Dear PitchSmarter:
Help! A potential client sent a Request For Proposal (RFP) asking me to list every darn client we’ve worked with for three years running, AND how much they spent! That info seems very private. How much should I tell them?
Feeling Naked In New Jersey
Dear Naked:
Ask a law firm for an itemized client list with last year’s billings, and you’ll get the barrister’s equivalent of MYOB. Ask an agency, though, and chances are they’ll spill the beans. For every agency that resists revealing confidential info, there’s another dozen willing to strip bare financially if they reckon it will win business.
But keep your shirt on: Some publicly held agencies use the SARBOX solution, invoking the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s prohibition against publicly releasing unaudited financial information (individual unit sales aren’t typically reported in published financial statements). Another solution: remind clients that just as they’d want their spend levels private, so also do confidentiality agreements restrict releasing financial information about other agency clients to third parties (like them).
What they really want to know can be handled in a memo: reassure them that you have no competing products in their product category, and that their project will be similar in scope to several others currently in hand. With these steps, chances are they’ll let you into the pitch with your modesty intact.
