The agency pitch process,
from yes or no to the decision call.

Storyflow is built for exactly this job: the go or no-go answers, the quoted brief, the strategy, the routes, the moodboards and the plan sit on one board, and the team presents from that board. The reason for naming it first is that the process stays in one place from day one to the decision. Pitch still does the polished deck better, with speaker notes and link analytics.

The agency pitch process has seven steps: decide whether to pitch, question the brief, write the strategy, run a tissue session to cut territories, develop two or three routes, rehearse in full, then present and send a leave-behind within 24 hours. On a Storyflow board, each step has an owner and a date. Keep the order even on a one-week deadline; shrink each step instead of skipping one.

As a rule of thumb, plan three to four working weeks for a campaign pitch; a compressed version can run in five days if the team does nothing else. The steps that get squeezed are the tissue session and the rehearsal, which are the two that catch the problems. On a Storyflow board, count back from the presentation date and freeze the idea two days before rehearsal.

An agency should decline when two of three things are true: more than four agencies are pitching with no fee, you cannot speak to the person who decides, or nobody will state a budget range. That is a working rule, not an industry standard. Write the six go or no-go answers on a Storyflow board first, so the decision is made on facts rather than on the excitement of being asked.

The people who will do the work should present, usually a pitch lead, a strategist, a creative lead and an account or production lead. Clients are judging the team as well as the idea, and a senior presenter who disappears after the win damages the first month. Storyflow lets each presenter rehearse their own wall in presentation mode, so every handover is practised before the meeting.

Cut against the brief in two passes: five territories to three at the tissue session, then three routes to two about a week later, with one recommended. Drop any route the team cannot argue from the insight, however good it looks. In Storyflow, keep cut routes on a separate board, so you can answer a follow-up question without putting them in the running order.

An agency should rehearse the whole meeting aloud at full length, two days before it happens, with someone playing the client and asking the hard question about budget. Time every section. Storyflow presentation mode gives you the same fullscreen, wall-by-wall view the client will see, so you catch slow handovers and missing reasoning while there is still time to change them.

An agency should send a leave-behind within 24 hours, covering the problem, the insight, the recommended route, the investment options and the next step with a date. Keep it short enough to forward. From Storyflow, send a PDF of the board or a view-only link. Include the PDF when the decision goes to people who were not in the room, because a file is easier to circulate.

The client opens a Storyflow view-only link in a browser with no account and sees exactly the board you chose to share. To leave a comment or draw on it, they sign in, which keeps every note attached to a real name. Share a separate presentation board, not your working one, so internal notes and cut routes stay private.

Ownership depends on what you agreed, so agree in writing before you start that ideas the client does not buy remain yours. A short email is better than nothing, and a lawyer can confirm the wording for larger accounts. Note the agreed position in your go or no-go answers on the Storyflow board, so it is checked before work starts rather than after you lose.

Yes, for structure and speed, not for the idea. On Plus and above, the Storyflow AI builds a moodboard, storyboards a script, runs What's missing here? and produces a pitch deck from the board. A pitch built from a board took 3 minutes in one recorded run, rounded up, against an estimated 4.5 hours by hand. Choosing the insight and the route stays with your team.

An agency should ask for feedback within a week, then spend 30 minutes writing down what the client responded to, what the winning agency did differently and whether the go or no-go check should have stopped it. Keep that note on the Storyflow board and reuse the research where you can. After a few losses, those notes show which pitches you should not have taken.

Storyflow is paid-only during early access. Plus adds the in-app AI at $7.99 a month billed annually ($9.99 monthly), Pro is $14 ($19 monthly), and Max is $39 ($49 monthly) with a Team Workspace, roles and permissions. Anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free, so freelancers can join a pitch, though an invited free account has no in-app AI.

Storyflow has no PowerPoint export, no presenter view or speaker notes, and no proposals, contracts or e-signature. Its links show no visit analytics. Use Pitch, Google Slides or Keynote when a presenter needs notes or the client needs a PPTX, PandaDoc or DocuSign for the priced proposal and signature, and a spreadsheet for the fee model.