Free pitches reward the loudest idea in the room, not the right one. We spent three years doing them and almost nothing we are proud of came out of that process.
What replaced it
A paid discovery week, scoped like any other engagement. Two people, five days, one written recommendation the client owns whether or not they hire us for the build.
- Every proposal is now paid work, or it does not happen.
- We lost four opportunities in the first quarter, and won three we would have skipped.
- The work we ship looks like the work we showed.