Pitches Are About Relationships

By Willard Marketing Monthly Staff

In the view of Willard Marketing Monthly, Pitches  Are About Relationships winning an account in a pitch is 75 percent about winning relationships. If the potential client doesn't like you, no amount of great creative will overcome this.

We've come up with what we felt were the five best ways to be liked by a prospective client.

1 Show team spirit and unity.  We know of an agency that put forth great creative in a major pitch, but the jury's verdict was that some on the team were doing the minuet while others were waltzing.  In other words, they didn't communicate well as a team. What's more, our reviewer told us, they didn't seem to like one another.

2 Don't let PowerPoint become the focus. Presentations are about people and about ideas. If a PowerPoint presentation is used as a crutch, it can become the star.  You want your prospective client to be totally focused on the pitch team, not hardware and software.

3 Every pitch team member should know his role backward and forward. If well rehearsed, the various presenters can concentrate on performance.  And make no mistake, a pitch is a performance.

4 Do your homework. Don't talk about your agency and your ideas until you've talked about the potential client's business and how you can help solve the client's problems. Ferret out information about the client and make observations that will cause the client to say, "Wow!"

5 Simply be lovable, as well as professional. You know how to do it. Let that personality shine through. Don't be excessively and obsessively formal. Demonstrate your confidence.