By Ned Barnett/Barnett Marketing Communications
1) When you develop a PR plan for a client, you've got their input - but when you're doing a plan as spec work for a prospect, you're stuck with "winging it." So, if your plan
doesn't reflect the prospect's view of reality, you could blow the gig, just because you lacked the information you'd automatically have when working with them - as a client.
2) If you're staffed lean (as most agencies are in this economy) you have to pull your best people off client work to do the spec work - which means your client work doesn't
get done, or at least doesn't get your best efforts. You could lose a client (or a client's confidence) while trying to get a new client - and you're telling the prospect that
you'll do the same to them the next time a prospect asks for spec work.
3) To cover the cost of doing spec work, you have to raise your margin on paying clients - which tells your prospect that they'll be paying more, to cover the cost of the next
prospect's spec work.
4) In many cases, prospects have one agency "wired in" - generally a friend of the Chairman's - or they are thinking about doing the work in-house. Sure, it's unethical, but
many prospects who ask for spec work are really looking for free ideas. In these cases, since you're not going to get the business under any circumstances, do you really want to
give away your best ideas - for free?
5) You're setting a very bad example, "training" the prospect that you can be leveraged to do free work of the very highest quality if the right pressure is applied. Is that
the message you want your new clients to get?