Effectiveness Starts Before the Pitch Ever Begins
Why agencies need to be more disciplined about when to lean in—and when to walk away.
Effectiveness is one of the most overused words in our industry.
Everyone claims it. Few define it. Even fewer practice it consistently.
When we talk about effectiveness, we usually jump straight to outputs: the work, the ideas, the results. But in reality, effectiveness starts much earlier—often before an agency ever agrees to pitch, or before a client decides to initiate a review.
I see too many situations where both sides conflate motion with progress. A review gets launched because “it’s time.” An agency pitches because “we don’t want to miss the opportunity.” And months later, everyone is exhausted, frustrated, and no closer to a better outcome.
That’s not effectiveness. That’s inertia.
For clients, the most effective thing they can do before initiating a review is pause and ask a hard question: Have we fully explored whether this relationship can be improved without blowing it up? Objective performance appraisals—of both the agency and the client organization—often surface solvable issues that never make it into an RFP. Governance gaps, unclear success metrics, misaligned expectations. None of those require a review to fix.
Reviews are inherently disruptive. They consume time, money, and leadership attention. If you’re going to run one, effectiveness demands internal alignment first: clear goals, defined success criteria, and agreement on what a “good” outcome actually looks like. Without that, the process becomes theater.
Agencies, however, have their own effectiveness problem to confront.
Not every pitch is worth winning.
If agencies are serious about effectiveness, they need to evaluate opportunities with the same rigor they apply to client work. How is the pitch being run? Who is actually making the decision? Is procurement leading, and if so, to what end? Is speculative creative required, and will it meaningfully influence the outcome? What does “success” look like for the client—and is that achievable within the constraints being set?
Pitches can be chaotic, expensive, and deeply distracting to the business. Saying yes reflexively is not a growth strategy. It’s a tax.
The most effective agencies I work with are disciplined. They understand their win conditions. They know when they can add value—and when the odds, structure, or intent of a process make success unlikely regardless of the work. They choose their moments.
Effectiveness, in other words, is not about doing more. It’s about doing the right things, for the right reasons, at the right time.
If both clients and agencies took that idea seriously, we’d see fewer reviews, fewer broken relationships, and far better outcomes when change is actually needed.