104: How to raise your prices with current clients (and not p**s them off in the process) with Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching

01/13/23 • 55 min

This week, we used a puff of smoke to catch pricing magician Blair Enns performing his favourite trick; making RFPs disappear. Founder of Win Without Pitching and Author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity, Blair is dead set on getting creative businesses to price their work properly, single-handedly saving those who sell ideas for a living from giving them away for nada.
We pulled a ton of topics out of a hat including his early years in account management and new business, pitching and RFPs, generalist vs specialist agencies, value-based pricing, why your agency should have a portfolio of pricing models, pricing creatively, how to raise your prices with current clients (and not p**s them off in the process), search consultants, hissing cockroaches and loads more.
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Follow Blair on Twitter and LinkedIn
Check out Blair’s website
Get his books Pricing Creativity and The Win Without Pitching Manifesto
Here’s the 2Bobs podcast
And listen to Blair’s new show 20% The Marketing Procurement Podcast
Strange Creatures: Pitches, Search Consultants, and Hissing Cockroaches by Blair Enns
Consultative Selling: Beating The Odds by Tom Lewis
Thank you to everyone who has lent their ears and their brains for over 100 episodes of the Call To Action® podcast. It’s a real privilege. Please do share and review the podcast to help more marketers feel better about marketing.
Timestamps
(01:52) - Quick fire questions
(03:58) - Account management as a gateway drug into ad land
(09:38) - Doing new business remotely in 2000
(13:45) - The real problem with pitching
(21:44) - Value based pricing
(24:22) - Does the blame lie with agencies or clients?
(27:11) - Why pricing is a prison cell in your own mind of your own making
(31:53) - Pricing as a creative act
(37:25) - The importance of presenting more than one price
(43:28) - Listener questions
(50:36) - 4 pertinent posers
Blair’s book recommendations are:
$100M Offers by Alex Hormozi
The Boutique by Greg Alexander
The Business of Expertise by David C. Baker
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Previous Episode

103: Meet the man to thank for skippable ads on YouTube; Walter Geer III, VMLY&R HEALTH

This week, we put pedal to the metal and found a new top gear, a Walter Geer III.
Sport-bike racer, track and field All-American, and seriously impressive fella, Walter is Chief Experience Design Officer at VMLY&R HEALTH, bridging tech, storytelling, design, and user experience to create innovative design solutions to health.
Walter hits top speed talking on a ton of tantalising topics like the lies he told people in awful suits, his early rich media roles at The New York Times and Myspace, why the best creatives are inquisitive, ethics around wearables, why chatbots are s***, being the second penguin in the water, why more brands need to understand that screwing up is OK, a tirade on timesheets and more.
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Follow Walter on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram
Call To Action alumni Derek Walker was kind enough to link us up with Walter to record this episode. Go give his episode some kudos.
Thank you to everyone who has lent their ears and their brains for over 100 episodes of the Call To Action® podcast. It’s a real privilege. Please do share and review the podcast to help more marketers feel better about marketing.
Timestamps
(02:08) - Quick fire questions
(04:06) - First ever job and why he lied to people in awful suits
(06:29) - His early days in the rich media team at The New York Times
(13:45) - Moving up the food chain to eat the problem sooner agency side
(17:52) - Working in health
(19:05) - What does a Chief Experience Design Officer do?
(22:49) - Data, ethics, chatbots and wearables
(29:33) - Listener questions
(37:46) - 4 pertinent posers
Walter’s book recommendations are:
It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden
What Lucy Taught Us by Walter T Geer Jr
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Next Episode

105: "When will agencies understand the value of account management?!" with Faizan Ali, VMLY&R

This week, we took one giant leap to catch aspiring astronaut turned account manager, Faizan Ali.
Currently Account Director at VMLY&R, Faizan is a loud and proud advocate for account managers worldwide. Having cut his teeth at Saatchi, JWT, and Hogarth Worldwide, he shares stellar advice on LinkedIn on how to calm storms, massage egos and help sell the work.
Tune in for an out-of-this-world chinwag on all things account management; why it’s both extremely hard and very simple, the qualities of a good client partner, what to do when s**t hits the fan, why agencies need to realise what added value it brings, the best way to deal with client briefs, the wording of the job title itself, having a point of view, timesheets, job specs, ego and tons more.
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Follow Faizan on Twitter.
And on LinkedIn for a choice cut of stellar account management advice.
Here’s a few to whet the appetite:
3 QUESTIONS IN 3 MINUTES
As Account Managers, we wear many hats
Listening is an Art
GOOD ACCOUNT MANAGER vs GREAT ACCOUNT MANAGER
Listen to Call To Action with Nick Ellis for tips on creative briefing, his “womb room”, making the world’s most boring advert for a sex toy client and loads more.
And here’s Nick’s talk from ZeeMelt on Account Management.
Thank you to everyone who has lent their ears and their brains for over 100 episodes of the Call To Action® podcast. It’s a real privilege. Please do share and review the podcast to help more marketers feel better about marketing.
Timestamps
(01:42) - Quick fire questions
(02:50) - Starting a social media agency at university
(08:57) - First account management role at JWT
(10:41) - Why account management is extremely hard but very simple
(13:00) - Agencies need to realise what added value account management brings
(17:32) - Handling mess and politics as an account manager
(20:40) - Dealing with client briefs
(26:30) - Account Manager or Client Partner?
(28:20) - Listener questions
(34:28) - 4 pertinent posers
(38:56) - How to navigate problems to do with ego
Faizan’s book recommendations are:
Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Strategy Is Your Words by Mark Pollard
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