Case Study: Small Agency Beats Enterprise Competitor for $500K Deal

The Impossible Pitch

Agency: Forge Digital Founder: Marcus Lee Team: 6 people Services: Web development & digital strategy Annual revenue: $600K

The opportunity:

A major healthcare company (40,000 employees, $8B revenue) put out an RFP:

Project: Complete platform redesign Budget: $500,000 Timeline: 12 months Competitors: 47 agencies applied

Marcus knew they had no shot.

"We were a 6-person shop," Marcus says. "We'd never handled a project over $100K. This was 5X our biggest project ever."

But they applied anyway. What did they have to lose?

Round 1: 47 agencies → 8 shortlisted

Forge Digital made it.

Round 2: 8 agencies → 3 finalists

Forge Digital advanced.

Round 3: Final presentations

Forge Digital was up against:

• Agency A: 200+ people, $50M revenue, offices in 12 cities
• Agency B: 80 people, $15M revenue, worked with 20+ Fortune 500 companies

Forge Digital: 6 people, $600K revenue, worked with... small businesses.

"We were David vs two Goliaths," Marcus says. "We almost walked away."

The Strategy: Do Everything Differently

Marcus realized: We can't win by being a smaller version of them. We have to be different.

What the big agencies would do:

• Send 10-person pitch team
• 80-slide deck
• Talk about their process, awards, case studies
• Promise dedicated team (that would change every 3 months)
• Lots of jargon and buzzwords

What Forge Digital did:

• Sent 3 people (Marcus + 2 senior developers)
• 15-slide deck
• Showed actual work (live demos)
• Promised: "You'll work with these 3 people. No account managers, no handoffs."
• Plain English

Move #1: Research Like Crazy

What the big agencies probably did: Reviewed the RFP, looked at the website, prepared generic pitch.

What Forge Digital did:

Time investment: 80 hours (2 weeks)

Cost: $0 (speculative work, but calculated risk)

Move #2: Lead with Problems, Not Process

Big agency pitch structure:

1. Who we are (company history)
2. Our process (discovery, strategy, design, develop, launch)
3. Case studies (look at all the logos)
4. Why us (awards, team size, fancy office)
5. Timeline & pricing

Forge Digital pitch structure:

1. Your product is broken (10 specific examples with user quotes)
2. Here's what we'd fix (live demo of prototype)
3. How we'd do it (3-phase plan, specific and actionable)
4. Why we're better than big agencies (spoiler: we actually care)
5. Proof (small portfolio but 100% success rate)

"We spent 30 minutes showing them problems they didn't know they had," Marcus says. "By the time we got to 'why us,' they were sold."

Move #3: Flip the "Small Agency" Weakness to a Strength

What the client probably thought: "Can a 6-person agency handle this?"

What Marcus said (verbatim):

"You're probably wondering: Can we handle a $500K project?

Fair question. Here's why you should want a small agency:

BIG AGENCY:

• You'll meet 10 people in the pitch
• Then you'll work with different people (junior team)
• Account manager as middleman (telephone game)
• Team changes every 3 months (high turnover)
• You're client #47. They don't really care.

US:

• These 3 people you're meeting? We'll do the work. No handoffs.
• Direct communication. No middlemen.
• We're 100% focused on you for 12 months.
• This is the biggest project we've ever done. Your success = our reputation.
• You're not client #47. You're THE client.

Big agencies are good at big agencies things: bureaucracy, process, CYA.

We're good at one thing: Building great products.

What matters more to you?"

The room went silent.

Then the CMO said: "That's the most honest pitch we've heard."

"I was terrified. I thought being small would disqualify us. Turns out, it was our biggest advantage."

Move #4: Guarantee + Skin in the Game

What big agencies offered: Standard contract, net 30 payment terms, change orders for anything extra.

What Forge Digital offered:

The guarantee:

• Phase 1 (Discovery): $50K. If you're not happy after 30 days, you don't pay.
• Milestones: We don't get paid until you approve each phase.
• Success metrics: If we don't hit agreed KPIs, you get 20% of final payment refunded.

