# How long does a pitch take?

**Short answer.** Count on two to four months from first longlist to signed contract, and longer as soon as procurement or a board joins the decision. The agencies are rarely the bottleneck.

Count on two to four months between the first longlist and a signed contract. That is field experience rather than a measurement: the duration depends almost entirely on your side of the table.

## Where the time goes

- **Building and checking the longlist:** one to two weeks.
- **Chemistry meetings:** two to three weeks, because you are matching six diaries.
- **Work-up by the agencies:** three to five weeks. Shorter is possible, but then you get what was already in the drawer.
- **Presentations and decision:** two weeks, if you fixed the dates in advance.
- **Contract and start-up:** two to six weeks, and this is the phase that overruns most often.

## What makes it longer

**Decision makers who were not there at the start.** Every person joining halfway brings a question that was already answered, and sometimes a round.

**Procurement and legal.** As soon as they join, a parallel track appears with its own deadlines. Involve them at the start rather than at the award, and the two tracks run together instead of one after the other.

**A holiday period.** A pitch starting in June decides in September. That is not a delay but arithmetic you can do in advance.

**A briefing that changes mid-process.** That is the most expensive delay, because it makes work already done partly worthless.

## What makes it shorter

Fixing dates in the briefing, handling all questions in one round, and deciding in advance who is in the room. And: fewer agencies. Inviting six instead of three adds no quality but does add three diaries.

## The agencies are rarely the bottleneck

They have a deadline and they meet it, because they want to win. When a process overruns it is almost always on the client side, and it is useful to know that up front: it makes the calendar you put in the briefing more realistic.

A process driven from outside rarely overruns: the dates are then in the briefing and someone is guarding them. That is what IKAg does under [Agency selection & pitches](https://www.ikag.be/en/agency-selection).

See also: [how to run a pitch](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoe-organiseer-ik-een-pitch) and [what a pitch costs you internally](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-kost-een-pitch-intern).

## Related questions

- [How do I run a pitch?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoe-organiseer-ik-een-pitch): In four steps: build a longlist, hold chemistry meetings, have three agencies work up a written briefing, and decide on a scoring grid you fixed before the first presentation.
- [What does a pitch cost me internally?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-kost-een-pitch-intern): More than all the pitch fees together. Add up the hours of everyone who briefs, reads, listens and decides, and with three agencies you are quickly at several man-days per person involved.
- [How long should an agency contract run?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/looptijd-bureaucontract): Long enough to earn back the investment in learning, short enough not to be stuck: one to three years, with a review after the first. An open-ended contract is not freedom, it is postponement.

---

IKAg is the business consultant for marketing and agencies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Market figures come from the Agency Barometer, calculated on the annual accounts agencies filed with the National Bank themselves. Figures on pitches and satisfaction come from IKAg-guided processes, and are always presented as such.

- All questions: https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq
- Last updated: 2026-08-19