In about a week from today, I will have to pitch a Digital Marketing idea to a real life client – HOW EXCITING!
So this week I’m going to write about how to win pitches? & The Art and Science behind it…
Pitching is not just about having an idea and presenting it to the clients, you need to make it SHINE for them so they can buy it. Therefore, science and art contribute in creating perfect pitches.
Science: Being precise, accurate and simple is essential; you don’t want to mix a lot of chemicals and elements in wrong portions, because you will have an explosion. – The same concept applies to pitching an idea, as you don’t want to focus too much on one part of the idea, like the costs of it and talk briefly about the creative idea because it wouldn’t make sense for the clients, and you’ll end up failing. Also, you don’t want overwhelm the clients with too many ideas because this will lead to their confusion (explosion is science terms).
Art: Use the right colors and brushes. Be creative and don’t try and be too perfect as art is all about being genuine, spontaneous and speaking your mind. – This applies to pitching too, as its like an art you need to be strategic with choosing the ideas and you need to make them as creative as possible. At the same time you have to be yourself and really speak about your ideas with passion.
Moreover, last week in my Public Relations class, the lecturer mentioned the “KISS” concept, which I thought was really cute and definitely applies to pitching!
KISS = KEEP IT SHORT & SIMPLE.
Basically, this concept stresses the importance of being brief and straight to the point. I know it’s really hard and it’s usually much easier to talk and explain your ideas in details because you “Think” that you’ll get your ideas across easier and better. BUT, that’s not true! Clients get bored if you talk for so long and in details! So you want to get you points across in a short time, with simple explanation and you have to be smart about the way and style you deliver your ideas because it can either boost you ideas or fail them.
I did my research about the art and science of pitching, and how to deliver pitches. & I found loads of tips and ideas which will help us in creating the perfect pitches and improving them.
Here are my findings:
According to FreeLanceSwitch :”Many screw up their pitch in a number of common ways, from talking too much about yourself and what you want, from not knowing what the client wants, to rambling on, to not saying who you are and why you’re perfect.”
So the website provide steps to help make the pitches PERFECT! :
1. Know the client. If you know the client well, you’re in a great position to make a great pitch. If not, you need to do some research.
2. Know their goals. You want to know what the client hopes to achieve. What message are they trying to sell to the public? Who are they reaching out to?
3. How will you help them meet those goals? To make the perfect pitch, show how you will help them meet those goals. What service will you provide that they don’t already have & and how will you be valuable to them?
4. Keep it short. Get to the point.
5. Be professional, but enthusiastic. Don’t be casual. However, being too conservative is also a mistake. You want to be enthusiastic about working for them, and that enthusiasm will catch on.
6. Don’t talk price, length, or details. You will get in the way of your main message!
7. Say who you are, but don’t brag. You need to show that you’ve done this successfully before, but you don’t want to sound like you’re overselling yourself.
8. Provide a link to your work. The best way to do this is to make a brief mention of one or two past successes, and provide a link for them to read more.
9. Follow-up. Send a polite follow-up email. They will respect your following up.
10. Make multiple pitches. The perfect pitch is one that is part of a series of pitches to multiple prospective clients.
This is a summary of the tips they mention, for details, Click here.
“Your pitch is your greeting card, your foot in the door, and, hopefully, your meal ticket.” – Hidn Ellis Foster.
FreeLanceSwitch, published another article about pitching but this one is about “4 Steps to Create a Great Pitch and Sell Your Writing”. However, I thought those tips can totally be relevant to Digital Marketing pitches!
STEP 1: Start Out Strong: Hook your audience by stating the main thrust of your article in one or two irresistible sentences
STEP 2: Tell A Story: What inspired you to get your ideas, maybe a personal story? – But Remember “Be Brief.”
STEP 3: The 3 why’s:
- Why here?
- Why now?
- Why you?
STEP 4: Back it Up: provide explanation, facts and statistics to support your ideas.
A few more tips:
1. Passion: Presenting with passion will demonstrate how much you believe in what you are bringing to the market and also has the positive side effect of grabbing and maintaining the attention of the audience.
2. Pictures are worth a thousand words: With pictures, people can easily and quickly relate to the problem and how you plan to solve it. They tend to remember the details well after the pitch is made. With Google images and micro-stock sites, you can find pictures for everything that you want to convey.
3. Keep text in a slide to no more than three lines: With more lines of text, the audience is reading ahead of what is on the slide and not listening to the story you are telling. You want the audience to pay attention to you so that they can get how passionate you are about the business.
4. Talk about the outcomes and future of you ideas: show your audience / clients how you ideas will help them and enhance their company or brand. Show them how much awareness, publicity and revenue they will get. It’s all about assumptions. But be realistic!
5. Compare favorably: Research shows quite clearly that your audience does want to know how you compare with your competitors but naming them directly is rarely (if ever) perceived positively. If you can compare yourself favorably without making the identity of the competitor in question obvious, then you’ve a good chance of triumphing.
References to those tips:
“Making a great business plan pitch”
“Win a pitch; beat competitors”
Extra information!
I found this really interesting article called “The Art of Pitching Ideas” By Matthew E. May – The author of: “The Shibumi Strategy: A Powerful Way to Create Meaningful Change”
In this article he talks about two formats or ways of how to pitch, deliver ideas and put them to Action. They are the following:
1. PECHA-KUCHA
Pecha-kucha was invented in 2003 by two architects, Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, working in Tokyo. They owned a small event venue called Super Deluxe that wasn't doing very well. They wanted to revive the place so they invited designers and architects and artists to present their work and ideas. But there were some rules:
- Exactly 20 images (slides)
- Each slide displayed for exactly 20 seconds (total of six minutes and 40 seconds)
The format made for an effective, efficient, entertaining, and rather elegant presentation.
2. 10/20/30: "The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint."
According to the guy who invented this concept: “As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap...I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30 points.”
He also mentioned that a normal human being simply can’t comprehend more than 10 concepts in a single meeting. As for the content of the slides, is the following:
1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action
Hope this was useful, and will help you if you have to make a pitch! I personally feel a lot better and confident after learning all this! Wish Me LUCK! :)
Innas A.
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