We walked into a pitch against two agencies

Last month, we pitched against two agencies.

One has 10k people. The other has 1k. We won with 33.

The two larger agencies came in with what you'd expect:

- Impressive decks.
- Long client logo slides.
- Case studies from brands you've heard of.
- Data from 3rd-party research tools.

They looked good on paper...
But they didn't provide what we can at Fluency.

As a smaller boutique agency, we brought a better read on their business.

Before we walked in, we had already done the work.
We knew where their growth had stalled, and we knew why.

So, we went in with a clear answer as to what we'd do in the first 90 days.
That level of preparation is hard to replicate when you're at a large agency running 200 accounts.

Big agencies are built for leverage.

That means junior teams do the work, adapting templated playbooks for each client.
And senior people show up for the pitch and disappear after the SOW is signed.

Founders at scale have usually been through that model once.
They know what it feels like when the person they bought isn't present.

Fluency stays small on purpose.

We've got fewer clients with a much deeper context.
And senior judgment close to the work every week.

This isn't a story about a small agency beating a big one.
Size was never the variable.

It really came down to who had done the work before arriving at the door.
And who could answer the hard questions in the room instead of scheduling a call to "get back to them later".

That's what founders want to buy.
They just don't always know how to ask for it.

What's one question you ask in a pitch that tells you everything you need to know?
Let me know in the comments 👇

If you're evaluating partners right now and want a conversation, my DMs are open.

♻️ Repost if you've sat through an agency pitch and known ten minutes in it wasn't going to work.
And follow me, Jacob Rokeach, for more on what a good growth partnership looks like.