Why it worked:

• Showed confidence (we believe we'll deliver)
• Reduced risk for client
• Differentiated from big agencies (who would never offer this)

"Terrifying?" Marcus says. "Absolutely. But it showed we had conviction."

Move #5: Show, Don't Tell

Big agencies: Showed case studies (screenshots, testimonials).

Forge Digital: Brought a working prototype.

"During the presentation, we pulled up our prototype on their 80-inch TV," Marcus recalls. "We logged in as a user. Showed the new interface. Navigated through screens. Let them click around."

The COO said: "This is further than we got in 6 months with our internal team."

Game over.

The Final Round

After presentations, the decision came down to:

Factor	Big Agency A	Big Agency B	Forge Digital
Experience	9/10	8/10	6/10
Team size	9/10	8/10	4/10
Portfolio	9/10	9/10	6/10
Understanding of problem	5/10	6/10	10/10
Proposed solution	7/10	7/10	10/10
Direct access to team	3/10	4/10	10/10
Value	6/10	7/10	9/10
Trust factor	6/10	6/10	10/10

Final decision: Forge Digital won.

The CMO's email:

"We were impressed by the large agencies' credentials. But we were blown away by Forge's understanding of our problems and their proposed solutions. More importantly, we trust them. We believe they'll care about our success. Contract is yours."

The Execution

Could they actually deliver?

Month 1-3: Discovery & Strategy

• User research (50+ interviews)
• Competitive analysis
• Technical architecture
• Design system

Month 4-6: Phase 1 Development

• Core platform features
• User testing (weekly)
• Iteration based on feedback

Month 7-9: Phase 2 Development

• Advanced features
• Integrations
• Performance optimization

Month 10-12: Launch

• Beta rollout
• Bug fixes
• Training
• Full launch

Challenges:

• Scope creep (client kept adding requests)
• Technical complexity (integrations were harder than expected)
• Timeline pressure (client wanted to launch 2 months early)

How they handled it:

• Clear change order process (new requests = new budget or trade-offs)
• Brought in 2 contractors for 3 months (still maintained core team)
• Negotiated: "We can launch early with 80% features, or on-time with 100%." (They chose on-time.)

Result: Launched on time, on budget, hit all success metrics.

The Results

Project success metrics:

Metric	Before	After	Change
User satisfaction	5.2/10	8.4/10	+62%
Task completion rate	47%	82%	+74%
Support tickets	1,200/month	340/month	-72%
Mobile usage	12%	43%	+258%

Business impact for client:

• Customer acquisition cost: -35%
• Customer retention: +28%
• Revenue from digital channel: +$12M/year
• ROI: 24X ($500K investment → $12M return)

Impact for Forge Digital:

Metric	Before	After	Change
Annual revenue	$600K	$2.1M	+250%
Team size	6	14	+133%
Avg project size	$50K	$180K	+260%
Reputation	Local agency	National player	Transformed

The halo effect:

• Featured in 3 industry publications
• Invited to speak at 2 conferences
• 8 inbound leads from Fortune 500 companies in next 6 months
• Won 3 more six-figure deals

"That one project changed our trajectory," Marcus says. "We went from scrappy small agency to 'Oh, you're the agency that beat [Big Agency].'"

The Lessons

How small agencies can compete with big agencies:

1. Over-research "We spent 80 hours researching. They probably spent 8. That showed."

2. Show, don't tell "We built a prototype. They showed PowerPoint slides. Show always wins."

3. Be honest about your size "Don't pretend to be big. Flip it into an advantage: 'We're small = you get our A-team.'"

4. Take calculated risks "Guarantees scared me. But it showed confidence. Worth it."

5. Care more "Big agencies treat every client the same. We treated them like they were the only client. Because they were."

What's Next for Forge

Current state (18 months later):

• Revenue: $2.5M/year
• Team: 16 people
• Clients: 8 (all $200K+ projects)
• Pipeline: $3M

Strategy: Stick to 6-10 large clients. No more small projects.

"We realized: We're better at big projects than lots of small ones. So we doubled down."

The long-term vision:

"We'll never be a 200-person agency. We don't want to be. Our advantage is being small, nimble, and deeply invested in each client.

We want to be the agency that enterprises hire when they want the big agency quality without the big agency BS."