Prospects who do this are either (a) cheap or (b) fearful (as one writer above suggested.) If they are fearful, I’ve found the best way to overcome this is either to have some metrics in place (this CAN be done with a creative service!) or to offer a money-back guarantee, less non-consultant expenses. I’ve been in business for eleven years and have offered this guarantee to propects who were “on the fence.” In eleven years, no one has ever asked for refund. A lot has to do with the pre-qualifying WE do up front of THE PROSPECT.

It’s a two-way street: the prospect should be interviewing the company but company reps should also be interviewing the prospect.

There are simply some prospects whom you never want to have as customers. And that’s OK.

While this email seems to reveal a clueless prospect, I can tell you from the client perspective what the emotion is behind such a request: fear.

In past jobs when I engaged an agency, I had a bundle of insecurities:

- Was their portfolio work done by people who no longer work there?

- Is the account team who meets with me the team that will ultimately service my business?

- Do these guys really “get” my company?

- How can I be sure that I’m important enough a client to get the attention I need?

- Is this agency’s best work behind it?

And so on. Moments of doubt. Even if the agency was a referral from someone else. Even, sometimes, if I’d done with them in years past.

The person who brings you in often has to sell you into the company, spending reputation capital in addition to dollars, so understanding the question behind the questions clients ask will help the relationship in the long term.

I’ve wrestled with this at my former employer, constantly questioning why we would bend over backwards to produce “spec” work. I even had an instance during my job search last year where an agency asked me to create an ad for one of their clients. No brief, no research, and no guarantee of a full interview, let alone the job. Ugh, it’s bad enough that potential clients ask us for “free” work, but do we have to do it to ourselves too?