“Many Creatives Don’t Understand Business, and Worse, They Don’t Want To”
Pierre Bellefleur is the co-founder and managing director of STRIKE, an independent French creative agency working at the crossroads of business, culture, and impact. He believes that brands can and must play a role in transforming the world, but that real change also depends on the strength and creativity of civil society. Pierre regularly gives conferences and lectures in business and political schools, exploring how creativity, communication, and ethics can drive collective transformation.
This focus on purpose and social impact doesn’t preclude Pierre from having a sharp understanding of business and, more foundationally, new business.
Pierre sat down with LBB to look back on his earliest experiences in sales, how it has evolved, and why selling is crucial to keeping creativity alive
LBB> What was your first sale or new business win?
Pierre> My first wins were modest, almost accidental. In independent agencies, you often start by being reactive; projects fall into your hands, you don’t really go out and win them. At that stage, you’re afraid to talk about money, afraid to sound too ‘commercial.’
It’s a cultural thing in France: the creative world has long been uncomfortable with the idea of selling.
But experience changes that. When I co-founded STRIKE, I learned that selling is not about manipulation, it’s about conviction and adaptation.
With commercial brands, you must prove that business for good is good for business.
With advocacy actors, you must show that communication can truly move things forward.
The line between business and belief disappears when you’re sincere and strategic at once.
LBB> How has the business of selling in the creative industry changed since you started?
Pierre> Selling has evolved, but not everyone has. Many creatives still live in a kind of self-referential bubble, obsessed with ideas detached from business reality. They mistake creativity for purpose, when in fact creativity is just a tool.
The real purpose is impact: cultural, social, environmental, or economic. Those who can’t connect those dots belong to an older world. And that world is disappearing.
Today, clients are not buying campaigns; they’re buying partners who understand transformation, business transformation, social transformation and cultural transformation.
The best agencies aren’t just about being creative; they’re strategic, political, and economically literate. That’s the shift we are trying to embrace.
LBB> What are your thoughts on the pitching process?
Pierre> The pitching process, as it exists, is a collective denial. Agencies complain about it, but they also sustain it by trying to outdo each other in generosity, even self-sacrifice. It rewards volume and speed, not intelligence or alignment.
LBB> Does the blur between personal and professional relationships make selling easier or harder?
Pierre> It makes it human. The creative industry runs on empathy, and empathy doesn’t stop at the office door.
LBB> What’s the key to closing a deal?
Pierre> To tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. The moment you stop hiding behind slides and speak with clarity about budget, about ambition, about limits, that’s when people decide.
LBB> Your view on creatives and business.
Pierre> This is probably the hardest truth to say in our industry: many creatives don’t understand business, and worse, they don’t want to. They see selling as betrayal, when in fact it’s the only way creativity survives.
The future belongs to the ones who know how to reconcile imagination with pragmatism. The era of the creative genius who ignores budgets and KPIs is over. The next generation of leaders will be those who understand that vision and business are the same conversation.
LBB> What’s your advice to those who now have to sell as part of their role?
Pierre> Don’t fake it. Selling is not about personality; it’s about purpose.
