Greenbank Bulletin

The world of pitching is in many ways imperfect for the simple reason than that the decision to choose one supplier over others is made by humans, affected - often in the moment - by various degrees of rational, technical and emotional pressures. The criteria may include experience from previous relationships or current imposed criteria such as budget, resource and politics, both overt and hidden.

And the involvement of real people means, regardless of whether you are a winner or a loser, you may never know the real reason for their decision.  How many time have you heard the statement  "It was a really difficult decision, everyone who lost came a close second"

Even in this world of increasing buyer sophistication, weighted decision criteria and aspirations of transparency, pitching is often all about making assumptions, rather than dealing with hard facts. These assumptions are based on what we have learned about the client and their issues, or what we are learning as we move through the bid process.  Hard facts are inevitably few and far between and in some bids are deliberately held back, seemingly in an attempt to test the skills of the bidders.

The same brief is given to all parties, yet some have access to knowledge not available to their competitors. The incumbent supplier has had access to much more knowledge, but may not have been listening. Others have been invited to pitch because of the value they have been delivering to the client before the RFP went out. They may have been given "insider" knowledge not made available to the incumbent, because their relationship may have been growing as the client became more and more dissatisfied with the current supplier. One thing is certain … nothing is certain.

We spend a lot of time working with both working with clients on real-life bids and also developing bid management skills and approaches.  We have also been many times on the 'receiving' end of bids and have been astonished at the wide variety of skills and preparation we have seen.

Of all the key moments in a bid, the pitch is the one time you can completely turn a sale around - or lose it.  Research suggests it's also the time the senior decision maker is most influential….

So - from our experience of bid coaching and training sales pitch skills, here are a selection of top tips that fall into the 'common sense, but not common practice' box…

DO

1. Focus on the one 'Big Idea' - the point you want them to remember (maybe your differentiator?) and bring it out several times as a theme in the presentation.  People may have a number of bidders they are seeing - how can you make sure they remember yours in the wash-up afterwards?
2. Rehearse the presentation beforehand and get feedback - think about tone of voice and body language as well as what you are saying and your material - this is about 90% of what people remember.  They will not remember your words!
3. Get there early and manage your karma... research would suggest you have  about 30 seconds to make an impact - if you appear rushed and disorganised, it will be impossible to change that view during the presentation.
4. Involve the audience in some way early on, whether this is asking them questions, referring to individuals by name or even a more structured activity.  We often suggest having a flipchart available and ask everybody for one thing they want to get out of the presentation.Getting them talking early is good psychology…especially if they get the chance to talk about themselves…
5. Use real-life examples that the audience can relate to.  Phrases such as 'for example" and "which means that' are gold dust and will wake people up if they are nodding off….referring back to conversations you have had with members of the audience is also useful - people like to hear their names and feel part of the pitch.
6. Remember that this is a business conversation- so avoid putting on your best 'presentation voice'
7. Stick to time - and build in enough time at the end for discussion.  We have seen many pitches crash and burn because people have felt rushed at the end and miss the chance to leave a positive impact…
8. Use relevant and credible illustrations, pictures and diagrams to get your point across - but make sure you explain any diagram you use.
9. Be flexible - and be prepared to address issues you hadn't planned if they are important to the audience - we will often refer to it as 'going with the energy of the audience' - I know you have planned the flow of the presentation, but who is it really for??
10. Send people any detailed facts in advance - Introverts will read these facts and Extroverts will love you for not going through them during the pitch!

DON'T

1. Don't ever pitch without being able to answer these 3 key questions
   1. What is the tangible business value they will get from our service?
   2. What are the key decision criteria they are using to judge suppliers?
   3. How do we meet these criteria better than other suppliers?
2. The thing that all human beings are most interested in of course is themselves.  We all know this, so don't open the presentation by hammering on about your company and how wonderful you are, your 30 years history etc etc!  Of course you need to introduce yourselves, but then make sure you immediately start talking about them - there business needs etc.  Think of it as 'earning the right' to talk about you and your solution by showing you understand their issues and needs first…
3. Don't use your branding on every slide of your PowerPoint - they know who you are!  It just reinforces the perception you are more interested in you rather than them
4. Don't put as much information as possible in your slides and then say - "the only point I want to make is this one" - many clients (particularly the more detail focus ones) will read everything on the slide whatever you say and stop listening to you whilst they are doing this.
5. Don't use a monotone voice - or speed up if you're nervous - or speak quietly so people have to strain to hear you on the edge of their seat....
6. Don't use TLAs (three lettered acronyms) - the same with unnecessary big words - they just alienate the audience - your job is communicating and influencing and jargon does neither..
7. Don't hidebehind your lectern, or read your presentation from the Power Point slides - remember that point about it being a conversation?  The audience want to see the whole you...
8. Don't restrict your visual aids to just PowerPoint - find something else to use.  It doesn't need to be high tech - even flipcharts show you are thinking about the material rather than just going through slides that somebody else might have written..
9. Don't cover detailed price tables - in fact don't mention price at all unless your approach to commercials is a real differentiator.  They have the price in your proposal and if they have any questions you can always answer it

Finally, things to avoid saying….

• "I'll talk for an hour and take questions at the end…" - complete torture for extraverts in the audience - and they will ignore your instructions anyway
• "Let's take that offline" - everybody knows that means "I'll ignore that annoying side issue" - find a way of making it clear you WILL deal with it afterwards - maybe agree a time immediately after the presentation to go through it, certainly make a note of it