Pitch Advice

So you're pitching a new client. Here are some tried and true suggestions about how to win that pitch, based on an article by Chuck Phillips, advertising guru from the Bay area.

1. Aim at the heart. Emotional connections win new clients. Make them feel something. People make decisions based on their feelings.

2. Offer a unique point of view. About the brand you're pitching, about your approach to branding, about your company, and their company. Be different.

3. Focus on your prospective client. Not on you and your agency. Tell them something about your company, but focus on their needs, and how your point of view -- your work -- will help them exceed those needs. This meeting is about them, not you.

4. Make the first 10 minutes really count. Listeners form an opinion about you in the first 10 minutes. Be exciting. Be smart. Be cool.

5. Own the room. Get there early and set it up to make your work shine. If the presentation is on your home turf -- make it exciting for them to be there.

6. Create chemistry with eye contact. Not digital pyrotechnics. Flashy animation, reel razzle-dazzle, and ripamatics aside, what gets you points is the right blend of using audio/visual toys and making human connections. Make sure the balance is in favor of the latter.

7. Be polite and humble with your case studies. If you use them at all. In fact, humility here is a real plus -- to assert that a brand's success was all due to its ad campaign is silly, says Phillips. David Ogilvy used to say, "Our work managed to not get in the way of some terrific brands."

8. Be selective about what you present. And who's presenting it. Show only the best stuff. And make sure that the attendees from your shop have a vital role in the presentation. If not -- they probably shouldn't be there.

9. Close strong. Ask for the business - that is why you're there, after all.

10. Bottom line: do what it takes to win. Get the prospect to A) like you; B) think you are smart about their brand; C) feel that you are enthusiastic about how to help their brand succeed; and D) believe you create successful, strategic, winning content.

Many thanks to Chuck Phillips for my re-interpretations of his notions.