How to Pitch a Client: A Strategic Framework for Agencies

Agency pitching isn’t getting easier.

Longer sign-off times, smaller budgets, and flat-out ghosting are testing even the most seasoned teams.

While market conditions are tough, the real challenge—and opportunity—is refining the pitch process to stay ahead.

Be Reyt growth consultant Freia Muehlenbein sat down with us to share her framework for winning new business. 

Learn how to qualify leads, plan pitches, and deliver proposals that resonate with decision-makers.

Winning new business is getting harder

Winning new business has become increasingly difficult, with clients taking longer to decide and breaking up projects into smaller pieces.

Yet, according to Freia, the problem isn’t just market conditions—it’s that agencies haven’t adapted their approach. 

In our podcast [09:10], she explains:

Freia says teams spend countless hours on detailed mock-ups, technical audits, and tactical presentations. But they miss what truly matters to decision-makers: the business impact.

Does your pitch process miss the mark? Watch for these warning signs:

• Your deck has over 20 slides but only touches briefly on financial impact
• You create extensive technical audits without clients requesting them
• Multiple team members spend days preparing detailed mock-ups
• Your pitch focuses more on “how” than “why”
• You can’t quickly articulate the ROI of your proposed solution

If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to transform your pitching approach. 

Use this clear, step-by-step framework, based on Freia’s insights:

Step 1: Qualify your leads properly

Winning more pitches starts with pursuing the right opportunities. Before diving into pitch preparation, take a step back to figure out whether a lead is truly worth it. A well-qualified lead increases your chances of success and prevents wasted effort.

When reviewing a new potential client, ask key questions to determine if it’s a good fit:

• Has their budget been approved?
• Who are the key decision-makers?
• What’s the project timeline?
• What are their primary goals or KPIs?

And look out for red flags that signal potential problems.

Friea notes the most critical is a lack of budget approval, but other warning signs include:

• Not being able to meet key stakeholders before the pitch
• Vague or constantly changing requirements
• Unrealistic timelines or expectations
• No clear decision-making process
• Reluctance to discuss budget

Then, Freia suggests using a scoring system to evaluate leads, rating them on factors like budget, stakeholder access, and strategic fit. So you can prioritize the opportunities with the highest likelihood of converting.

For leads with red flags, you don’t have to immediately walk away. Consider using them as an opportunity to dig deeper, clarify expectations, and align on key details.

Say your agency is considering pitching to GreenThreads, a sustainable clothing brand. But they’re still waiting for their CFO to approve their budget next quarter. 

Instead of diving into pitch preparation, you could say something like:

“We’d love to work with you, but we typically begin formal pitches once a budget has been confirmed. In the meantime, would it be helpful if we gave you a ballpark estimate to support your internal discussions?”

By hitting pause, you can save your team hours of non-billable work while still keeping the relationship warm for when they’re ready to move forward.

Watch this clip to hear Freia’s step-by-step guidance on how to approach the qualification and scoping process:

Step 2: Run a war room strategy session

Once you’ve qualified a prospect and confirmed they’re worth pursuing, it’s time to prepare your pitch. Rather than jumping straight into creating slides, start with a strategic planning session (also known as a “war room”).

In this clip, Freia explains why a war room session is so important. And how she sets her team up for success:

To make the most of the war room, involve your:

• Strategic lead (typically an account director)
• Data/performance specialist for ROI forecasting
• Creative lead for conceptual direction
• Operations/project management to assess feasibility 

Then, work together to:

• Define the client’s main business challenge and how you’ll solve it 
• Choose KPIs for measuring performance
• Map stakeholder priorities (e.g., the CMO wants ROI metrics, the creative director wants to build a stronger brand presence)
• Identify your company’s unique attributes and successes to highlight (i.e., services or products, case studies, data from previous projects)
• Create a clear narrative structure

By bringing together different roles, you’ll hear different perspectives and knowledge to help you design a stronger pitch.

Say an e-commerce prospect says they want to improve their social media presence. 

Your creative lead might start investigating their content.

But your data specialist discovers their real challenge is high customer acquisition costs.

This collaborative approach leads you to center your pitch on reducing acquisition costs by 25% within six months, which speaks more to the client’s true business need.

Step 3: Deliver a value-centered, ROI-focused pitch

Decision-makers care less about technical details and more about proven results.

Instead of overwhelming prospects with mock-ups or campaign details, focus on showing the concrete value your solution will deliver. 

This means starting with ROI projections, backing them up with case studies, and laying out how your agency will achieve specific KPIs.

Here are Freia’s insights on how to introduce value-driven pitching [21:10]: 

For instance, instead of dedicating multiple slides to SEO tactics and technical specifications, focus on business impact. For example, you might tell the prospect:

“By optimizing your site’s checkout flow and targeting high-intent audiences, we’ll increase conversion rates by 10%. For a company like yours generating $3 million in online sales, that would add an estimated $300,000 to your annual revenue.” 

This approach immediately demonstrates your understanding of what matters most to the client: their business growth.

Tailor your pitch to address different stakeholder priorities. 

