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Winning The Pitch Advice From The Experts

October 5, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

In the pitch are you showcasing the work or showcasing your people? And why?

Truly outstanding marketing firms understand that their presentation must be well structured, and the importance of “theatre” throughout the presentation is well understood. This is a chance to create that “magic” that so many clients have been looking for since the days of Samantha and Darrin in Bewitched, where the agency comes in with that little something special and wins the day. How can a truly great marketing firm mess up an opportunity to do something that should be natural for most advertising agencies?

Easy enough it seems. Over at Australia’s media, marketing & entertainment umbrella site mUmBRELLA Nathan Hodges listed some great pointers for those seeking to really lose a new business pitch! His list, and some of the comments, are outstanding and well worth a read!

My personal favorite on his list is number nine:

“Spend at least ten minutes messing around unsuccessfully with the presentation equipment. Preferably over a laptop in a huddle of two or three with puzzled expressions. If you’re really brave – and this is the showstopper – disappear under the table and try to re-connect stuff with your backside in the air. Unbeatable for destroying confidence. If you can’t show a simple presentation, they’re not going to trust you with a million bucks of production budget are they? (This is gold, you know. Gold.)”

You have no idea how many times I’ve seen a marketing firm fail to practice the set-up, then watch as they crash and burn in the presentation. Lucky for us, it’s the competition as our firm knows better.

A Thousand Winning Pitches

Now as many of you know we help many marketing firms behind the scenes win new business pitches. One of the reasons we’ve been so successful is we have seen every one of those mistakes, and more. In fact, we’ve written many posts on the topic of how to pitch, how to win, and what the pitch process is really about. I’ve collected a few of them below in one handy list for you to review the next time you have a pitch you really want to win.

We also have a day-long training session that outlines the “best practices” and sets up your firm for long-term success.

Pitches are “once in a lifetime” opportunities. Your presentation will make the difference between winning and losing. A truly great presentation will make great thinking and great ideas even better. And it can, sometimes, compensate for average ideas and performance.

Having someone who lives and breathes pitching, whose pitched thousands of products and services, with some of the best marketing firms in the world, in your corner seems like a winning idea. So the next time you have a pitch you really want to win give us a call.

Photo by astridle

 

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Reasons To Call For Pitch Help

July 24, 2012 By NewBusinessHawk

Why call a ”new business consultant” for help with your next pitch?

 

Do you really want to win your next pitch?

It’s a question I’ve heard, and not infrequently, as a consultant to marketing firms and a coach for their leaders. We can bring a whole new approach to new business to your firm. Here are 10 reasons why you should consider reaching out:

10 Reasons To Call For Help

10. The account is larger than you normally pitch for.

9. You have lost the last few pitches you made.

8. The account is not in a category you are familiar with.

7. A search consultant is involved.

6. Your pitch presentation resembles a Chinese fire drill.

5. Your pitch strategy puts stress on creative to “win it.”

4. You are up against some serious competition.

3. The term “personality profiling” means nothing to you.

2. The agency hasn’t made a formal custom pitch in a year

1. You really want to win this pitch

If you answer “yes” on any of the Top 10 Reasons, then we recommend an immediate call to discuss your opportunity. The call is free. And we can share with you how we would approach the opportunity you are facing. Email us, we can help your firm grow.

 

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

A New Business Fable

September 30, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

Once upon a time, there was a nice advertising agency in an important city far, far away…

The agency had four key partners named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. The agency’s creative work was outstanding but the agency wasn’t growing.

It seemed when it came to new business, Everybody was sure Somebody was looking after it. Anybody could have done it easily but Nobody touched it.

Somebody got angry about the lack of new business growth because he thought Everybody was in charge of it. Everybody thought Anybody was looking after it. And Nobody did nothing.

The situation lasted for several years and the agency stopped growing. Some key people left for better opportunities at agencies that were growing rapidly. Then the agency’s best accounts left because of company buyouts and changes in client management.

