new web developer that though I haven’t done anything for free, I have definitely undersold myself on projects which probably can hurt the local industry, by driving down prices, more than spec work. From here on out, never again.

By: Blair Enns

Blair Enns — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:18:09 +0000

Great post, Miles. You and your readers might be interested in the Win Without Pitching manifesto: A Call to Arms - Twelve Proclamations of a Win Without Pitching agency. It can be done. Thanks for the plug, Cat. :)

By: oral seymour

oral seymour — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:31:17 +0000

great post. It took me a while to learn this. these are usually the clients that payment becomes a problem or is extremely late.

By: cat

cat — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:48:52 +0000

Great post Miles. Have you heard of Blair Enns and Win Without Pitching? He’s got a Win Without Pitching Newsletter that rather interesting.

Here’s an article he wrote for AIGA – Spec Can Be Beaten

By: andrew burke

andrew burke — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:22:41 +0000

In my many years in adland, these were a pain in the arse. In the end we put a price on submissions – enough to cover materials and effort. Some gov’t departments agreed to this. And the list of agencies presenting was never to be more than four. Agencies presenteed a credentials document first, so they could have a wild list, but narrow it down before a creative submission was asked for. Do we ever learn from history? Did you ask the DL, Miles?

By: Nathanael

Nathanael — Tue, 29 May 2007 02:57:16 +0000

Requests for designs before engagement get an instant red flag for me; and a red flag from me pretty much equates to “actively discourage this prospect from communicating with us further”. You’re right – this sort of thing does usually indicate certain attitudes or attributes of the clients’ business that are undesirable in a working relationship … sometimes financing issues, procrasinating behaviour etc.

Clients should be able to tell from your portfolio whether you’ve got the skills they want without needing to see designs specific to their business first.

By: Ben Winter-Giles

Ben Winter-Giles — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:06:04 +0000

So completely true. Free pitching was rife in the mid to late 90’s when the web work was flooding the market and any loser could “build you a website” of course in the professional market, nothing is free, and nothing is junk.

Leave the free pitching to the clients who want it. As suppliers, we wouldn’t use free resources because we ourselves are not free.

We’ve worked hard to get to where we are, and have earned what comes with that.

Our clients deserve the best we can provide, and if they appreciate our work, then it’s also certainly worth it.

As always, love your work.

By: Chisa

Chisa — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:18:25 +0000

Even the ‘winner’ loses – they end up stuck with a client who doesn’t respect or value their work. I’m glad some people are taking a stand though.

By: Mike Kruger

Mike Kruger — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:05:16 +0000

I’ve had organisations even send out specs prepared by competitors when looking for a second round of proposals. :|

How can I possibly bid on a project when I know the company which put together the spec wasn’t paid for it?

The only reasonable course of action is to decline to bid, and explain why. Eventually people come to realise that it’s those who can say “no” who should be trusted.