How Do You Win More Pitches?
I’m not sure that a day goes by without some variance of this question: What Wins the Pitch?
First, there is no one answer. Second, it varies based on the prospective client.
After completing a number of reviews last year including the highly sort after, Brown-Forman creative consolidation, there are some common threads in each of the “behind closed doors” discussions.
Keep these keys in mind and I hope they help you to win more pitches in 2020!
1. Drop the pitch team! Every executive on every client team asks the same question of me, without fail! “Is this their pitch team?” Be sure you clarify and prove that the team they meet is the team they get! Period. End.
2. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon! Do not try to win the pitch in one meeting. “Inch by inch is a cinch, by the yard it’s hard!” Show them your learning curve and progression meeting by meeting and even email by email.
3. Relax on the roles! An organized presentation is vital but the stronger presentation is an interactive discussion between your team and theirs and amongst your agency team to show you work collaboratively.
4. Fresh perspective is refreshing! They’re not doing a review to find a new agency and do the same old thing. They all want to “break through the clutter” and although they need security they also want distinctive and salient ideas.
During the Brown-Forman review, the client emailed this quote to the entire review committee reminding them the importance of distinctive assets: “While marketers labor anyway in their brightly-lit ‘system 2’ world of differentiation, brand image and overly clever and subtle communications, their target consumers bump into furniture inside foggy ‘system 1’ bubbles that screen out all but the most distinctive of marketing efforts”.
5. Confidence is king! I ask the same question of every client at the end of a review: “Which agency built your level of confidence from start to finish… the most!?”
Finally, all the tools, talent, thinking and more are absolutely vital. But it begins and ends on chemistry! We are in the business of relationships first and without a respectful, trustworthy, thoughtful relationship… everything else falls apart.
Pitch with Passion, Lisa
