How to Win a Pitch (Part 1 of ??)
We're all pitching something, so let's talk about how to win
Many of my roles in past companies have been leading teams responsible for winning new business. This was especially true in all my days working at agencies, but also at many of the startups I’ve been a part of. During a conversation with a past colleague the other day, we did some math and I figure that these teams I’ve lead or been a part of have been responsible for thens of millions of dollars in new business. Honestly, I was pretty surprised that it was such a high number. But I’ve also lost more than I care to mention. All those wins and loses have led me to learn some interesting lessons that I’ll share.
“Pitching” is just a fancy agency term for selling. It’s usually those final steps where another company is going to pick between you or one of your competitors. Pitches come in all shapes and sizes and are obviously different between industries. But I’ve also realized that there are some set rules you should follow.
I intentionally titled this post “How to Win a Pitch (Part 1 of ??).” Those question marks aren’t typos. After I started jotting down these rules, I came up with a massive list and rather than make an hour long blog post, I figured I’d break them up into pieces. So, over the next few weeks look out for more parts. These rules are in no particular order, but I’ve tried to cut the list down to the more significant ones.
What does it take to win?
Ok…I sort of lied when I said these were in no particular order because this actually is first in priority. This is a saying that I picked up from my days at Bridge Worldwide (now a tiny part of WPP under a new name), but I’ve taken it to every company I’ve worked at since.
The purpose of this question is exactly what it says. What does it take to win? If you get this right, you’ll dramatically increase your chances of winning. If you get this wrong, it won’t matter how great the rest of your pitch is. So, you need to spend a good amount of time answering this question. If you don’t have enough information to really answer this question, then start digging and find out the answer.
This shouldn’t be something obvious like: “make a great presentation.” You need some deeper insight into what it will take to win. Some past WDITTW examples that I can recall off the top of my head:
The company that can show the best analytics capabilities (not creative) wins
The CTO is all that matters
Having the HIGHEST price will win the day
As you can see, these are somewhat non-obvious (especially that last one). You can also quickly see how you’d tailor your offering and presentation based on knowing this information and that’s the key. Always start with WDITTW.
Don’t “piggyback” or “dovetail”
You’re likely to have more than one person from your company in the room or presenting. At some point in the presentation, the client might as a question or you might think of something else that you feel compelled to add to the discussion. Don’t.
I’ve seen more pitches go awry because the team just kept talking with one person adding onto what someone else just finished saying. It’s something that happens when you’re nervous and you want to ensure every single detail is covered. Unless it’s a matter of life or death, don’t do it. It will sound like you don’t trust each other (or a little desperate), it will frustrate whoever you add to, and it instantly derails almost every discussion.
Trust your team to handle it and move on.
Sell the “Get Started”
Picking a new company to partner with is a really big deal. Someone will ultimately be taking a risk on you, so a key part of your presentation will be gaining their confidence that you’re not going to screw it up. Another thing that people want from their partners is to make their life easier. You can show this right from the start by including in you presentation exactly how easy it is to get started with your company. Chances are that no one else will do this, so your process will be the default easiest option.
Be specific, but also keep is simple.
Use your competitors against themselves
This one I actually stole from a client we were pitching to. As part of the process, he asked each agency pitching who they would choose as the runner up. He asked: “which of the other companies pitching should I pick if I couldn’t choose you?” Great question.
I gave an honest answer to this question very quickly with no extra caveats. I knew in this case that we were the last company they’d be hearing from, so I asked: “what did the other companies say?” He let me know that all three of the four other companies picked us. If you’re supremely confident in your offering (and you should be), use this client’s question. Ask your prospective client to ask your competitors who they’d pick besides themselves. If you come out on top here, I guarantee a win. But if you don’t, you’ll lose, so it’s a gamble.
In that pitch where we were told that three of our four competitors picked us, one of the creative team had the brilliant idea to create perfectly scaled replica billboard promoting this fact and delivered it to their office: “3 out of 4 agencies choose Curiosity”
We won that pitch.
Choose steak or sizzle
I lose the first pitch I led and I was really mad, but the client gave us some feedback that changed my perspective even if was terrible advice. The main reason they didn’t choose us, I was told, is that we didn’t have enough “sizzle.” Told you it was terrible advice…what do you do with that?
But what I realized is that there are two different types of pitches: those with “steak” and those with “sizzle.” I assumed everyone wanted “steak.” That would be something really substantial and not just pretty pictures. They’d want a lot of really great thinking and solid research. They’d pick the brilliant strategy sure to drive market share. But that’s now what some clients want to see in a pitch. They want to be “wowed” with pretty pictures and fancy slides. They want quippy phrases and memorable bits to take away. They want to be entertained.
And while the company delivering “steak” may be the better partner, they lose because that’s now what the client is buying that day. Understand which your client wants to see and serve it up. If they want sizzle, give them sizzle even if it’s against your nature. You can always give them the steak once you win.
Practice.
This is the simplest of all my suggestions, but the most important. I’ve seen pitches as both the pitching company and the company being pitched to and there’s no surer way to lose than not being prepared. If it’s just you presenting, then get your stuff together and run through it a ton of times until you have it down. If you’re presenting with a group, it’s even more critical. Remember that your potential client is hiring a team and if you can’t demonstrate working well together in a pitch, you can’t in real life.
There is no easier way to disqualify someone than watching them stumble through a presentation. No matter how great the ideas are or how perfect a partner you’d make, you will lose if you aren’t presenting like a team that regularly works together. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is. Your presentation needs to seem like you’re always on the same page and finishing each other’s sentences.
Most people hate practicing, so if you’re the lead of the pitch, it’s up to you to force everyone to do it. That means presenting it as if it’s the actual day…not just skimming and saying: “and this is the part where I’ll talk about our experience in automotive.” No…actually say what you’ll say.
One person is in charge
There is nothing worse than a pitch by committee, but it’s often what happens. In lots of companies, it’s not clearly established who the pitch leader is. This could be anyone on the pitch team, but it needs to be ONE person. Decide who this is and stick with it. It doesn’t matter much how this is decided…you probably will have some straightforward way to do it at your company. Just do it.
This pitch leader has the final call on EVERYTHING. If there’s a debate over whether something is included or if you should present strategy option one or two, they decide. Nothing will derail your preparation more than having five chefs trying to cook up a single pitch. This is a bit of a dictator role that might be hard for people to follow, but it will lead to better results.
Okay…that’s part one…looking at my notes, I have quite a few more insights to share, so look out for future parts of this post in the coming weeks. If you have some things that I should be including, share them with me and I’ll add them in the next post and give you credit.
Before you go…
If you find your company stuck with lots of inefficient manual processes, there is a better way. My company Obvify builds internal tools to make your company run better. Think of it as a custom business operating system. And if you ever need insights or assistance with business process automation or improvement, just give me a shout. Always happy to help. You can schedule a free initial call where I promise to give more free advice than selling things.
While Obvify is off and running and in good hands, I’ve decided I miss “the game”: working with a talented team, celebrating wins together, and salving hard problems. So, I’m putting myself back on the market and looking for that next full-time role. If you know of things out there or can make an introduction, please let me know.
And if you just want to make a new connection, I’m happy to do that with any reader. Schedule a time here or just connect on LinkedIn.