For example:

• CFO: Clear cost versus revenue projections
• Marketing director: Why the SEO strategy will drive more traffic and leads 
• Head of e-commerce: Improving the conversion funnel

Keep your deck under 20 slides. And use simple visuals to illustrate forecasts and expected outcomes. Building your prospect’s confidence in your ability to deliver meaningful business results matters more than showcasing every detail.

As you’re building the pitch, regularly check in with your prospect. An ongoing dialogue ensures you cover the client’s most important needs in your pitch. And helps you stand out as an invested partner.

As Freia explains at 33:37:

Step 4: Don’t forget the post-pitch follow-up

The moments after your pitch are just as crucial as the presentation itself. A strategic follow-up plan can make the difference between winning and losing a pitch.

Freia shares her advice on what to do immediately after the presentation in our podcast [32:00]:

This proactive approach helps maintain momentum and shows you’re serious about the partnership.

Then, within 24 hours of the pitch, send a follow-up message that:

• Thanks the team for their time
• Reinforces key ROI projections and other benefits
• Proposes specific next steps or follow-up meetings
• Addresses any questions raised during the pitch that you couldn’t immediately answer
• Highlights relevant deadlines tied to business outcomes (e.g., “For a successful holiday campaign, we need to start by October 1”)

And remember:

Each stakeholder needs information tailored to their priorities and concerns.

So, for example, you could send a one-page summary of the financial return for the CMO and a separate version tailored for the head of creative. 

This way, each decision-maker has the specific information they need to move forward confidently.

Step 5: Get pricing right

Pricing is fundamental to agency profitability. But many agencies still struggle to get pricing right.

In our podcast [28:50], Freia emphasizes the importance of a structured approach:

Let’s walk through a pricing maturity model that helps you refine your pricing strategy over time.

Stage 1: Account for all costs

Profitable pricing starts with accurately tracking the costs involved in delivering your services. 

Freia notes that many agencies unknowingly chip away at their margins by overlooking key costs, such as:

• Overhead
• Project planning 
• Account management hours
• Onboarding processes
• Strategy work and planning
• Client meetings
• Communication and support

Before exploring advanced pricing models, she recommends making sure your baseline rates cover all costs and protect your profit margins.

For example, a project might seem profitable based on billable hours.

But when you add in the 10 to 15 hours per month that your project manager spends coordinating work and communicating with the client, your profit margin might be significantly lower—or even negative.

By tracking and integrating these hidden costs into your pricing, you’re in a better position to accurately estimate the costs of projects.

Stage 2: Move beyond blended rates 

Many agencies use a blended rate, charging the same hourly fee across team members and roles. While this approach is simple, Freia notes it often leads to imbalanced pricing and lower margins.

Say you charge $100 per hour for all work. 

On the surface, this makes billing straightforward. But behind the scenes, the actual cost of each employee varies. A creative director might cost your agency $75/hour in salary and overhead, while a junior designer might only cost $35/hour.

This means:

• Your senior work is underpriced, cutting into profit margins (you’re only making $25/hour profit on work that warrants a higher price)
• Your junior work is overpriced, making it harder to stay competitive on lower-cost tasks (you’re charging nearly three times your cost)

Instead, Freia recommends using tiered pricing. Here, rates vary based on the team member’s salary, experience level, internal costs, and billable utilization rate (billable hours ÷ total hours).

For example, with tiered pricing, you might charge:

• Creative director: $150/hour (70% utilization, higher internal costs)
• Junior designer: $75/hour (80% utilization, lower overhead costs)
• Project manager: $90/hour (75% utilization, medium costs)

This approach ensures you maintain healthy profit margins on high-value work while remaining competitive for more routine tasks—resulting in better overall profitability and more accurate project pricing.

Stage 3: Value-based pricing 

After mastering the fundamentals, then you can consider value-based pricing, or charging based on outcomes rather than time. 

Many agency consultants consider value-based pricing to be the “Holy Grail.” 

Why?

Because your pricing is based on the actual business impact you deliver, not hours invested. This means potentially higher profit margins and revenue that’s no longer capped by availability.

For example, instead of charging $5,000 for a social media campaign (50 hours at $100/hour), you could charge $8,000 based on its projected impact—bringing in 200 new customers worth $80,000 in lifetime value. Your price is tied to business outcomes, not billable hours.

Freia has a clear view on what it takes to succeed with value-based pricing [30:26]:

To reach this stage, you also need:

• A proven track record of delivering measurable results
• A strong market position and reputation
• High demand for your services
• Clients who understand and value your unique expertise

Learn how to charge by value-based pricing in our blog post. 

Final thoughts

Winning pitches takes more than creative ideas and technical expertise. It requires a deep understanding of your client’s needs, and a strategy that clearly shows how your agency will solve their challenges.

By thoughtfully analyzing their goals, pain points, and success metrics, you can craft pitches that demonstrate business value. This approach builds trust, strengthens client relationships, and positions your agency as a strategic partner.

For more agency insights from industry leaders like Freia, tune into “The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast.”

Hosted by our own Harv Nagra, you’ll hear real stories from business leaders about their journeys, the successes that defined them, and the failures they overcame.

Or, if podcasts aren’t your thing, sign up for “The Handbook” newsletter for practical agency tips.