Recently someone told me that while they understand the importance of rehearsal, there is just never enough time to do it.  There’s hardly enough time to prepare the proposal and to think about the prospect’s challenges and solutions.

But often what wins the pitch is the pitch.  All of the prep work you did needs to be choreographed into a seamless story that the client can grasp, appreciate and, recognize that it is coming from a well-oiled team.  To do it best, everyone on the team needs to rehearse together. Everyone has to make time.

If you don’t want to rehearse, or can’t do it, then don’t waste all of those hours and money on the pitch. Your chances of winning are not good.

It seems crazy to put all of that time in schmoozing a prospect and investing in a proposal to waste it all because you couldn’t find time to rehearse.

Crazy.

You’re making a competitive pitch and the prospect asks you to hurry along. He or she has a lot of people yet to interview and wants you and your crew to present quickly.  When this happens, be afraid. Be very afraid.

You rush through the opening and leave out important information.  The way you opened sets the fast pace for the rest of the pitch so now everyone on your team rushes.  The big idea that you worked so hard on never gets a fair airing because it was presented at high speed.

There is nothing more important than the opening. Even if your time has been cut in half, do the opening the way you rehearsed.  If you constructed the opening properly it will contain the most relevant information the prospect needs to hear.

Often in a pitch you are presenting some big idea that your team worked diligently on.  If the idea is truly a blockbuster there are two dangers you should be aware of:

-You’re so anxious to present this killer idea that you don’t fully communicate the thinking that went into it,

-You fall into the trap of believing that because the idea is so good, the explanation doesn’t need to be.  “The idea will speak for itself.”

It is criminal to not sell a great idea because you didn’t package it properly in a solid presentation and didn’t rehearse thoroughly.

Business theatrics is a more accentuated way of presenting. Bigger voice. Broader gestures.  Strong posture. Broad smile.  Dramatic pauses.  Keep your eyes glued on the audience.  Business theatrics adds energy and confidence to what you have to say.

A good pitch must always have an element of show business.

When making a presentation seated at a conference room table, take a power position when it is your turn to present. Raise the chair seat as high as it will go.  Sit on the edge of your seat and lean forward, arms on the table.

You should move and be animated but never stop leaning in. Hold that position through your presentation and any discussion that follows.

That body language says that you are in command.

When you’re pitching, make sure you look at and talk to everyone on the prospect’s side of the table.  Don’t fall into the trap of just connecting with the CEO.  You never know who will make the decision or how other people on the client’s team will influence that decision.  Some feedback I get from prospects when pitches go bad is that the pitch team only focused on the one in charge causing others to feel slighted.

Same is true on Zoom. When it is your turn to present, look into the lens. Nowhere else. 

Your goal in a pitch is to have the audience like you.  One step in that process is to smile. When you smile, they smile back.

Presenting as a Team- A Check list

☐ Rehearse as a team. Everyone has to show up.

☐ Plan what each person says in turning the presentation over to the next person.

☐ There is one theme and everyone speaks to it.

☐ Avoid repetitive comments.  Each person doesn’t have to thank the prospect, for example.

☐ If a person doesn’t have a speaking role, don’t take them.

☐ Make sure the people who will work most on the account speak the most.

☐ Don’t speak over a team member’s presentation to add stuff.

☐ Smile no matter how dumb a comment one of your team members makes.

When making a new business pitch… listen more, talk less.  Research shows that the more you can get the prospect talking, the better your chances of winning the business.  You’ll get the prospect talking by asking smart questions, such as those suggested in Spin Selling.  Don’t help the prospect answer questions.  Allow them to answer.

Stop juicing your presentations with glib phrases like disruptive technology, cutting edge, award winning, strategic partnership, synergy, win-win, at the end of the day, drill down, mission-critical, paradigm shift, value-added…

The audience responds more favorably to short, common words, than long, multi-syllable words. Talk like a regular person.

I have heard these pitch excuses 1,000 times.

The other guys have an in. They don’t like us. I get nervous in front of them.  Our work could be better. I wish we had more time to prepare.  Our PowerPoint is boring. Our big idea is small. We don’t have enough detail. We have too much detail.  

When you are preparing for a pitch and someone is constantly telling everyone why you can’t win, throw them out of the room.

Now, tell me how you will win your pitch.

A strong presentation is 50% logic and 50% creative. The logic is the content which is easy to assemble and can usually be done quickly.

The creative element requires time. Percolate on the presentation for a day and look how to connect dots with interesting metaphors, analogies and stories, especially in the opening.

3 Don’ts in a pitch

1. Don’t start with the agenda

2. Don’t begin by talking about yourself and your company

3. Don’t open with a joke

If you lose a pitch have someone* call the prospect to ask specific questions about the pitch.  Did the team seem engaged? Were they interesting? Knowledgeable? Did they talk too much? Not enough?  What did other firms do better?  What one thing should they have done differently?