The agency spiraled downward because there were no new clients to replace the ones who left. In desperation, the partners sold their firm to a large agency holding company who had to rebuild the entire operation. The partners’ buyout turned to peanuts.

To this day, Everybody blamed Somebody for the lack of new business success when Nobody did what Anybody could easily have done. And that was to fix new business forever.

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

New Business: The Winning Pitch

July 15, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

If you’re in the agency business, you quickly learn you have to be good at presenting. If you’re going to really grow your firm, you have to be especially good at presenting to win large accounts in what we call a “formal review” or the Pitch You Have To Win.

Ad Agency New Business: The Pitch You Have To Win!

Winning the new business pitch

Successful pitching is neither art nor science… it’s both.

You know the review I’m talking about. It’s where the prospect has selected a number of agencies to present for their business. It usually starts with a “cattle call” for lots of agencies. Then this mob is whittled down into the “consideration set,” requiring jumping through some additional hoops at an intermediate stage in the selection process. And finally you get to the “presentation set:” those agencies chosen to finally present for the business.

Prospects love these formal reviews because they get all this advice and creative work – most of the time for free! And a group of very smart agency people are all lined up to tell them all about their markets, their business, their competition, and offer thoughtful recommendations on what they should be doing with their business. What’s not to like?

But on the agency side? Well, it’s a different story. Long hours, lots of pressure, changes made at the last minute. Presentation books to prepare and print. Lots of tension and patience is in short supply. You have probably been there before, so you know full well what I mean.

The agencies have to spend a lot of time and money on these formal pitches, knowing there will be only one winner and nothing for the agencies that lose (except maybe, and I really mean maybe, a thank you note from the prospect). But most times agencies hear nothing back after putting in all this effort. And the message is brutal: “Sorry guys, we’re going with someone else.” And the unstated message agencies hear is: “We’re going with someone we like a lot better than you. We’re going with someone who is so much better than you.” It’s crushing on agency spirit. And if the losses mount up, it kills an agency’s self image, an agency’s confidence.

Make your presentations pay off by winning more formal reviews. I mean win three, four or five presentations in a row. And many of our agency-clients win at this success rate. Then the effort you put into formal presentations isn’t a lost expense but an investment because your firm is winning more than its fair share.

A Defining Moment

Here’s how the process starts. First you need to get what we call a “Defining Moment.” That’s a big opportunity that will basically redefine who your firm is if you win the account. The win will reshape who your firm is because of the account’s size, its budget, the type of business it is, their reputation, their category, and their impact in the market place. All these can redefine an agency if they win such an account.

Getting a chunk of the Apple business is a defining moment for many national agencies. A nice bank can define a local agency. Winning a consumer product can reshape a B2B agency. Winning a nice technology account can redefine a retail agency. And moving into consumer advertising can redefine an internet agency. I think you know what I mean.

You want to look for a “Defining Moment” to win: a presentation that will have a big impact on your agency. You might have one right now on your hands. If you do, then this information will really help you.

Pitch Elements

Understand that any pitch you make will be made up of four elements – Style, Format, Content, and Chemistry. And most agencies mishandle these four elements completely by putting all their time and energy into Content, the least important part of the four. They practically ignore the power and account-winning pull of getting Style and Format right. And they spend NO time on thinking about how to win with Chemistry.

New Business Pitch Elements

Prospects have a very different view of your presentation than you do.

 

Style

Style is how you present. How you own the room. What techniques you use to present. Are you locked into PowerPoint, which puts most prospects to sleep? Do you have walk-in music? Do you put out agendas? Do you bring in coffee and refreshments? Do you have a welcome video? Has your CEO learned to charm a room with a simple story from his childhood that he tells to set the stage? Are you using California Boards that make an impact in a room? Do you use reveals? Do you tantalize? In other words are you set to make your presentation a show?

