Posts tagged: new business pitch

How to Profit From Making… And Losing… That New Business Pitch

May 27, 2010, by 8 comments

In the world of mega ad agencies, new business pitches are intense affairs; jobs hang in the balance (and more importantly, egos).

For a freelancer or consultant, losing a new business pitch isn’t the same kind of catastrophe.

You’re never happy, but then, you probably don’t have hundreds (or thousands) of hours at risk (like a big ad agency might).

Just yesterday, I got the news about a small website project RFP I’d contested.

I lost.

The Project

As losses go, this doesn’t rank anywhere near my Top Five Most Painful New Biz Failures.

It was a small job, and I didn’t invest a lot of hours in the proposal.

And yes – I approve of the vendor the prospect eventually did choose. Nothing hurts worse than losing to the marketing equivalent of a charlatan, and local vendors almost always enjoy an advantage (this prospect was located at the extreme far end of the country).

Still, it was a project I wanted – an interesting project for an interesting client.

How do I profit from the loss?

Learn From Your Failures

Honest feedback from the prospect can only be useful in future pitches – provided you’re getting useful feedback instead of a simple brushoff.

If you’re on good terms with prospect – and receive any opening whatsoever – then it’s OK to ask a few questions, like:

  • What aspects of the competition were the most critical?
  • What did the winners do that led to the win?
  • What aspects of your pitch were off the mark?

We learn more from our failures than our successes, and what you learn this time will lead to success the next time – provided you take the feedback to heart.

(Helpful hint: a common mistake when responding to an RFP involves misreading the RFP or project spec, and missing the mark as a result.)

Second, Position Yourself to Profit

Profit? You lost, right? How do you profit?

Simple.

Projects rarely go as planned. Should the winner’s project hit a brick wall – a reality I’ve benefited from several times in my career – you may find yourself on the receiving end of a phone call.

For that matter, the project might be gone, but other projects beckon.

Aside from the local angle, one reason I lost this simple website project because I focused too much on the bigger picture stuff – the overall online presence.

I stressed content flow, integration of a stronger email program with social media, re-purposing content across multiple media channels and other concepts.

But I didn’t offer enough detail about the site project itself (I did offer several recent examples of similar projects, but that wasn’t enough).

The opportunity here?

The winner is a small design firm. They’ll do a good job on the CMS. But once it’s done, they are too.

I’m keeping in touch with the client (I asked for permission to do so during our conversation). After the site’s launched and things have settled in, it’s time to remind the prospect – preferably by demonstrating success with another client – that his membership-based nonprofit needs a stronger email program.

And while we’re at it, let’s get the social media ball rolling.

In other words, I lost the website battle, but I can still win the larger marketing war.

Keep marketing, Tom Chandler.

August 10, 2009, by No comments yet

The Underground’s all about chasing clients via alternate channels, though I’d suggest cardboard signs may not represent the best use of your time.

This spoof video is funny, but in a painful way; I participated in a few new client pitches that – in terms of dignity and professionalism – didn’t exceed this level by all that much…

It’s Monday, and we’ve got a long week ahead of us. Enjoy!

Amusing factoid: The graphic designer in the spoof video is in fact a dentist.

Happy Thanksgiving, and… You're Fired (More on a Tough Economy)

December 1, 2008, by 7 comments

Two days before Thanksgiving I received The Email; one of my retainer projects wasn’t going to be funded in 2009 – a victim, the client said, of the economic upheaval.

No, the timing wasn’t great, but I wasn’t surprised. This was a speculative project – one living far from the organization’s revenue stream. And in tough economic times, being “far from the revenue stream” is more an epitaph than a harbinger of survival.

The point isn’t whether this will happen to you (it will). The real point is this: How will you react?

Walk Away? Or Try Again?

I’m satisfied I did a good job, and the good results reflect that. Still, it was a luxury project, and while I can walk away with my head held high, why would I walk away at all?

The client was happy with my non-revenue producing work – so why not pitch them a revenue-positive project?

I’m working on the pitch now, and approaching the client this week. The concept? They have a gaping hole in their marketing process where they should have a revenue stream.

I’m offering to create that revenue stream, and do so quickly.

To do it, I’m putting together a pitch that’s both persuasive (hopefully) and topical (it draws on recent, well-known fundraising successes to prove my point).

And to help it fly with the spreadsheet zombies, I’m willing to back-load my fees (accept the bulk of payment toward the end of the project so expenses show up after revenues are flowing).

Will it work?

