January 28, 2026
Words have weight, and terms like "pitching" or "winning" can make a partnership feel more like a boxing match than a team effort. To build real trust, we have to move past these transactional labels and focus on shared problem-solving. By choosing a more human language, we can stop acting like adversaries and start delivering actual value together.
Stephanie Trunzo | Chief Executive Officer
/837x755ai_lexicon.png?h=755&iar=0&w=837&hash=42CB5D13A0DC817646C51749C5C3C3BD)
Redefining the Agency: The agency model is at a tipping point, and traditional ways of working can’t keep up in a world reshaped by AI. This series is our blueprint for what comes next, where the soul of human creativity meets the science of data and technology to build greater trust and clarity. We’re testing these ideas where the stakes are highest, in health and life , and sharing frameworks that redefine what an agency must be in this new era.
Words have weight. The language we use with our kids, our partner, our teams–even ourselves–carries real power in the connotation beyond each word’s literal definition. The same is true in business, especially in healthcare and marketing, where the words we choose can deepen trust or create distance.
Let’s look at the word non-compliant in healthcare. What does non-compliant mean to you? It probably means willfully refusing to comply. Yet, that understanding paints the wrong picture and hides actual, solvable challenges such as patients who can’t afford their medications, families who don’t have transportation to appointments, or people who don’t understand the instructions they’ve been given. This language blames rather than understands.
When we look at AI technology and the concept of Infinite Individualism™, there is an opportunity to translate away those connotations. Instead of labeling a patient as non-compliant, we can use technology and data to truly understand the whole human, their entire experience and context, and make a note about “lack of transportation.”
When connotations, though, are baked into the industry model, translation alone isn’t enough. At one point in marketing history, manipulation meant skillful influence, and now it implies deceit. I doubt ever see the word manipulation and equate it to skillful influence no matter how many times we translate that. The gap between intention and impact is where trust is built or broken.
We need to apply that same care to the language of our client relationships. For decades, our industry has run on a lexicon—"pitch," "RFP," "winning a bid"—that feels more like a boxing match than a partnership. It’s transactional, outdated, and pits us against each other from the start.
If our mission is to create more human marketing, let’s also create more human partnerships. That begins with language. We need to reorient the agency lexicon to words that embody true partnership, shared problem solving, and outcome-driven collaboration.
Those same language traps that create distance in healthcare are all over our own industry. The first step in a company’s search for a marketing agency is to send out a Request For Proposal (RFP) stating the problem and usually the assumed solution. Agencies respond hoping to be selected to then pitch, and, ultimately, hoping to win the business. Sounds just like how you build a trusted, sustainable, and innovative partnership, right?
Let’s deconstruct what each of these terms signal and how they set a tone of competition over collaboration.
RFP: No matter how short or lengthy, traditional RFPs assume the problem and solution are already defined. Often these forms are either recycled from prior RFPs or they take a good deal of time to construct. Perhaps worse, those carefully thought-out criteria are often ignored when making a decision. Any effort put into initially structuring the RFP is not returned when that structure isn’t used in the decision stage.
Pitch: Do you enjoy when someone is pitching you something? Feels similar to that word manipulation. A pitch automatically puts the agency and the client on opposite sides of the table. The agency constructs a one-sided presentation framed by the RFP. And, the approach is to “convince the client of our ‘right answer’ to their RFP.”
Win the business: An agency will win or be awarded the business after an RFP and pitch. What comes to mind first for you? When I hear this, I picture high fives and dollar signs–the hallmark of all great relationships! Or, it’s the language of transaction, where we celebrate a contract instead of impact or client success.
The way we speak about our work and relationships must evolve, allowing us to embrace opportunities to discover and explore together.
When asked about rival firms, a friend, former colleague, and former healthcare CEO said his only competitors were heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. He stressed the importance of partnership, collaboration, and a growth mindset. That perspective reoriented the energy to shared purpose, which is a model that marketing could learn from. The only competition we have is the one we share with our clients: the problem we’re trying to solve.
When it comes to the agency-client relationship, we want to embrace collaborative exploration and joint discovery. We want to be on the same side of the table with our clients, co-creating to solve for the challenges that we collectively face.
The problems and opportunities we face in our rapidly changing world are too complex to be reduced to a process that amounts to filling out a request with a list of capabilities. Instead, it's about bringing powerful questions, insights, and knowledge to discussions. These conversations become framing sessions that develop shared understanding and novel solutions.
Contract signing is not a success event; realizing milestones and outcomes are. Winning the work should be about choosing the problem together, beginning a journey. We measure success by delivering value for our clients and their customers. In healthcare, we’d call this pay-for-performance instead of fee-for-service.
We’ve said it before: AI is a paradigm shift.
In an era where machines can learn our language, draft headlines, and predict engagement, the human layer of partnership matters more than ever. As AI learns from us, it's critical that we use words that reflect our real meaning.
Shifting our language from combative to cooperative builds deeper trust, enables better solutions, and drives greater long-term success for both agency and client.
We believe in meeting people where they are in context, understanding them as whole humans with fluid roles, responsibilities, needs, and wants. Language should not flatten nuance, empathy, or emotional intelligence. It should reflect and embolden it.
By rewriting our lexicon, we model the empathy and understanding we promise to deliver externally. Context shapes strategy, and the words we choose represent our first chance to show that we understand the real-world, high-stakes challenges brands are facing.
When we change our words, we change the work. And, that’s how we change the world.