Remember this is a fun school trip for prospects, and they want to be entertained. They want to fall in love with an agency. They want to be dazzled. They want to laugh and to enjoy the process. They don’t want to be bored. And they don’t want to be talked down to – talking down to a client means you know their business more than they do. That’s insulting. The agency’s role at this stage should be to offer the prospect something they want and need. So you have to get Style right and make a show by the smoothness of your presentation, your professional look, and the impact you create.

Format

The second element is Format. And that’s the structure and organization of your pitch and how you organize things. Basically, what format do you follow? For example, do you lead with a creative to grab their attention? Do you change the brief in some dramatic way? How do you structure what you present? Do you let one person dominate your presentation (which rarely works)? What’s your casting and do your people show well? How are they dressed? Do they look like dress casual gone wild?

Is your presentation logical? Have you dumbed it down so everyone can easily understand what you are saying? Do you make sense? Do you build from one key point to another? Does your presentation lead somewhere? This is all Format and you need to get it right.

Frankly, from what I’ve seen, and I see lots of agency presentations, most agencies seriously fall down in the Format stage. In fact, most agencies, and this is coming from the search consultants who sit in on agency pitches all the time, say prospects are most often seriously disappointed at the quality of the presentations they see. There is no Style. Format is weak. And Content, the third element of pitch, all looks and sounds the same from agency to agency.

Content

The third element is content. I’ve sat in day-long new business planning sessions where each word in a presentation is agonized over, discussed, argued and beat to a pulp. Hours wasted on reviewing the 120 slide pitch deck. Each slide is analyzed in isolation to the big picture. And while each slide is finally perfect, clear and perhaps even makes a great point, the overall message is lost in the clutter. A few key points when thinking about content:

  • Brand your message
  • Presentation built on one central theme
  • Check, check, double check for mistakes/typos
  • Avoid hyperbole
  • Clearly demonstrate a clear path to success/results
  • Less is more – remove all excess and put in the leave behind

Chemistry

The fourth, and most important, element of presentations is Chemistry. New business wins swing most often on which firm the prospect likes best. Every search consultant will tell you the work, strategy, and presentation are all important – but the number one reason a firm is hired is the client felt a connection with them. They liked them the most – not which firm does the best work. Once you understand this, you can see why new business is mainly about people and your firm’s likeability. Learn how to best match your people with prospects, so they like you better. Learn how to profile prospects before you even meet them.

Call Us

If you have a Defining Moment, call us. We have an excellent track record of helping agencies win pitches of all shapes and sizes. We can help, from large multinational wins to small local business wins. Whatever is a Defining Moment for your agency is a defining moment for Sanders Consulting Group to help you win, help you redefine who you are and what you stand for.

You’ll get the training and learn the processes that can keep you winning. I’ve seen defining moments change the direction of an agency for years to come just by winning that one key first account. If you’re there, then call us.

 

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Business in Tough Times: 5 Ideas for Growth

July 13, 2011 By NewBusinessHawk

A recent B-to-B Magazine headline shouted, “Desperate ad agencies scramble for business.” There is no disputing that the current climate is the most challenging our industry has experienced in memory.

Fishing in Troubled Waters

Doing new business now is like fishing in troubled water. Only the professionals head out.

The traditional advertising agency model is under attack from all sides. From the strategic side agencies are being pushed out with the increasing impact of consultants; search, procurement, brand, marketing, and of course, the big fish, management consultants. On the tactical side agencies have to compete with all types; design, internet, database management, media buying, promotion, direct, special events, sports marketing firms, corporate identity houses, two guys and a Mac, and more. This is troubled water.

A recent poll among advertisers indicates the current tenure for a marketing manager is only 18 months. These new Marcom Managers are younger, have less experience in advertising, are more focused on tactical issues, and recognize that they are only there for the short term. At the same time they have a wider span of control over marketing and budgets, and they want their own suppliers – people who think and look like them. Not surprisingly they don’t take advice very well from traditional agency staff that often comes across as patronizing. More troubled water.