Hard to say. Tough times make for bunker mentalities at a lot of organizations, and new projects – even those with revenue-positive projections – are often relegated without a thought.

Still, why walk away?

The freelance copywriting life includes plenty of rejection and down economies; both can be painful, but both also represent opportunities, especially if you’re looking for them – instead of seeing only  doom and gloom.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Getting Ready For the Client Pitch: How to Turn Prospects Into Clients

May 7, 2008, by 5 comments

I’ve repeatedly said you should pick the clients and projects that interest you, get your foot in the door (via lumpy mailers), and get the business.

But how do you pitch prospects — and make them buy what you’re proposing?

The Big Pitch: How do you succeed? I’m working on a pitch right now. (And yes, I  generated the meeting via a lumpy mailer sent to a high-value prospect.)

So OK, I got my foot in the door.

Now what?

It’s time to show up on the prospect’s doorstep, and convince them they can’t live without you.

It’s time for a pitch.

Gushing is Bad

Pitch hint #1: Don’t show up empty handed, sit down at the conference table, and gush about yourself.

Don’t gush about your accomplishments. Don’t gush about your capabilities. Don’t gush about your ability to meet deadlines.

Don’t gush.

In a former life, I worked at a high-tech ad agency, and sat through a pitch from a freelance writer. He advertised himself as the area’s “foremost copywriter,” but over the course of the pitch, revealed himself as something less lofty.

He talked endlessly about himself. And never once asked how he might help us.

When you write copy, you do so with this question in mind: “What’s in this for the reader?”

The same is true of a pitch. What’s in it for the harried, sleep-deprived marketing director sitting across the table?

People are busy. And even those who aren’t busy have better things to do than sit in conference rooms while you convince them you’re the second coming.

The area’s “foremost” copywriter ignored that rule, and walked out without a prayer of getting an assignment.

When Gushing Might Be Good

If you absolutely must gush, gush about the benefits to the pitchee.

You know. The growth in revenue. The truckloads of leads. The increase in loyalty. Regrowth of their hair. Whatever you’ve got.

Don’t be afraid to be specific, and then back those specifics with real data (if you’ve got it).

For example, this prospect is a non-profit, so I researched non-profits running similar membership programs. I emailed two of them asking for help, and now I’ve got a handful of warm, fuzzy statistics plugged into my pitch.

With a solid foundation of benefits in place, I move on to the next step.

The Pitch Outline

Ok, so you’ve opened with a few strong benefits (like “I can help Conglomco triple its membership retention rates”). The next step is to connect the benefits to your proposal.

Paint the broad strokes of your proposed project, but don’t delve into unnecessary details.

People get hung up on details, and the last thing you want is for your carefully built pitch to sink beneath the waves because the prospect hates the purple in your sample layout, or thinks the blog you’re pitching should run on TypePad instead of WordPress.

Make it deft, keep it light, and (once again), connect the benefits to the project itself.

In other words, don’t just toss out a few benefits, outline a project, and call it a day. The prospect needs to see how the project produces the benefits. It’s your job to weave the two together.

I do this mainly via spoken word, though I’m not above putting together an outline to keep me on track.

Do I prepare visuals for the prospect? Yes. Sometimes a flow chart, outline, org chart or informational graphic are necessary.

I don’t like prospects reading proposals while I’m pitching them, so I tend to keep it simple. And I haven’t yet fired up an animated presentation with a soundtrack.

That makes me a passive part of the process, and computer-run presentations don’t respond to your prospect’s questions or body language.

And while you’re prepping, don’t forget to formulate answers to potential objections (time, money, impact on an overworked staff, etc). You can’t predict what might get thrown at you, but it’s worth five minutes of your time trying.

What’s Your Leave Behind?

The pitch is finished. The prospect’s eyes are bright and shiny. They’re licking their lips over the program. They want it. Bad.

Yet they can’t make the final decision. But their boss can. Can you really rely on them to repeat your pitch from memory?

My preference is to leave behind a single sheet of paper summarizing your pitch. What should it contain?

  • The benefits (duh)
  • A very brief outline of the project
  • A compelling argument why you’re the perfect person for the gig
  • The call to action (everyone forgets this)

This isn’t rocket science; keep it clean, simple, and smart. Bullet it where needed, and don’t forget a call to action — the prospect needs to know what you want from them.

When you leave, don’t forget to push for a resolution — or at the very least, let them know you’ll call them in a few days.

Full disclosure: lots of people do this differently (more visuals, animated presentations, etc). It works for them, this works for me, and I’m not suggesting there’s One Way to do this.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Keep pitching, Tom Chandler.