What you’ll learn will be gold.

*The best person to make this call is someone not associated with the pitch team and who remains neutral throughout the conversation.  It’s too late to be defensive.

Perfect is the Enemy of Great.

People sometimes get so fixated on making a perfect presentation that at the mere flub of a word they crumble. It isn’t worth it and the audience will never notice.  Make a great presentation. Not a perfect one.

At a presentation skills seminar I attended the trainer said  “never run over your allotted time.  Especially in a business presentation, time is precious.”

I agree.

PS: Her presentation ran 14 minutes over.

Don’t let your pitch end at the Q&A segment.

Leave time at the very end to come back, reiterate the takeaway, thank everyone and ask for the business.

Nothing causes more anxiety than a new business pitch. The folks on your team want to win the business and not be the one who says the dumb thing that scuttles the effort.

Recognize the anxiety in the room and make your rehearsals low key.

Most people try to be persuasive by giving a dozen reasons to buy their product.

Often it is the non-verbal things that are the deciding factors for your audience. People tend to buy from folks who appear confident.

The way to look confident is easy; have good posture, make eye contact, smile, speak in a strong voice and don’t be afraid to move your hands and arms.

The more confident you act, the more likely they will buy whatever you are selling.

A friend who was sitting in advertising business pitches for the company she works for wrote me the following:

Oh, I’ve been sitting in on presentations from very good agencies this week.  The sameness of them numbs me, however.

            We put clients first!

            We have a passion for your business!

            We have really, really good media contacts!

            We are clever problem solvers!

Better to demonstrate these things as solutions to the prospect’s issues than to say them as boasts.

The topic of a pitch should always be the same…how can the prospect use your knowledge and experience to benefit their needs.  It’s always about what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.

Your chances of winning a pitch will be much better if the prospect likes you.  Here’s how to do that.

• Smile

• Listen

• Make eye contact whenever you speak.

• Stay within your allotted time.

• Answer questions when asked. Really answer them. No double-talk.

• Follow up immediately after the meeting with answers to questions you didn’t know.

• Be a good host. Make them comfortable.  Have drinks and snacks.

There are 3 things a prospect is looking for: Can you solve my problem? Can you do it in a simple, uncluttered way that is easy for me? Do I like you?

The Do-I-Like you part is crucial, so do all of the things suggested at the top of this blog.

Even in workshops when practicing how to close an interview, people have trouble asking the prospect for business.  It’s just one of those things people hate to do.

But, if you don’t ask, then the answer is no. Some people start babbling.  They ask for the business but then keep chatting.  After you ask, stop talking.  It obligates the other side to respond.

Find a way to ask that is comfortable for you to say and then rehearse it.  For example, an ask can be: We enjoyed putting this demo together. Of course, we’d love to do real work for you. How do we go about doing that? Or, How do we move this conversation forward so that we might have a chance to work for you?

Ask and you shall be rewarded.

If you have an expertise, share lots of it freely with your audience.

They’ll value it enough to pay for more in the future.

Sometimes in a pitch we focus too much on asking for the business and talking about ourselves. Create value by giving your audience information they can use, and even profit from. They will reward you with their business.

I saw Monty Python’s John Cleese live the other night. At a Q&A session someone started by saying what an honor it was to be speaking to one of his all-time comedic heroes, etc. when Cleese interrupted and said in his best high-brow British “Get on with it, please”.

It reminds me of business pitches that start by telling the client how great they are, how smart they are, how excited we are to be here, etc. You can look into the clients’ eyes and see them thinking “Get on with it, please.”

I suppose because we sometimes refer to meetings with prospects as sales pitches, we’re selling our company and our differentiation.

Instead, focus on the prospect and their issues and offer ideas to help advance their business. If you have good ideas, they’ll hire you. If the ideas are differentiated, then they’ll understand your competitive advantage.

When a good server comes to your table, they say two things: Welcome, and can I get you a drink?

A bad server says: Welcome, here are today’s specials. Do you know what you want?

When you open a pitch be a good server. Attend to the client’s needs before you start selling your product.

Here’s a good test for your next presentation. When it’s over will your audience know what you offer and why they should buy it? Can they summarize your big idea in one sentence?

When making a presentation with lots of data and statistics, mix in a heavy dose of empathy. Use personal stories to make dull numbers come to life.

A powerful technique to use in an opening is to convey what the benefits are to the audience. Sometimes those benefits are negative.  Research indicates that people are more persuaded to protect that which they have than something they may get. They are more persuaded by “if you don’t do this you can lose 10% of your income” than by “do this and your salary will grow 10%”.