Client turnover is among the more serious challenges within our industry. Some recent studies show that for smaller accounts the churn, or client turnover, can be as fast as every two years, while larger accounts have gone from seven years to three. Clients, these new Marcom Managers, are growing more and more impatient and are quick to question the effectiveness of their current agency. The growing percentage of project-based work has made it easier to change – click to what’s next. Yet more troubled water.

Design studios and other low-cost providers have seen revenues increase as their agency brethren have suffered. These creative firms are organized and operate tactically. They are taking business away from traditional agencies on account of price, speed and timely delivery. Many other specialty shops who often work faster, are more focused on results, and offer tangible benefits to clients are also seeing an upswing in new business. Clients are questioning the value of all the layers at the agency; account service, traffic, and all the administration. Further troubled water.

The Changing New Business Landscape

There is a renewed focus on new business, but most agencies have no system for sustained business development and few staff skilled in new business. What was done 3 years ago no longer works. The troubled water is changing everything. You have probably been frustrated by first-hand experience with all of these changes; but opportunities for new business are abundant for advertising agencies that are prepared.

We believe there is no better time to do new business than times like these; when clients are changing how they spend, when your competition is worrying about staying in business, when companies are changing agencies at an unprecedented rate, and when prospects want to make decisions that enable them to solve immediate challenges. Doing new business now is like fishing in troubled water. Most people don’t even go out – but that’s also when the pros know fishing is best. While others stay home, the smart ones go fishing.

What steps can you take to grow in times like these?

Here are 5 strategies we recommend:

1. Make sure your firm is properly branded.

Check to see if you are caught up in alphabet soup with a brand that doesn’t say anything. Clients who are looking for a new agency don’t want a “we-are-whatever-you-need” advertising firm. In fact, that turns them off and harms trust. At a recent new business conference hosted by the AAAA, every client and search consultant said “stand for something.” You have to know who you are and why you should be considered. Otherwise, you risk fading into the fog of marketing services lingo. It is better to stand for something and not be considered for one account then to stand for nothing and not be considered for any accounts.

2. Focus on generating leads.

That means increasing the number of opportunities to go visit good prospects. Too many agencies only focus on winning pitches, not working to get into more pitches. Beware of the “we’ll win the next pitch” red herring. This is where an agency is busy pitching but not focused on creating awareness and relationships. Unless you are a recognized agency brand (and there are only about 10 in the US), counting on referrals and word of mouth is not a new business program. Many agencies have attempted to flip a new business switch – “we need some new business NOW! Let’s form a committee!” Few are finding success.

3. Sell smarter.

Focus on the overt benefits you offer. Make it clear what you do why and how it gets results. Successful agencies do this face-to-face, not by clicking PowerPoint slides at a prospect with lots of case histories and marketing babble. Stop doing capability presentations! Instead show them how you work, specifically with their brand, and how you will impact their business. This means that you have to work hard and listen to understand their problem. This sounds simple, yet it is one of the most common problems in all client/agency relationships.

4. Think about growing the old fashioned way – buy growth.

A cross-town merger with another firm in your market can create a wealth of opportunities. There are some good opportunities in every market. You can gain efficiencies and add new services and resources, and create more awareness for your brand.

5. Go after the consultants and the strategic high ground.

Transform how you think about marketing and offer consulting services of your own. This requires a separate brand that is not linked to advertising or marketing. Too many agencies forget that if you’re an agency, and try to add consulting to your brand, you are still only an advertising agency –Where are my ads! However, if you are a consulting firm, then you can work at the strategic “C” level, and open up a sizable new revenue stream. This provides more opportunities for the agency side to follow once the consulting assignment is completed.

Search consultants are saying new business is slow. They’re wrong. Their business is slow. New business is heating up. The competitive landscape for agencies has been forever changed. As the economy recovers and picks up speed, you will need to adapt to win today and change to succeed in the future.

As you evaluate opportunities and challenges at your agency, never hesitate to give us a call or send us a new business question to info@sandersconsulting.com

 

Filed Under: New Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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