The client does not care whose payroll the senior person is on. They care that the senior person is in the room.
Yes. Agencies have always borrowed senior people for the jobs that need them. The trick is setting it up so the client sees one team.
What can a senior freelancer do on a pitch?
- Shape the strategy and the idea before the creative starts.
- Build a working prototype or demo, so the client sees it instead of hearing about it.
- Bring the AI, UX, or service design depth the agency does not have on staff yet.
- Sit in the room for the pitch and answer the hard technical questions.
Can they work under the agency's name?
Yes. I have done service design and UX under an agency's name for years, for clients like Target, Honeywell, and Sherwin-Williams. Agree up front how the client hears about it, and who owns the relationship. The agency does.
What does it cost?
With me, $150 an hour for a pitch, or a monthly seat at $3,500, $6,500, or $11,000 when the work runs for months.
How early should I bring someone in?
Before the idea is locked. A senior person added the week of the pitch can only polish. Added at the start, they can change what you pitch.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.