(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore.) ‘Twas the night before pitching and all through the firms, Not a worker was idle, not even interns, The slides were enduring their nineteenth revision, The art boards reflected abject indecision, The laptop computers were in IT hell, While Xerox machines chose this night to rebel, And during...
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How a great pitch flows
After directing, consulting on, and/or presenting in more than 300 major new business pitches, I see patterns in the successful ones. The pattern described here won’t fit every opportunity—no formula or template ever could—but it’s surprisingly flexible and will accommodate most. Follow this flow, and you’ll start strong, give your clients a clear message...
Presenting Digital Creative: Do’s and Don’ts
Ah, for the simplicity of times past. Presenting print creative was easiest of all. We’d just evoke a mental image of the intended audience, then romance the key visual, and talk about how the headline, copy, and tag would lure readers to linger lovingly on the key messages. Broadcast TV was a little trickier....
How Clients Rate Your Pitch
Ever wonder what’s on those score cards the clients furtively fill out as you’re making your pitch? Do clients really make their decisions based on them? Over the years, we’ve managed to gain access to several of the actual client pitch scorecards, and to talk to client decision-makers about how they’re used. Let’s look...
How many campaign ideas should an agency put up at a pitch?
How many spec ads does it take to win a pitch–one brilliant concept, three that span a range, or ‘wallpaper’ that covers the room? Few questions seem to get agency folks riled up more than this one. Your PitchSmarter reporter recently posted the question on LinkedIn, and the answers, often passionately stated, ranged (raged?)...
When do you fold ‘em?
The gambler at the center of Kenny Rogers’ classic country-and-Western song was talking about cards, not pitches, when he counseled, “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run”. But just as many a bad hand has been played when its...
What not to wear to a new business pitch
My 14-year-old loves to watch the TLC channel’s “What Not To Wear”, a reality-TV show in which hosts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly gently mock the wardrobes of fashion naïfs, guiding them through makeovers. I get a chuckle out of it, too. Who can resist watching ‘ugly ducklings’ become swans, right before our eyes?...
Sidestepping the Seductions of Slideware
(picture source: iStockphoto) In just a little over two decades, PowerPoint has become the software program pitch presenters most love to hate. Relied on for the speed with which it allows slides to be created and revised, ‘slideware’ is also widely reviled for the design horrors, bullet-riddled text, and mind-numbing excesses of data it...
Inside the mind of an Agency Search Consultant
The setting was the noisy, dimly lit Gotham Bar & Grill, an upscale destination for fine food and pricey wine at the northern edge of Greenwich Village. Along with the president of an agency, I was dining with an agency search consultant: the head of a firm that clients hire to help them find...
Let’s shatter the ‘cone of silence’
Clients often say they’re looking for their agency relationship to be a love-fest – a true “strategic partnership”. Why, then, do they act so coy and withholding during the courting and mating process? Wouldn’t a little more generosity and openness make for better pairings in business, as in love? An agency executive recently shared...
